The Magic of Thinking Big

This post may contain affiliate links — at no extra cost to you.

DAVID SCHWARTZ
David J. Schwartz was a professor of marketing at Georgia State University and a management consultant who spent much of his career studying one question: why do some people consistently achieve more than others? He wasn't a celebrity or a tech billionaire. He was a professor who paid close attention to how people thought — and noticed that the size of someone's thinking directly shaped the size of their results.

He wrote The Magic of Thinking Big in 1959, and it has never gone out of print. That's a rare thing. Schwartz died in 1987, but his students and clients have spoken about the almost stubborn practicality of his advice — nothing mystical, nothing complicated. Just a clear-eyed look at the mental habits that hold people back. He reportedly kept a sign in his office that read: "Think Big." Not as motivation, but as a reminder of the most fundamental thing he taught.

I think this was enough about them. Now let's talk a little bit about the book The Magic of Thinking Big.

This is an old book — written in 1959 — and you can feel that occasionally. But the core ideas have aged remarkably well. It's a practical, no-nonsense guide to the mental habits that separate people who go far from people who stay stuck. Schwartz isn't interested in hype. He just lays out what big thinkers do differently, in language that's easy to follow.

Here are some things I think are worth sharing:

1. Schwartz opens by tackling the belief most of us carry quietly: that we're somehow not the type to succeed at the big things. He calls this "excusitis" — the disease of making excuses. Health excuses, intelligence excuses, age excuses, luck excuses. He goes through each one with a kind of gentle ruthlessness. The point isn't that the excuses are false — it's that successful people have all the same obstacles and find a way forward anyway.
2. One of the most useful ideas in the book is about how you think vs. what you think. Schwartz argues that most of us underestimate ourselves not because we lack information but because our mental picture of ourselves is too small. He talks about the way you dress, the way you walk into a room, the words you use — all of it either reinforces a big self-image or a small one. I found myself noticing my own language after reading this. It matters more than I realized.
3. He has a whole section on "creative thinking" that's surprisingly practical. His argument is that most people assume creativity is a rare gift. But Schwartz says it's more like a muscle — and the main thing that kills it is fear of looking foolish. I found this reassuring. Most of my best ideas started as something I almost didn't say out loud.
4. There's a concept he calls "thinking right toward people" — essentially, training yourself to assume good things about others rather than looking for reasons to distrust them. He ties this to leadership and influence, but it also just sounds like a better way to move through the world. People tend to live up to the version of them that you genuinely believe in.
5. His advice on environment is something I couldn't stop thinking about. He's pretty direct: the people you spend time with shape the ceiling of your ambitions. He's not saying cut people off coldly — he's saying be honest about which relationships pull you forward and which ones quietly shrink your expectations of yourself. That's uncomfortable to sit with.
6. Near the end, he talks about "action" as the cure for fear — not the absence of fear, just movement. He describes a formula: action cures fear. Small deliberate steps in the direction you're afraid of. I've seen versions of this idea in a dozen other books, but the way Schwartz explains it — connected to thinking big rather than just productivity — gives it a different weight.

Here are some lines I really liked from the book:

"Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others."

"Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others."

— The Magic of Thinking Big

"How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win."

"How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win."

— The Magic of Thinking Big

"Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it."

"Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it."

— The Magic of Thinking Big

Buy the book → Buy on Amazon