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“by Mike Wright
Mike Wright wrote this review Thursday, October 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Book Report (October 2009)
Born To Win (BTW) – Lewis Timberlake
The October 2009 book that I chose for my personal objectives on my Personal Development Plan (PDP) was the 1986 book entitled Born To Win (BTW). This is another excellent book in the category of personal success development.
This book goes about chronicling what everyday people do and think to become successful. It is basically an excuse eliminator for those of us who read it. It no longer is acceptable to use common objections such as “I don’t have the time”, “I don’t have the money” etc. to become successful. By reading the stories of these famous people “Colonel Sanders – Kentucky Fried Chicken” etc. you will see that these people had some of the same objections but instead of just stating them, they used their imaginations to work around them. This is what separates these massively successful people from the vast majority of people.
It boils down to this simple equation for Success:
“Success is not on sale. What’s the cost? Pay It!”
One of the concepts in this book is that fear is the most destructive force in the world. Fear cripples motivation. Fear destroys enthusiasm. So, fast forward to 2009, and the problems with the economy. Is it any doubt that because of forces that many believe are outside of their control, that fear is causing people to lack motivation and enthusiasm in their jobs?
BTW states that whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right. It is the law of self fulfilling prophecy. This book teaches that you need to be careful of what you expect out of life because you’re probably going to get it! I loved the quote:
“Fear is a darkroom where negatives are developed.” In order to be successful in life, a person must concentrate on the positives. Nothing can overcome fear except faith BTW describes faith as acting like it’s so when it’s not so, in order for it to be so.
Another concept is that winners in life know where they will be five years from now…Do you? BTW states that the unsuccessful spend more time planning vacations than they do planning their lives. Goals and game planning are an important ingredient for the successful. If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time! Successful people are willing to set goals and pay the necessary price for success and accomplishment. So what pushes the few to pay the price and do the things that unsuccessful people won’t do? A lot of it boils down to correct thinking. Unsuccessful people are apathetic toward goals. Only about 3% of the American people set goals for their lives. This suggests that most people aim at nothing, and probably end up achieving it!
BTW goes on to explain that you can do great things if you’ll only believe you can. It is funny that the theme of success keeps coming back to “correct thinking”, and what you believe in. If a person’s ego is one that will not let them be “teachable”, then correct thinking is hard to achieve, since this type of person believes they already have all the answers. One must also remember that “to know and not to do, is not to know”. It is proven that every person is born with the right to be successful, but that many accept less and less as their standard for success, until finally they settle for mediocrity. In the end people can take one of three paths in life: one that leads to success, one that leads to failure, and one that leads to mediocrity. So what path do you choose?
Unfortunately the unsuccessful find their comfort zone and behave in ways that will keep them there. The successful take control of their mind by programming it positively. This happens by making a decision, setting a goal, and creating a mental picture of what is wanted. Your mind then takes over and does the rest. The successful have fear as well, but they push through their fears and live outside of their comfort zone more often than the unsuccessful. This is why it is so important to think positively, to talk to yourself positively, and to get positive mental pictures of what you want. You must control your inputs. As they say, “Guard your gates”. Nature abhors a vacuum. Unless you program something positive into your mind to fill that vacuum – something new and refreshing – your mind is going to start searching for those negative things to fill the void. One way to control your inputs is to associate with successful people that already have what you want. You should go out of your way in order to spend as much time as possible around these types of people, especially if they will allow you to. Will it be convenient for you…absolutely not! Will it cause you to make tough decisions…absolutely! Is it worth it…most definitely! Albert Einstein stated that “One incorrect input requires eleven correct inputs to correct.” Translation – 5 minutes of negative programming or bad association requires 55 minutes of positive programming to correct. Therefore, be careful of your daily inputs and with whom you associate.
A story is told in the book about a substitute teacher who was given a class and mistakenly told that the class she was assigned was the brightest students in the school. She then treated them as the brightest and told them they were the brightest. After 6 months the scores on the kids’ tests were all dramatically better. Only then did she find out that there was a mix-up and she was assigned the worst kids in the school. Because she told them positive things and treated them as winners they became winners.
Remember that one person may not be able to change the environment or society, but this person can change themselves and their attitude toward society and life in general. Once this occurs, then this influence on self can be increased to include others until ultimately society can, and throughout history has been changed, by one person, time and time again. But before society can be changed, the person has to change their selves, which is always the toughest thing to do.
Finally, the author states that he has never met a successful man or woman who wasn’t a reader. That is pretty powerful, and the reason I will keep reading and reporting on these book reports.
Reviewer’s (my) comments: Personally I loved this book. The book uses the story form quite a bit and real life/modern examples to drive home the points. By reading this book it gives me inspiration for the things that I am currently doing right, and also helps me course correct where I may be doing the wrongs things. I like the way the book demonstrates what unsuccessful people do, and what the successful people do using real life examples.
I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.
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