(It’s my 500th post today! ? Woohoo! #celebratetinywins)

Mastering procrastination is an essential trait to have in order to amass riches. I particularly enjoyed one insight about being fast and slow regarding decisions:

• Successful/rich people reach decisions fast, and change them slowly, if ever. 
• Those who are not successful/rich, reach decisions slowly, and change them quickly and frequently, often based on the opinions of others unqualified to advise them.

Of course this is not a silver bullet. Just because you make fast decisions doesn’t mean that will sufficiently get you rich. But it is an interesting proposition, one that runs counter to most people’s habits I believe. I’ll be first to confess: I make decisions slowly and change them more often than I like.

So practising to make decisions fast and change them slowly would be something I want to do more of. At least in the right context.

More notes below. Sharing them here as reference for myself, and for anyone who might find it useful. This is not a book review, just raw notes lifted directly from the book, with some minor edits, interpretations and categorisations of my own.

-–

Think And Grow Rich (7):

Decision: The mastery of procrastination, the seventh step to riches

Analysis of those who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark, disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of REACHING DECISION PROMPTLY, and of changing these decisions SLOWLY, if, and when they were changed. People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, IF AT ALL, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often. 

The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are, generally, easily influenced by the “opinions” of others. They permit the newspapers and the “gossiping” neighbors to do their “thinking” for them. “Opinions” are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking, much less in that of transmuting YOUR OWN DESIRE into money. If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own. Keep your own counsel, when you begin to put into practice the principles described here, by reaching your own decisions and following them. Take no one into your confidence, EXCEPT the members of your “Master Mind” group, and be very sure in your selection of this group, that you choose ONLY those who will be in COMPLETE SYMPATHY AND HARMONY WITH YOUR PURPOSE.

Keep your eyes and ears wide open-and your mouth CLOSED, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt DECISION. Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful knowledge, but you also disclose your PLANS and PURPOSE to people who will take great delight in defeating you, because they envy you. Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence. 

“TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO, BUT FIRST SHOW IT.” This is the equivalent of saying that “deeds, and not words, are what count most.”

DEFINITENESS OF DECISION always require courage. Definiteness of decision must always follow with organization into a plan of action.