Thinking-Rich.com

Seventy or so years ago, Napoleon Hill wrote down what he believed were the major attributes required if one wanted to be a successful leader. Hill’s focus was on business and wealth building - these factors were taken from his book “Think and Grow Rich” - but most of them are applicable to any kind of leadership.

Judging by the discontent so many Americans have in their workplace, I’d say that too many business leaders have either forgotten or have never considered the following list. If more of our employers practiced even a few of these factors our jobs would be much more rewarding.

Really, can you think of the last time one of your “superiors” displayed a willingness to take full responsibility for how a project turned out? How about showing sympathy and/or understanding? My former “top of the ladder” superior got so angry about a blog posting that he literally screamed profanities for at least 15 minutes and punched a hole in an editor’s office wall. Would you call that an example of self-control? (For what it’s worth, the blog posting could have been taken down in a shorter period of time than his tantrum lasted and the editor who faced this abuse wasn’t even responsible for the posting.)

Thinking rich and becoming rich will certainly put you in a position of leadership. I hope that some of Hill’s suggestion will encourage you to help change what seems to have become business as usual in today’s leaders.

Note: Since this was written in the early 1900s, Hill consistently used male pronouns, although he made it abundantly clear in his book that he believed women had just as much potential as men. Pretty forward thinking for the time. I just chose not to change his words for this post.

The following are important factors of leadership:

1. UNWAVERING COURAGE based upon knowledge of self, and of one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader very long.

2. SELF-CONTROL: The man who cannot control himself, can never control others. Self-control sets a mighty example for one’s followers, which the more intelligent will emulate.

3. A KEEN SENSE OF JUSTICE: Without a sense of fairness and justice, no leader can command and retain the respect of his followers.

4. DEFINITENESS OF DECISION: The man who wavers in his decisions shows that he is not sure of himself. He cannot lead others successfully.

5. DEFINITENESS OF PLANS: The successful leader must plan his work, and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans, is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later he will land on the rocks.

6. THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR: One of the penalties of leadership is the necessity of willingness, upon the part of the leader, to do more than he requires of his followers.

7. A PLEASING PERSONALITY: No slovenly, careless person can become a successful leader. Leadership calls for respect. Followers will not respect a leader who does not grade high on all of the factors of a Pleasing Personality.

8. SYMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING: The successful leader must be in sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their problems.

9. MASTERY OF DETAIL: Successful leadership calls for mastery of details of the leader’s position.

10. WILLINGNESS TO ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY: The successful leader must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings of his followers. If he tries to shift this responsibility, he will not remain the leader. If one of his followers makes a mistake, and shows himself incompetent, the leader must consider that it is he who failed.

11. COOPERATION: The successful leader must understand, and apply the principle of cooperative effort and be able to induce his followers to do the same. Leadership calls for POWER, and power calls for COOPERATION.

Lead on!

~$~

I finally finished reading T. Harv Eker’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” and I’m happy to recommend it if you’re having difficulty making money or keeping the money that you do make. I plan to read it again before I move onto another wealth book. It does have enough to offer that I couldn’t absorb it all in one go.

I think the best way to read books like this that really go to the core of our attitudes toward money is to read it through it the first time with a highlighter, then do the exercises on the second read. I’m always impatient. I want the lowdown on the book before I can take time for each exercise.

I don’t want to do a book review here … but I do want to say a few more things before I move on. I think Eker’s more of a speaker than a writer, but what he has to say is so good it doesn’t matter. He endlessly pushes his Millionaire Mind Extensive seminars, but don’t let it get on your nerves. As he points out later in the book, he’s doing something we all need to do a lot more of and that’s to promote ourselves and our work. The book does stand on its own so don’t give up because it at first seems like an ad for the seminar.

Right now after the first read, the most important thing I feel I learned was how critical it is to focus on my net worth and not just my income. Good lord, that sounds dull, but I am so jazzed about it. I finally realize that my net worth will produce wealth for me even more effectively than the labor I do for my yearly income if I consciously work on it.

And speaking of labor … I will not be working on Labor Day for the first in more than a decade! Kinda of sucks that I had to quit my job to actually get this holiday off, but when you work for a newspaper there really aren’t any holidays. People still want their paper on the doorstep. Of course, management and advertising got the day off, but they’ve always been “special.” (And yes, I’m still a little bitter.)

Letting go of all negative energy …

I’m going to enjoy this Labor Day and spend it being grateful for all the people who work regardless of the date on the calendar. Thank you to the police, the firefighters, the waiters and waitresses, the cab drivers, the news slaves, the convenience store clerks, the faithful bloggers, the cooks and bakers, the doctors and nurses. And to anyone I’ve missed, your work makes our world work.

Thank you all. I hope you’re living your dreams.

~$~

The leap goes on …

Is there such a thing as too much freedom? Too many options?

A few months ago, my answer to those questions would have been, “Only if there isn’t enough time.”

Now, I’m asking, “Is there such a thing as too much time?”

Since I began my all-out Living the Law of Attraction (see previous post), I’ve finally reached the point where all the decisions are mine. No more waiting for the carpenters to finish, the satellite installers to install, the plethora of agents and accountants to divvy up what is mine.

I’m no longer deeply in debt. I now know the exact amount of money I have and about how long I can live on it alone, depending on how I choose to live. I’m completely free to decide what options I want to pursue and how much time I have to pick the ones I like best.

It sounds like paradise and in many ways it is. But tell my brain and body that. They’ll tell you it’s more like hell.

It may sound stupid - and that’s OK, really - but I no longer know when to sleep or when to eat. I don’t know when it’s fine to kick back and watch the world go by or when to allow myself to write for 15 hours straight. I’m restless but tired. My moods swing wildly. One minute I’m feeling like a miser and the next I’m generous beyond wisdom.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to expect when I began this new life. I still don’t. And there’s no one out there who can tell me what to expect.

I’ve figured out this much: Looking before you leap is wise, as long as you go ahead and leap. What I personally should have done - your experience will vary - is to have looked well beyond the leap and all its complications and concentrated a little more on the landing.

If I’d been all-knowing, I would have made some very strong but simple goals, some very concrete things to build a foundation to stand on when this tidal wave of freedom hit. I mean simple. 1,2,3 and so on. I’ve always been more free-form than that, but I simply underestimated the wild, frightening, exhilarating feeling of having no one to answer to.

I could call this a lack of self-discipline, but it’s more like pure wide-eyed wonder. This is the “kid in a candy store” we always dream of, only with an adult’s knowledge that you just can’t carry all the things you want and if you don’t pace yourself, you’re gonna get really, really sick.

I’m going to make some 1,2,3 goals right now but not let them set my path in stone. I’m going to pick three things I’ve always wanted to attempt and see if I can do them to my satisfaction. A less concrete goal is to take my focus off money. It needs to flow forward and back at its own pace.

And I need to keep in mind that the Law of Attraction will wait for me to find out what I really want. There’s no expiration date on dreams except for the ones we impose.

1. Leap.
2. Land.
3. Let go of who you were.