Get Smart!: How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field

Daniel Kahneman’s bestselling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a major contribution to accurate thinking. Similar to the classic Straight and Crooked Thinking by R. H. Thouless and C. R. Thouless, Kahneman’s book explores and explains many of the reasons why we come to false conclusions which lead to actions that fail to achieve the results we des

Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard studied upward social and economic mobility in the United States and other countries for almost fifty years. He was looking for the reasons why some individuals and families moved up from lower socioeconomic classes to higher socioeconomic classes, generation by generation, sometimes starting at laboring jobs and beco

But as Josh Billings, the western humorist, once said, “It ain’t what a man knows what hurts him; it’s what he knows that ain’t true.”

His conclusion was simple and largely irrefutable. In diagnosing the economic success or failure of individuals, he concluded that “time perspective” was the overwhelmingly important factor. Banfield divided society into seven classes from the lowest to the highest: lower-lower class; upper-lower class; lower-middle class; middle-middle class; uppe

At the lowest socioeconomic level, lower-lower class, the time perspective was often only a few hours, or minutes, such as in the case of the hopeless alcoholic or drug addict, who thinks only about the next drink or dose. At the highest level, those who were second- or third-generation wealthy, their time perspective was many years, decades, even

As Winston Churchill said, “I long ago stopped listening to what people said. Instead, I look at what they do. Behavior is the only truth.”

Here is a simple way to transform your thinking to that of the most positive and successful people in our society. Think about the biggest problem that you have in your life today. Now imagine that this problem has been sent to you as a gift, to teach you something. Ask yourself, “What is the lesson or lessons that I can learn from this situation t

Thomas Edison once said, “Thinking is the hardest work of all, which is why most people avoid it at all costs.” There is a saying, “There are those who think. There are those who think they think. And then there is the vast majority who would rather die than think.”

One of the simplest ways to do this is to continually ask, “How do we know this is true?” before we accept a piece of information as the basis for a decision.