The Little Book of Thinking Big

186 Pages·2014·11.52 MB·English

by  Richard Newton

The most valuable thing in the world could be said not to exist.
An idea has no substance.
And yet it is the root of your personal contribution to the world, to
your business, to your art, to your customer and to your happiness.
Your thoughts and ideas, which are the reason people want to
employ you, buy from you and simply be with you are nothing
more than the product of infinitesimally small electronic pulses.
Like the foam of a distant wave that crests and then melts back
into the sea your thoughts are fleeting, beautiful and then gone.
When you stand on a cliff and scan an energetic sea you can
glimpse hundreds of these ‘white horses’.
Each is unique, just as your thoughts are unique to you. Your
ideas are built on the accumulated experience of all that you
have experienced in your long life, just as a wave has travelled the
furthest deep ocean before it briefly breaks, bursts and blends back
to blue.
These are your unique creations and they can change your life.
They can change the way other people – and even the universe –
interact with you.
And they can change your world; how you perceive it, how it sees
you and how you and everything else rub along together.
Without the right habits of mind, trying to generate and capture
these thoughts is like trying to catch a wave with a butterfly net.
Here are nine ways to ride your own white horse back to shore.
ii

‘If I had a view like this to look down on
every day, I would have the energy and
inspiration to conquer the world.
The trouble is, when you most need such a
view, no-one gives it to you’
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
THE
LITTLE BOOK
OF THINKING
BIG
Aim higher and go further than
you ever thought possible
Richard Newton
P1
P7
P29
OF
P53
P79
P97
P115
P129
Thinking Big
P143
P159
‘You get what anybody gets
– you get a lifetime.’
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman