Dare to Think Big
Chapter 1. Success Begins With Belief in Yourself
Success is achieving the desired results,
conquering the set goals.
It can be material wealth such as owning a nice home,
enjoying enjoyable vacations,
having financial security and the ability
to provide the best educational conditions for your children;
It can also be the abundance of spiritual values such as leadership,
admiration and respect of those around,
whether in the organization,
family or in society.
Success helps to release all worries, fears,
disappointments or feelings of failure,
and at the same time helps us to be more confident,
satisfied with ourselves and always find happiness in life.
Not only that,
successful people can also bring more good things
to those who need their help.
Everyone wants to be successful
and enjoy the best things in life.
No one likes to bend over,
live a boring life,
and no one wants to be double low or second-class citizens.
From the Bible,
we can find many concepts that are very close
to reality in creating success,
all of which emphasize
that faith can help us do the seemingly impossible.
Believe and truly believe
that you can achieve things you have never done before,
and then you will.
Many people do not dare to believe that they can,
and so they achieve nothing!
Sometimes we hear someone say,
“It’s silly to think that a human can move a mountain just
by saying ‘Mountain, move’.”
Simply because we think it’s impossible.
Perhaps those who say “Mountains,
move away” confuse belief with wishful thinking.
Obviously we can’t just wish to be able to move the mountain.
Or we can’t just wish for a luxury apartment.
A house with five bedrooms,
three bathrooms or an income can put you in the upper echelons of society.
And we also can’t be willing to sit in the leadership position.
But if we have faith,
we can do anything.
We can achieve success
if we believe that we will succeed.
The power of faith is nothing magical or mysterious.
Faith, the “I believe I can” attitude,
always radiates a force,
unleashes hidden possibilities,
and energizes us.
When you believe that I can do it,
the how to will appear.
There are many young people starting a new job every day around the world.
Everyone “dreams” of one day reaching the pinnacle of their career.
Unfortunately, most of these young people do not believe it to himself.
It is the “I can’t” mindset that limits their creativity
and prevents them from finding the right path to rise.
This is a common pattern of thinking in “ordinary” people.
However, there are still a few young people who dare
to believe that they will succeed.
They embark on their work with a positive attitude:
“I’m reaching for the top!”.
And with that great faith, they succeeded.
By thinking nothing-is-impossible,
these young people observe
and learn how the previous generation worked.
They learn how successful people approach problems,
make decisions,
and work attitudes.
Indeed, the how-to secret always comes
to those who believe they can.
Two years ago,
a young woman I knew decided
to start a company specializing in the mobile home business.
Then she received a lot of advice that she shouldn’t,
and couldn’t do it.
With a savings of less than $3,000,
people advised her to give up the idea
because the minimum investment
to start a mobile home business was many times larger than that meager capital.
Create the highest grandest vision possible for your life,
because you become what you believe. ― Oprah Winfrey
People advised:
“Look, how fiercely competitive the market is right now.
Meanwhile, she doesn’t have much experience in the caravan business,
let alone running a business.”
But the young girl was still filled with confidence in herself,
in the possibility of this business succeeding.
She admits that she lacks capital,
lacks experience, and the level of competition in this industry
is getting more and more fierce.
But she still insists:
“Through my research,
I realized that the caravan business is growing day by day.
Not only that, after researching the market,
I believe I can do this business better than anyone.
I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes,
but I’ll be on my way to success.”
And she did exactly as she said.
She had almost no difficulty in raising capital.
Her absolute belief in success helped her win the trust of two investors.
With that absolute conviction,
the girl did the “impossible”,
she persuaded a caravan-making company
to give her a supply line without paying upfront.
“Last year our sales hit $1 million- dollars.”
She hopes to reach over $2 million next year.
Faith, a strong belief,
will push us to think to the end to find the direction,
the means and the method of implementation.
Only when you believe in yourself can others believe in you!
Few people dare to think
that just having faith can do everything.
But anyone who has a strong belief in themselves,
they will surely achieve success.
Soon I will tell a story to demonstrate the ability of people
to “do the impossible”.
It’s a story about a state-owned road
and bridge construction company,
where a friend of mine is working,
in the central northeastern state of the United States.
The friend said:
“Last month, our company sent notices to many places saying
that we were looking for a suitable partner
to undertake the design of eight bridges in a national highway construction project.
The cost to build the bridge is 5 million dollars.
The design business will receive a fee of 4% of the contract,
equivalent to $200,000.
I talked to 21 companies that were able to design that project.
The four strongest companies did not hesitate to submit bids,
the remaining 17 companies are quite small
(each company has only 3 to 7 engineers).
Therefore, we are not surprised
when 16 of those 17 companies accept to stay out of the game.
They look over the project and shake their heads:
‘This project is too big for us’.
However, the remaining company out of those 17 small companies,
with only 3 engineers,
after researching and predicting confirmed:
We can do it!
We will submit bids immediately.
They applied and were selected.
Only those who dare to believe
they can do the seemingly impossible are even more deserving of the job!
On the contrary,
those who lack faith never achieve anything.
Belief gives the strength to accomplish even the most difficult things.
In today’s modern life,
faith can help us do more than moving a mountain.
For example, in space exploration,
the most important factor,
as well as the most necessary factor,
is the belief in humanity’s ability to do only that vast space.
Without a firm belief in the possibility of human space travel,
scientists would not have had the courage,
passion and enthusiasm to make it happen.
In the face of cancer, too,
belief in the ability to cure this incurable disease has created
a great motivation to help people find many treatment methods.
Or before 1994,
people were talking about building a tunnel across
the English Channel connecting England with mainland Europe,
over 50km long, with fear
that it was a fantasy project.
Indeed, the project across the English Channel started with many mistakes,
but finally succeeded in 1994,
becoming the longest undersea tunnel in the world.
It was the persistent belief that was the key driving force
that led to the birth of the English Channel Tunnel,
which the American Civil Engineering Association
calls one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
Belief in good results is the driving force
and the power to help people create life-changing literary works,
classic plays or great scientific inventions.
Not only for individuals,
strong belief in the future
is also an important factor
that is always hidden behind the success of big businesses,
political or religious organizations.
It can be affirmed:
belief is really a basic
and necessary factor to achieve success.
Believe in success and you will succeed!
Over the years,
I have heard many people talk about their failures,
not only in business but also in other fields and professions.
They give numerous reasons or excuses for their failure.
I find in that excuse,
there are always thoughts like “Honestly,
I didn’t think this could work”
or “Right before I started,
I didn’t really believe it.
that I will succeed”,
or “I am not surprised when it does not work”.
These kinds of thoughts are the manifestation of a negative attitude:
“Okay I will try see but I don’t think will succeed”.
Therefore,
Most are unable to achieve their goals.
Doubt,
self-doubt,
fear of failure,
and an attitude of not really wanting
to succeed are the causes of most failures.
Still in doubt, there is still failure.
Success only comes to those who fully believe in the final victory.
Recently, a young female writer confided in me
about her ambitions in her writing career.
When referring to a famous writer in the literature,
“Oh, he is such a talented writer,
I could never have dreamed of being like that”
The attitude of the young girl greatly disappointed me,
because I knew quite well the writer we were talking about.
He was just an ordinary writer like any other writer,
but he excels in self-confidence.
He always believed that he was among the best,
so he thought and acted like the best.
Respecting those who are better than you is the right thing to do.
However, we should only learn from them,
not worship them excessively.
Be confident you can excel too.
Be confident you will go far.
People who don’t have faith will always just be stalkers.
Let’s try to look at the problem in a different way.
Faith is like a machine that automatically regulates
what we will achieve in life.
Look at a person struggling to get out of a mediocre life.
He doesn’t believe he deserves more,
so what he gets is very little.
He doesn’t believe he can do anything great,
and he can’t.
He doesn’t believe that he is important,
so what he does is labeled “unimportant”.
Gradually, his lack of confidence in himself will show up in the way he talks,
walks, or the way he treats people around him.
If he does not build confidence in the future soon,
he will fall further and further back,
seeing himself more and more small.
And in the eyes of those around him,
he will also become more and more blurred.
For now, go to someone who is confidently reaching for success.
He believes that he deserves to reap many sweet fruits,
and indeed he has reaped many.
He believes he absolutely deserves great responsibilities,
and he actually does.
Everything he does,
the way he treats people, his thoughts, his views,
his personality,
all show:
“He is outstanding.
That’s an important person.”
Each individual is the product of his own will.
Believe in yourself,
believe in yourself,
believe in magical conditions.
Plunge into the successful conquest
with the absolute belief that you can.
Surely you will.
A few years ago,
after a lecture to business people in Detroit,
I had the opportunity to talk to one of them.
He took the initiative to meet me,
introduced himself,
and expressed his admiration:
“I really enjoyed your speech.
Can you spare me a few minutes?
I would love to share with you my own experiences.”
We quickly found a small cafe.
While he waited for a few snacks,
he immediately went to work:
“I am very impressed with what you have to say tonight.
It’s very similar to the things I learned from life.
It’s about letting willpower support us,
rather than hinder us.
I’ve never told anyone before about
how I got to where I am today,
but now I’d love to share it with you.”
“I’d love to hear it.” – I say.
“Yes, just five years ago,
I was an important engineer in a tooling and die making workshop.
Our lives are also quite full,
but still far from what I dreamed of.
The house was too small and there were a lot of things to do,
but we didn’t have enough money.
Luckily my wife is amazing, she never complains or complains.
Even so, I still sensed an aura of resignation to her fate.
It really breaks my heart every time I look back,
knowing that I wasn’t able to take good care of my wife and two precious children.”
“But now things are completely different.”
He continued excitedly.
“We are now living in a very nice new house
on a nearly one-hectare piece of land,
and also have a small house 300km north of here.
We no longer have to worry about money
so that our children can attend prestigious universities,
and my wife no longer has to worry about buying some new clothes for herself.
Next summer vacation,
the whole family will go on a trip to Europe.
Now we really feel alive.”
To my astonishment,
I asked, “Oh, how did all of this happen?”
He slowly replied,
“Yes, those things are really happening to me.
Just as he said tonight,
‘I’ve tried to make the most of my beliefs’.
Five years ago,
I happened to know that this Detroit tool and die factory was hiring.
At that time,
although we were still living in Cleveland,
I decided to try my luck in the hope
of finding a new job with a better income.
I came here on a Sunday night to prepare
for an interview the next day.
After dinner,
I sat alone in my hotel room and pondered.
For some reason,
I suddenly felt disgusted with myself.
I asked myself,
“Why am I always just an engineer?
Why do I have to work hard to get a job
where the future is sure to be better than the old one?
Not understanding what was causing it,
I took out a piece of paper
and wrote down the names of five people
I’ve known for a long time.
They are all people
who have a higher position of work and power than me.
Two of them are my old neighbors.
After a period of hard work,
with a good salary,
they have moved to another better place.
Two other people were my former boss,
and the last one was my photo-in-law.
Then I asked myself again:
besides a better job,
but what is that person better than me?
Are they smarter than me?
Better than me in terms of education,
in terms of personal qualities?
I made a tacit comparison and found to myself that,
in those respects, they were really no better than me.
But then, I remembered a quality for success
that people often talk about.
It is proactive pioneering.
In this regard, although I am not happy,
I have to admit
that I am far behind these successful friends.
Even though it was midnight,
around 3am,
to my surprise my mind was still completely clear.
For the first time,
I realized my own weakness.
Until now, I have always hesitated,
and then many good opportunities slip out of my hands.
The more I thought about it,
the more I realized one thing:
I didn’t have the initiative, because deep down,
I didn’t dare to believe that I deserved many things.
All night long,
I just sat and pondered over the past time,
how that feeling,
that feeling of loss of confidence has dominated me.
Over the years,
I did not trust or encourage myself,
but just wandered in the thought that I could not do anything.
I always underestimate myself.
Now, everything is clearer than ever.
No one will give me faith if I don’t believe in myself!
At that moment, I immediately decided,
‘For a long time, I’ve been thinking I’ll always be an engineer.
From now on,
I won’t put myself down like that anymore.
I deserve more than that.”
The next morning,
I went to the interview with the highest level of confidence
I had ever had.
Before that morning,
I just hope I have the courage to ask for a slightly higher salary than before,
about $750,
or at best $1000.
But now,
after a long night of thinking
and becoming more aware of my worth,
I didn’t hesitate to ask for a salary of $3,500.
And I was recruited.
After two years of hard work,
I have built a reputation for myself.
I have shown and confirmed to everyone
that I am a person of business abilities.
Then the company’s operations fell into a recession,
and in that context my value was more important than ever,
because I was considered one of the most talented people in business in the industry.
Then, when the company was reorganized,
I received a substantial amount of stock along with a higher salary.”
That’s the whole story of my friend.
There is nothing mysterious.
The key point is that he realizes a truth:
Believe in yourself first,
then good things can begin to come to you.
In fact, our mind can be likened to an “idea factory”.
That factory runs non-stop,
churning out countless ideas every day.
That tailor was run by two foreman at the same time.
We temporarily “create positive thoughts.
His expertise is in giving arguments that show we are qualified,
explaining why we should take the job,
and being confident we can.
On the contrary,
Mr. Failure specializes in producing negative thoughts,
reasons that we can’t do it,
or expressions that show how weak we are.
His specialty is creating a chain of “why-we-will-fail” thoughts.
Both have the ability to grasp our commands very quickly.
To give an order to either of these two,
we just need to make a very discreet sign.
If that sign is positive,
Mr. Chien Thang will immediately get to work.
And if that sign is negative,
Mr. Failure will step forward.
To better understand how these two managers work,
let’s try to consider the following example.
When a new day begins,
you think,
“Today is going to be a bad day.”
Your statement will affect Mr. Failure
and he will give you a series of examples to prove how bad your day was:
today’s weather is too hot or too cold,
work business is not going well,
you may get sick,
or your wife will grumble again over some trivial matter.
Mr. Failure is very efficient.
In just a few minutes,
he has convinced you already.
And it was a really bad day,
even if you don’t know how it will turn out.
But if you think:
“Today will be a good day”,
Mr. Chien Thang will immediately start working.
He will remind you:
“Today is a great day.
The weather is pleasant.
I feel very excited, full of energy,
with the belief that I will reap many good results at work!”.
Sure enough,
that day turned out to be a good day for you.
In his way,
Mr. Failure always sows the obsession that you can’t do anything,
and Mr. Chien Thang is the opposite.
Mr. Failure always tries to instill in your head the fear
that he will get hurt,
while Mr. Chien Thang will prove you absolutely can be successful.
Mr. Failure always presents arguments
and evidence against a certain character,
and Mr. Chien Thang will show you all his valuable advantages.
Obviously, whichever side you give more work to,
that side will become stronger.
The more Mr. Failure has more to do,
the more he will dominate your mind.
If you continue like this, sooner
or later he will control your entire thought process.
Then all thoughts become negative.
Your best bet is to fire Mr. Failure immediately.
You don’t need him.
You certainly don’t want him hanging around you all day long:
you can’t do it,
you can’t afford it,
you’re going to fail,
or something like that.
Mr. Failure can’t help you succeed,
so get rid of him!
Keep Mr. Chien Thang always busy.
Every time a thought pops into his head,
tell him to do it.
He will find you the way to success.
Currently, the United States is receiving an average
of 11,500 new residents every day.
The population is growing at breakneck speed.
It is predicted that in just the next 10 years,
the US population will increase by about 35 million people,
equivalent to the current total population of the five largest US cities:
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Detroit and Philadelphia.
Just imagine what it would be like then.
New professions,
breakthroughs in science,
markets that are more open than ever before
all present new opportunities.
That is a good sign.
And it’s a precious time to live it to the fullest!
Currently, it is easy to see
that the demand for human resources
for leadership positions is very large in all industries and fields.
The people who will take up those positions are none other
than grown-ups or soon-to-be adults.
Obviously you are one of them.
However, the development of all aspects
of a country does not mean
that all individuals in that country are successful.
For a long time,
the United States has not stopped making remarkable achievements,
both economically, politically,
culturally and socially.
Just a glance, you can see that there are millions,
tens of millions of people who have tried but failed.
Over the past two decades,
opportunities to get rich have opened up more and more,
but most people are still caught in the vicious circle of a mediocre life.
Most of them are immersed in worries
and fears and live day by day feeling like they are second,
unappreciated by society,
lamenting that they can’t do what they do,
meager rewards,
Just ordinary happiness.
Wise people are those who know
how to take advantage of opportunities,
turning them to their own advantage.
They are always highly determined
and know how to direct their thoughts towards success.
I really believe you are one of them.
If you don’t, you’re just lucky to be where you are now,
and you don’t have to worry about what’s right in this book.
Go forward confidently.
The door to success has never been so wide open.
Be bold enough to declare
that you are one of those people who will succeed and get what you want in life.
Although this is just the beginning of success,
it is the most basic step that you cannot ignore.
That’s true!
Believe in yourself, believe you can succeed
To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will. ― Sugar Ray Robinson
******************
UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF FAITH
Here are three suggestions to help you capture
and unlock the power of your beliefs:
***********************
1. Always aim for success
instead of just thinking about failure.
Whether at work or in everyday life,
keep your mind full of positive thoughts.
Every time you face a difficulty,
confidently think “I will get over it”, not “Probably can’t”.
Every time you have to compete with someone else,
think “I am not inferior to the best”, not:
“I will be far behind them”.
When the opportunity comes, believe:
“I can do it”, never think “I can’t”.
Give the thought “I will succeed” a permanent place in your mind.
It is positive thinking
that helps you create concrete and workable plans for success.
On the contrary,
negative thinking only makes you hang around
with things that will bring failure.
If you don’t love yourself, nobody will.
Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else.
Loving starts with the self. — Wayne Dyer
***********************
2. Every day, remind yourself
that you still have many hidden possibilities
that you have not discovered yet.
Successful people are not superheroes.
In fact, they have no magic at all. They are just ordinary people.
They succeed not because of their superior intelligence,
nor by luck,
but because they always know how to arouse
and maintain faith in themselves,
in what they are doing.
Therefore, remember one thing:
Never underestimate yourself.
Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself. — Coco Chanel
***********************
3. Think and believe in big things.
The more you believe in yourself,
the more brilliant your success will be.
If the small goals, you will only reap small results.
Or set yourself big goals,
and you will achieve resounding successes.
In particular,
you should remember:
implementing big ideas and plans is not more difficult
sometimes even simpler
than implementing small ideas or plans.
At a conference of senior leaders,
General Electric Group president Ralph J. Cordiner said:
“Anyone who aspires to be in a leadership position,
whether for his own sake
or desire to contribute to the company,
all need a high determination to constantly improve themselves.
No one can “force” a person to try.
Whether he goes up or down, only he himself decides.
This requires time,
effort,
and individual sacrifice.
No one can try to help others.”
Cordine’s judgment is based on fact.
Let’s take a closer look together.
Successful knitters in business administration,
sales, engineering, in religion,
literature,
performance or any other industry,
all make up their own spontaneous plans self-development clearly,
rationally and continuously.
Any training plan should have three goals,
that’s what this book is all about.
Anything is possible once you believe you are worthy of achieving it. ― Jason Pockrandt
First, define what needs to be done.
Second, figure out how to do it.
Third, the plan needs to go through the most rigorous testing
and prove to be effective.
The views and practices of successful people will help you design a self-training program
with the most appropriate content.
How do successful people manage life and work?
How can they overcome the obstacles?
How do they think?
What made them stand out
from the rest of the ordinary people and be respected by everyone?
How about implementing that self-training program?
Through each chapter in this book,
you will gather a series of specific instructions on what to do.
Try it out and test it yourself.
What were the results?
I assure you:
the proper application of the program introduced in this book
will bring you results you never expected!
Build your plan step by step as the book suggests.
Your achievement may be more respect from family members,
or admiration from friends and colleagues.
You yourself will also feel more useful,
have a higher status in society.
That achievement also includes a better income,
and of course a better standard of living.
The process of self-training is entirely up to you.
No one will stand by your side reminding you
what to do and how to do it.
This book will give you sound guidelines,
but only you will know yourself.
Only you can judge your own progress.
And, only you can make the necessary adjustments.
In short,
you need to practice continuously to reach higher and higher goals.
In fact, you always have a “lab” available
with all the facilities to learn and work.
It’s life being the people around you providing the most vivid,
real-life examples of all kinds of human behavior.
You are the scientist in your laboratory,
the things you get here are endless.
What’s more remarkable is that you don’t have to buy anything,
rent or pay any fees.
You are free to use that lab as you please.
When you believe in a thing,
believe in it all the way-implicitly and unquestionably. ― Walt Disney
With a lab of your own,
you’ll do what any other scientist does:
observe and experiment.
Wouldn’t it surprise you,
knowing that most people don’t fully understand
why they behave the way they do today.
Because most of them have not learned to observe.
One of the most important purposes of this book is
to help you teach yourself how to observe,
analyze, and understand human actions.
Sometimes, you will want to ask yourself questions like:
“Why is this person so rich while the other works so hard to eat?”, “
Why do some people have so many friends,
while others work so hard to eat?”
other people have only a few friends?”,
or “Why do people happily accept what someone tells them,
while ignoring what others say,
even though they say exactly the same thing?”.
Once you know how to observe,
you will learn many valuable lessons from the life around you.
Here are two special pointers
that can help you become a discerning observer.
Choose a successful person
and someone with only minor achievements that you know.
Observe and compare how many of the principles in this book
that have been implemented.
By observing such contrasting examples,
you will know how to apply flexibly
and wisely the instructions presented here.
From every successful person around you,
you will learn the different lessons that lead to success
and tailor them to what works best for you
and then turn them into habits.
The more you practice,
the sooner those habits will become second nature.
(besides your innate nature).
The following example will show you even more clearly
how useful this program is.
Most of us have a few friends
or relatives who love to plant trees,
and on more than one occasion we have heard them excitedly say,
“It is so exciting to see the trees we plant grow every day.
Try to observe how they absorb nutrients and water.
Compared to last week,
last month,
how fast they are growing!”.
But that’s less than a tenth of the fun
when you witness yourself becoming more confident,
productive,
and successful every day,
every month – through the application of a self-control program!
There is nothing else in life that makes you more comfortable
than when you know you are on the road to success.
And on the same path,
there is no other obstacle greater than yourself.
Always remember you are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think. ― Christopher Robin
