50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work & Life from 50 Landmark Books (50 Classics) - Softcover

Butler-Bowdon, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857883330 ISBN 13: 9781857883336

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

Millions of us are drawn each year to find the one great book that will capture our imagination and inspire us to chart a course to personal and professional fulfillment. 50 Success Classics is the first and only ‘bite-sized’ guide to the most important and inspiring works that have already demonstrated their power to change lives.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Butler-Bowdon is recognised as an expert on the personal development literature. His 50 Classics series has been hailed as the definitive guide to the literature of possibility, and has won numerous awards including the Benjamin Franklin Self-Help Award and the Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award. A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, he lives and works in both the Oxford, UK and Australia, and runs a successful website: www.butler-bowdon.com

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

TOP TEN LAWS OF SUCCESS: LESSONS FROM THE GREAT WORKS OF SUCCESS ON HOW TO SUCCEED AND ACHIEVE

OPTIMISM
Optimism is power. This is a secret discovered by all who succeed against great odds. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt each admitted that what got them through tough times was an ability to focus on the positives. They understood what Claude Bristol called "the magic of believing." Yet great leaders also have an unusual ability to face up to stark realities and, as a result, create a single powerful attribute: tough-minded optimism. Optimistic people tend to succeed not simply because they believe all will turn out right but because the expectation of success makes them work harder. If you expect little, you will not be motivated to even try.

DEFINITE AIM, PURPOSE OR VISION
Have higher aims and goals and doggedly pursue their realization. Success requires concentration of effort. Most people disperse their energies over too many things and fail to be outstanding in anything as a result. In the words of Orison Swett Marden, "The world does not demand that you be a lawyer, minister, doctor, farmer, scientist, or merchant; it does not dictate what you shall do, but it does require that you be a master in whatever you undertake."

WILLINGNESS TO LABOR
Successful people are willing to engage in drudgery in the cause of something marvelous. The greater part of genius is the years of effort to solve a problem or find the perfect expression of an idea. With hard work you acquire knowledge about yourself which idleness never reveals. A law of success is that once first achieved it can create a momentum that makes it easier to sustain. As Talleyrand put it, "Nothing succeeds like success."

DISCIPLINE
Enduring success is built on discipline, an appreciation that you must give yourself orders and then obey them. Like compound interest, this subject may be boring but its results in the long-term can be spectacular. Great achievers know that while the universe is built by atoms, success is built by minutes. They are masters when it comes to managing their time.

INTEGRATED MIND
Successful people have a good relationship with their unconscious and subconscious minds. They trust their intuition, and because intuitions are usually right, they seem to enjoy more luck than others. They have discovered one of the great success secrets: the non-rational mind infallibly solves problems and creates solutions when trusted to do so.

PROLIFIC READING
Look into the habits of the successful and you will find that they are usually great readers. Many of the leaders and authors profiled in 50 Success Classics attribute the turning point in their lives to picking up a particular book. If you can read about the accomplishments of those you admire, you cannot help but lift your own sights. Anthony Robbins remarked that "success leaves clues," and reading is one of the best means of absorbing such clues. Curiosity and the capacity to learn are vital for achievement, thus the saying "leaders are readers." The person who seeks growth, Dale Carnegie said, "must soak and tan his mind constantly in the vats of literature."

RISK-TAKING
The greater the risk, the greater the potential success. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Have a bias for action!

THE POWER OF EXPECTATION
Successful people expect the best and they generally get it! Expectations have a way of attracting to us their material equivalent. Since our lives correspond closely to the expectations we have of it, the achiever will argue, "why not think big instead of small?"

MASTERY
Advanced beings can turn any situation to their advantage. They are "masters of their souls, captains of their fate." When other parties are involved, star achievers will seek solutions that benefit everyone. In the words of Catherine Ponder: "You do not have to compromise in life if you are willing to let go of the idea of compromise."

WELL-ROUNDEDNESS
Achievements mean little if we are not successful as a person. The capacities to love, listen, and learn are vital for our own well being. Without them it is difficult to have the fulfilling relationships that we need to both renew us and inspire achievement.

©Tom Butler-Bowdon 2003. All rights reserved.
Adapted from 50 SUCCESS CLASSICS: Winning Wisdom for Work & Life from 50 Landmark Books By Tom Butler-Bowdon. Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Edition details

• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857883330
• ISBN 13: 9781857883336
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324