In Napoleon Hill’s “The Power of Positive Thinking,” he presents four strategic business lessons. He says you can alter your thinking to work for your life. It all begins with your attitude. Your attitude determines how you approach problems. A negative outlook on life creates negativity.
“If you approach a problem without an adequate positive attitude, you will fail. You may feel that you are facing a genuine problem without a solution. You will be wrong. The solution lies in your attitude.” -Napoleon Hill
The Queen’s gambit asks you to consider all possible solutions to any given problem. Hill asks you to imagine yourself solving the problem, rather than the problem itself. This requires imagining and focusing on problems from a positive perspective. Your positive attitude is the key to making changes. Hill calls this the ‘power of positive thinking.’
When you take a risk, you do so knowing that some risk is inevitable. You also know that you don’t have to face it alone. When you invest in something that seems risky, you can see opportunities for growth. Those who don’t take risks are not as willing to risk.
One of the best things about ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ is that it’s practical. You can apply it to all kinds of situations in your life. It applies to relationships, projects, goals, and finances. It helps you deal with conflict and makes you aware of the obstacles that can prevent you from reaching your goals. It teaches you how to creatively solve problems.
Hill borrows liberally from her own life experiences but maintains a forward-looking perspective. This makes the book an interesting read, even if at times you may feel a little overwhelmed with all the information. The good side of “The Queen’s Gambit” is that it doesn’t make you feel like your in a deep fog, hopelessly seeking the end of the world.
Although Hill covers relationship strategies throughout the book, she spends a large portion of the book focusing on financial strategies. This chapter alone might take up more than a third of the book, but it’s worth it. Financial issues tend to be more difficult to overcome when your emotions are involved. If you can find a way to keep emotions out of the mix during the financial planning stages, you can set yourself up for huge advantages. If not, you’ll probably need to work on these areas several times over before you see significant results.
The last of Hill’s four chapters look at execution and strategy. This part of the book is excellent, especially if you’ve been around awhile and think you know it all. The thing that disappointed some readers though was Hill’s use of a term coined by an early 20th-century English author who had simply described an approach to business that was more effective, less expensive, and faster. Some people still feel this way about the term “attraction marketing.” Regardless, Hill’s approach brings great advice to bear in mind when you’re taking action or developing a business strategy.
The final chapter focuses on growth, which is Hill’s emphasis in this book. He says to always “keep your eyes on the prize,” and he does mean that figuratively and literally. It’s important to grow your business and to do so as rapidly as possible. As Hill puts it: “Growth is the key to success.”
The bottom line: this book is a great complement to The Queen’s Gambit by Jack Collins. As we said in our review, you’ll likely find some things you don’t like about the book (mainly with regard to its length), but overall this is a solid text with a lot of great advice that you can really make use of. Given the quality of the writing and the solid message that it carries, we expect this book to be very successful as a reference or general business guide.
Part two covers topics such as managing change, marketing, and vision. These chapters are excellent and cover very important topics regarding business management. We also enjoyed reading some of Hill’s funny stories and quotes. Some of them, like the one about the guy who lost his job because he could not manage his budget, will remind you of things you’ve heard before but maybe interesting and relevant to your own business goals and objectives.
Overall, this is a great book. We like it and recommend it highly to anyone seeking a solid strategic business guide. If you’re already a business owner and would like to read another solid text geared to helping you manage the business side, this one is a must-read. If nothing else, you’ll probably learn something you didn’t know or care to know. And if you need a refresher on some of the strategies and tactics covered in this text, well, you definitely will be glad you took advantage of the queen’s gambit.
