The Magic of Thinking Big: Difference between revisions

📘 '''''The Magic of Thinking Big''''' is a self-help book by American marketing professor David J. Schwartz, first published by Prentice-Hall in 1959 and later reissued as a Simon & Schuster Fireside paperback in 1987.<ref name="SSAuthor">{{cite web |title=David Schwartz |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/David-Schwartz/2190 |website=Simon & Schuster |publisher=Simon & Schuster |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="OCLC729571" /><ref name="Goog1987" /> It teaches readers to set ambitious goals and to replace “excusitis,” fear and hesitation with deliberate action; its 13 chapters include “Believe You Can Succeed and You Will,” “Cure Yourself of Excusitis,” and “Get the Action Habit.”<ref name="Goog1987" /><ref name="OCLC15549409">{{cite web |title=The magic of thinking big |url=https://search.worldcat.org/th/title/The-magic-of-thinking-big/oclc/15549409 |website=WorldCat |publisher=OCLC |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref> Schwartz writes in a practical, how-to register, promising “tools to change your life” around confidence, creative thinking, and leadership habits.<ref name="PRH2019" /> The work has remained in print internationally—including a 2019 Vermilion Life Essentials edition—and Simon & Schuster reports more than six million copies sold worldwide.<ref name="PRH2019" /><ref name="SSA2015" /> It is frequently cited among influential self-help titles; for example, Forbes highlighted it in 2014 as one of the “greatest self-help books” of recent decades.<ref name="Forbes2014">{{cite news |last=Caprino |first=Kathy |title=What The Greatest Self-Help Books Of The Last Decades Can Teach You In 7 Minutes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/03/21/what-the-greatest-self-help-books-of-the-last-decades-can-teach-you-in-7-minutes/ |work=Forbes |date=21 March 2014 |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref>

''This outline follows the Simon & Schuster Fireside paperback edition (2 April 1987; ISBN 978-0-671-64678-3).''<ref name="Goog1987" />

🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. David J. Schwartz was a professor of marketing at Georgia State University and president of Creative Educational Services, a leadership-development consultancy.<ref name="SSAuthor" /> He died in 1987, the same year Simon & Schuster issued the widely distributed Fireside paperback edition.<ref name="SSAuthor" /><ref name="Goog1987" /> The book’s method is organized as practical how-to chapters on belief, curing “excusitis,” building confidence, creative thinking, goal-setting, and leadership.<ref name="Goog1987" /><ref name="OCLC15549409" /> Publisher catalog copy describes the register as motivating and tool-focused rather than academic.<ref name="PRH2019" /> An unabridged audiobook from Simon & Schuster Audio broadened access to the title in 2015.<ref name="SSA2015" />

📈 '''Commercial reception'''. Simon & Schuster reports that the book has sold more than six million copies worldwide.<ref name="SSA2015" /> The title has stayed in print across markets, including a 2019 UK Vermilion Life Essentials reissue.<ref name="PRH2019" /> Major outlets continue to place it on business reading lists—for example, Forbes’s “30 must-read business books for 2021” and Business Insider’s recommendations from rising industry figures in 2020.<ref name="Forbes2020Cook">{{cite news |last=Cook |first=Jodie |title=30 Must-Read Business Books For Upping Your Game In 2021 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2020/12/16/30-must-read-business-books-for-upping-your-game-in-2021/ |work=Forbes |date=16 December 2020 |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref><ref name="BI2020">{{cite news |title=The Best Real-Estate Career Books, According to Rising Stars |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/rising-stars-real-estate-commercial-residential-books-advice-success-2020-12 |work=Business Insider |date=15 December 2020 |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref>