Aung Sithar - What do successful people think?

Chapter (1)

Think broadly.

A broad perspective is useful for anyone, anywhere. When GE CEO Jack Ma told his employees, “It’s more important to build long-term relationships with customers than to sell them a computer,” he reminded his employees to think big. Real estate mogul Donald Trump said, “You always have to think big. No matter what you think, you always have to think big.” Thinking big brings a broader perspective and maturity to a person’s thinking. This way of thinking allows you to see all sides. It’s like expanding the scope of a picture. It’s not just what you can see. It also expands what you can do. Spend time with people who think big. You’ll find that people who think big and long have the following qualities:

They are constantly learning.

Broad-minded people are never satisfied with what they know. They go to new places. They read new books. They meet new people. They learn new skills. Because of that habit, they can connect with things that people would think are irrelevant. They see things differently than others. They are lifelong learners.

To get into this habit of learning, I make a habit of taking a few moments each morning to think about what opportunities I have for learning today. As I look back at my calendar and schedule, I can remember who I’m meeting with today, what I’m reading, what meetings I have to attend, and so on. Then I can think about what I can learn from that. Then I can also think about what opportunities I can improve in some way in my daily activities. If you want to create a lifelong habit of learning, I recommend starting your day by thinking about what opportunities I have for learning.

Listen carefully.

One of the best ways to increase your knowledge of a subject is to listen to experts who have a lot of experience in that field. I always look for opportunities like that. I get to speak to over nine hundred football coaches and trainers in one year. It was at their football training graduation. My son Matt attended the event with Steve Miller and had dinner with some of the great head coaches, Dave Wanstead and Becky Davis. It wasn’t an easy opportunity to get. So I asked them a few questions about the team spirit. And I got to hear what they had to say. On the way home that evening, my son Matt said to me, “John, you must have asked them a hundred questions.” If we want to improve, if we want to learn, we need to know what questions to ask and how to apply the answers to them in our lives. I told him that listening teaches us more than talking.

When you meet people, you should have a good plan for learning. It's a way to collaborate with people who can do things you can't. Broad thinkers admit that they don't know everything. But they often ask probing questions to broaden their understanding and thinking. If you want to become a more broad thinker, try to be a good listener first.

Look closely.

The writer Henry David Thoreau said, "Some things are sometimes right in front of our eyes, but we cannot see them. Because our intellect does not know them." People tend to see what they are used to seeing. For example, when people come to a leadership seminar at our company, what they want to see and know is where to park, where to find a comfortable seat.

Whether the speakers are on or off, and whether the pauses are correct, etc. When I go to the same conference, I want to know and see whether the lighting is good or bad, whether the sound system is working properly, whether the seating arrangement between the audience and the speaker is correct or not, etc. What determines what kind of person you are is how you think and what you see.

People who think broadly know that there are things in their field of vision that they haven’t seen yet. When they can’t see within themselves, they look into the world of others through their eyes. It’s hard to see what the picture is like if you’re in the frame. If you step outside the frame, you can see a picture better. To know how others see, you first need to know how they think. Being a good listener can help you with that. You need to be mindful of other people’s perspectives as you do your job.

Live fully.

French writer Michel de Montaigne wrote, “The value of life is not in how many days you live. No matter how short your time is, it is in how you use it.” The idea is that you can live your life in any way you want. But you can only use it once. Being a broad-minded person is the key to living life to the fullest. Broad-minded people want to expand their experiences. Because they want to expand their world. As a result, they are more successful than narrow-minded people. And they also experience unexpected surprises. Because they have more opportunities to encounter many things in any situation. People, relationships, times, values, and problems. So it goes without saying that they are more resilient and experienced in life than the average person. They have lived their lives to the fullest.

Why is it necessary to have a broader perspective?

In general, it is worth recognizing that open-mindedness is beneficial. Some people live in a closed-minded state. No one likes it that way. But sometimes, when you don't want to, your brain gets stuck. Let's look at some reasons why you need to become a more open-minded person.