John C. Maxwell - The Thinkers Edge

Copyright 2022 by John C. Maxwell

Cover design by Faceout Studio, Amanda Hudson. Cover copyright 2022 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

The author is represented by Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agency, Santa Ana, California.

Center Street

Hachette Book Group

1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

centerstreet.com

twitter.com/centerstreet

First Edition: November 2022

Center Street is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Center Street name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.HachetteSpeakersBureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBNs: 9781546002482 (paperback), 9781546002499 (ebook)

E3-20220908-JV-NF-ORI

YOU ARE TODAY WHERE YOUR THOUGHTS HAVE BROUGHT YOU; YOU WILL BE TOMORROW WHERE YOUR THOUGHTS TAKE YOU.

James Allen

What will bring you success?

What will give you the greatest edge in your professional and personal life? Opportunities? Intelligence? Education? Money? Friends in high places? Hard work? Luck?

Nope. Its none of these. It is your ability to think!

1. Every product, service, invention, song, movie, book, painting, design, company, object, or innovation begins with a thought.

2. People who think differently have an edge over others.

3. What you think determines who you are. Who you are determines what you do.

4. Your thinking impacts your capacity. Your capacity changes your destiny. Your destiny determines your legacy.

5. You can change the way you think.

If you grew up in a home with great thinkers who translated their thinking into successful lives, you have an advantage. You probably already possess thinking skills that others lack.

Or if you have been personally mentored by highly successful people, you have begun to think differently than most of your peers.

If neither of those is true for you, then you do have some work ahead of you. But heres the good news: My father developed the thinking edge and trained me when I was a child. And for the past fifty years, Ive been mentored by great thinkers

If youll adopt the thinking contained in this book and put it into practice by taking action, you can develop the thinking edge that will set you apart and make you successful.

The only people who believe thinking is easy are those who arent in the habit of engaging in it.

If you want to become a better thinker, you need to work at it. But it is worth the effort and investment. Author Napoleon Hill observed, More gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth.

Gold mines tap out. Stock markets crash. Real estate investments tank. But a human mind with the ability to think well is like a gold mine that never runs out. Its priceless.

THINKING IS THE HARDEST WORK THERE IS, WHICH IS THE PROBABLE REASON WHY SO FEW ENGAGE IN IT.

Henry Ford

The quality of your thinking will lead to the quality of your results.

One of the reasons people dont achieve their dreams is that they want to change their results without changing their thinking. Is that true of you? If so, you need to know that is never going to work. If you dont like the crop you are reaping, you need to change the seed you are sowing! You need to change your thinking.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men [and women] understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.

James Allen

THE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE IN INDUSTRY HAVE SUCCEEDED THROUGH THEIR THINKING. THEIR HANDS WERE HELPERS TO THEIR BRAINS.

Claude M. Bristol in The Magic of Believing

For many people, the greatest detriment to their success tomorrow is their thinking today.

If your thinking is limited, so is your potential. But if you grow in your thinking, you will eventually outgrow whatever task youre doing or challenge youre facing.

You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration.

James Allen

No matter how complicated life gets or how difficult problems may seem, good thinking can make a differenceif you make it a consistent part of your life. The more you engage in good thinking, the more good thoughts you will continue to think.

You are using only a fraction of your capacity. Good thinking is what opens the door to greater capacity and greater potential.

NURTURE GREAT THOUGHTS, FOR YOU WILL NEVER GO HIGHER THAN YOUR THOUGHTS.

Benjamin Disraeli

Success comes to those who are in the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. Achievement comes from the habit of good thinking. Its like creating a never-ending army of ideas capable of achieving almost anything.

AN INVASION OF ARMIES CAN BE RESISTED, BUT NOT AN INVASION OF IDEAS.

Victor Hugo

It doesnt matter where you are. It doesnt matter how many or how few resources you have. It doesnt matter who you know. You can begin learning from better thinkers right now.

When I was a teenager, I started reading books that changed my thinking and changed my life.

My desire is that this book will be only a starting point, a foundation. Add to it by reading books and listening to podcasts by great thinkers. Seek out and spend time with people who challenge you. If you want to be a sharp thinker, get around sharp people.

And never stop. You will never arrive as a thinker. There are always new problems to solve, mountains to climb, and vistas to take in.

Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches or pounds or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking.

David J. Schwartz

MANY AN OBJECT IS NOT SEEN, THOUGH IT FALLS WITHIN THE RANGE OF OUR VISUAL RAY, BECAUSE IT DOES NOT COME WITHIN THE RANGE OF OUR INTELLECTUAL RAY.

Henry David Thoreau

Human beings are in the habit of seeing within the limits of their own world first. We tend to have tunnel vision. We see through the filter of our own experiences, biases, responsibilities, concerns, and agenda. But that limits us.