Book: 20210607 to 20210611, "The Greatest Salesman In The World" by Og Mandino

20210607 - Chapter 1 to 7

It's hard to be a good sales man. I guess, apart from grit and optimism, sales man needs to be sensitive and kind. They also need to know a lot about psychology.

20210608 - Chapter 8, The Scroll Marked 1 (How to learn)

What is habit? To some extent, it's the pattern of instinct reaction to events, time, etc.

With good habit, we can grow effortlessly all the time. This growth will come with compound effect which leads to huge difference to the result.

When we memorize some principles again and again, we engraved it into our "instinct reaction".

What's failure? Cannot reach the life target in the end. Obviously if there is no "life target", then we would fail for sure.

Everyday is a start point. We can choose to go forward, or stay where we are, or go backwards.

20210608 - Chapter 9, The Scroll Marked 2 (Optimistic attitude)

Say "I love you" in mind to everyone, especially to strangers. This feels strange, but good idea! It's self-hypnosis, but definitely helps to reduce the nervous when we meet strangers.

In the end, help other people solving problems is how we make money. The reason that we want to help other people solving problems is because we love them. If we treat other people as only resource or tools, it's not likely to set up long term relationship to help each other to create value.

Only good habit can fight with bad habit.Only optimistic attitude can replace pessimistic attitude.

Grit needs optimistic attitude.

20210608 - Chapter 10, The Scroll Marked 3 (Proactive, Grit)

We are machines. Although the distributional effects is real, the future is still decided by ourselves. If we believe we can change our destiny, then we just need to keep going forward. Think ahead, think hard. In the end, we will get there.

So we need proactive attitude and grit. Keep thinking, being sensitive, keep looking for opportunities to improve ourselves, and keep looking for opportunities in the external environment.

We can choose to be a lion, or choose to be a sheep. Sheep stay at where they are, let the external factors to push them to any place. Lion decide where they want to go, bearing the head wind. No matter which one we choose, time flow never stops. Soon we will reach the end of our game.

20210609 - Chapter 11, The Scroll Marked 4 (Endless improvement)

If we want, we can improve ourselves endlessly.

If we keep moving forward, we will keep progressing.

There is no success or failure, but learning. Success verified our skill, failure reminds us what we need to improve. Nothing we need to feel embarrassment, frustrated, sad or despair. Things just happen, and we keep learning.

20210609 - Chapter 12, The Scroll Marked 5 (Time. Living in the moment.)

Use every minute to shrive. How? Pay full attention to what we are doing. Live in the moment.

In most of the time, we let our mind to wander around while we are doing something. That's not deliberate practice, which means we are not progressing.

Meditation helps us pay attention to NOW.

Why we need to cherish every minute? When think ahead, we realize that we are going to die dozens of years later. We are going to regret if we waste most of the time and let our mind wandering around.

20210610 - Chapter 13, The Scroll Marked 6 (Emotion)

Emotion belongs to our mind and body, but it's not part of our spirit. It goes up and down, and we need to recognize it, and avoid to be its puppet.

20210611 - Chapter 14, The Scroll Marked 7 (Positive. Fun.)

When bad things happen, we tell ourselves: "This too shall pass."

Life is meaningless. Based on that, what should we do? Strive and have some fun.

No one like to team up with pessimistic people. 

20210611 - Chapter 15, The Scroll Marked 8 (Creativity and patience)

Three grains of wheat.
1. Eat in raw. Immediate gratification, taste bad.
2. Grind to flour, then baked as bread. Short term gratification, taste good.
3. Plant in soil. Endure darkness, coldness, pain......get thousand fold reward in long term.

Surprisingly, our life is so similar to the possible result of grain.

This metaphor is different from the story of three brick layers. (which is about productivity and effectiveness)

20210611 - Chapter 16, The Scroll Marked 9 (Action)

Think ahead, think hard. Act now.

Don't worry, don't get stressed. Instead, act now.

20210611 - Chapter 17, The Scroll Marked 10 (Pray)

I don't believe in God. So, what's the alternative thing I should do?

Try to avoid Noise and instinctive impulse, follow the First Principle. Calm down and think carefully. Think about it from time to time. Trying to minimize the cost and then verify it quickly.

Sooner or later, we will know what to do.

20210611 - Chapter 18

Don't like this chapter. Religion should not be associated with this book.

Retirement is not the end of striving. There is still something we can try.  :-)

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