I’m a big believer of thinking differently from the crowd. I think it’s important because the very act of thinking differently stimulates your logic and creative thinking and separates you from the masses, thereby making it easier for the right people to spot you and give you the right opportunities.

It’s not the easiest thing to do because thinking differently from the crowd will probably result in you encountering social backlash.

For example, the typical crowd goes to work, does their job and goes home. A person who thinks differently from the crowd will think about how they can do their job faster and better, how they can make improvements, etc. This person improves their logic and creative thinking capabilities by doing so and they gain confidence when they put their plans into action.

Moreover, that kind of thinking separates them from the co-workers and draws attention to management, thereby giving them opportunities of advancement that were not available to the other co-workers, simply because they were not just another face in the crowd.

A person who does this at work may encounter social backlash from co-workers who don’t want to look bad but it’s important to stand your ground and think differently from the crowd. You want to improve your logic and thinking capabilities, separate yourself from the masses and draw opportunities to yourself from the right people who can easily identify you because you’ve separated yourself from the masses.

Raise yourself from the average masses and the right people and the right opportunities will identify you and start coming your way.

Here’s another example of why it’s important to think differently from the crowd.

You’ll often hear this type of information time and time again from personal finance experts. Put money in your 401k account with your employer. You’re losing money if you don’t. The stock market will return on average 12% a year. The majority of people hear all this advice so they go on doing it.

But think about it for a second.

Look what happened this year. A bunch of people in Wall Street decided to make as much money as fast as they could with subprime loans and as a result, 2008 was the worst year for the stock market since the Great Depression. We had 30-40% losses across board.

A person who thinks differently will think about this type of advice before he applies it. In truth, investing is a good idea in theory, but in reality, it’s all out of your control.

You can do all the due diligence you want, you can get the best money managers, you can dollar cost average, pull every investing trick in the book, but in the end, it’s all out of your control. There are too many factors out there that can wipe a good chunk of your investments out like we saw this year.

Moreover, when you subscribe to this 401k investment philosophy, you’re subtly telling yourself another thing – you’re telling yourself you just want a job for the rest of your life. The idea of creating your own business isn’t even in the picture.

How about putting that money in savings account instead? You’re guaranteed to keep up with inflation and a little more. And your money is safe. It won’t be wiped out. When you think of a great business idea to implement, you can fund it with the money you saved and get a greater return than you ever will in the stock market.

There was a story about a 17 year old girl who became a millionaire by designing Myspace layouts. It probably cost her less than $100 to start her site and now she’s a millionaire. You won’t find that kind of return anywhere in the stock market today in such a short period of time. I guarantee it.

Here’s another area where thinking differently from the crowd can be applied. When applying for a job, the majority of people blast out the same cover letters and resumes to multiple companies. How about tailoring each resume and cover letter to each company before sending it out? Moreover, how about including some names of the people who work there in your cover letter and some details about the company after doing some research on it? How about using an off white color paper for your resume or cover letter to separate your resume from all the rest? Or how about including a yellow post it note on your cover letter with a link to a site you created that gives an employer more information about you that can help you land that job?

You see, when you start thinking differently from the crowd, you begin to greatly improve your logic and creative thinking skills. You begin to see more opportunities and when you implement them, you start separating yourself from the masses and when you do, it becomes a heck of a lot easier for the right people to spot you and give you the right opportunities.

“It’s luck!” – the jealous crowd will shout out loud.

But you will know that it was just you thinking differently from the crowd.

Every new year, it’s the same old song and dance for most people – setting their new year resolutions.

I will lose that weight, find a better job, make more money – it’s the same old spiel all the time.

Then, they go the gym the first week, maybe set up a savings account, look for a job they might like, come February – it’s the same old, same old.

They lose steam. It’s all gone. Complacency and routine settle back in. They lack consistency.

This is the reason why people roll their eyes when it comes to new years resolutions because they know 99% of the those who do it will never follow through on it.

Those who know what the Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich is and understand it know exactly why these people fail.

Exactly.

If you think about it, people try to force it too much.

To force persistence.
To force commitment.
To force discipline.

And that’s one of the greatest misunderstandings in self improvement and goal achievement because the truth is, you don’t have to force it.

There’s a natural process to it.

And that’s the biggest way The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich will definitively change your life this year, because it teaches you the natural process of goal achievement so you’re naturally consistent so you don’t fizzle out on your goals like 99.99% of the population come February.

It provides you with a revolutionary new paradigm shift, above that of techniques, above that of principles, and takes you to a whole new level where it shows you how all those principles and techniques you read about in goal achievement are connected and flow together naturally in synergy.

For those of you just joining who are unfamiliar with The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich, it’s a book I wrote based on the bestselling classic by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich, a book that was written as a result of him interviewing for over 20 years, those who’ve achieved extraordinary goals such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, trying to discover exactly how they were able to achieve their respective goals.

Through all those interviews and exhaustive research, Napoleon Hill figured out what their secret was but does not explicitly state it in his book, and instead, leaves several clues and mentions the hidden secret of how they were able to achieve their respective goals in every chapter so the reader can figure it out for himself.

I’ve used the clues to figure out what the Hidden Secret was and pointed out EXACTLY where it is in every chapter of Think and Grow Rich, just as Hill said it would be. I backed it up with irrefutable logic and specific, detailed examples and readers have come to the conclusion after reading the book that they too have used the Hidden Secret to achieve their respective goals without even knowing it. Why?

Because it’s the natural process of goal achievement.

They weren’t even aware of using it because it was so natural in the first place.

It’s why people have been raving about it all over the world, calling it “priceless” and “the best book they ever read”.

The second way The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich will definitively change your life is that it will FREE you from “Self Improvement Hell”.

You know exactly what that is.

Read, but never apply.

Read, get pumped up, take a little action, but never apply anything after that.

A viscous cycle of devouring information with no link to action.

So many people get caught up in this but The Hidden Secret will help you escape this hellacious self improvement rat race.

Third, it will make your drive internal.

You will not have to rely on external stimuli to “pump you up”. Sure it can help from time to time but you won’t really need it all the time. You will find yourself naturally applying all the principles you read about in all those self improvement books to achieve your goals.

Once you know what the natural process is, you’ll be able to figure out why you’ve been able to achieve some of your goals in the past, and not others. You’ll be able to correctly “diagnose” yourself.

Now this being the New Year, I’m going to offer THE BEST offer I have EVER offered on The Hidden Secret in Think and Grow Rich.

Ever.

You get FREE copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich ($19 value).

You get a FREE workbook that will help you apply the Hidden Secret ($15 value).

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And you get THE BEST BONUS EVER OFFERED ON BrianKim.net

A 48 page special report entitled: How to Get Rich: The Sorely Needed Logical and Structured Essay That Won’t Be Found Anywhere Else Today. ($19 value)

If you’re sick and tired of all the how to get rich advice heard today such as:

“Don’t drink that latte and invest it at 12% a year and you’ll be a millionaire.”

“Invest in your 401k or you’re losing money.”

“Buy real estate.”

“Learn how to trade stocks.”

Then this essay is for you.

It’s not the kind of essay that’s full of recycled platitudes but shows you:

• STRUCTURE

• LOGIC

• ORDER

It puts all the pieces together to show you the whole picture.

For those of you who’ve read How to Find What You Love To Do and loved it’s refreshing nature in the sense that it wasn’t full of the advice you’ll find everywhere else (i.e – ask yourself what you would do if you had a million dollars), then what you have to realize is that this essay is the equivalent of that, only a heck of a lot longer.

It’s structured, analytical, logical, makes sense, flows and will make you see its topic in a whole different light.

I wanted to save this essay for something special and this special New Year time sensitive offer fits in with it very nicely (the special offer expires Sunday, January 4th, 2008 11:59 Pacific Time)

You get over $93 worth of total value for only $24.95 with this offer.

So take advantage of the best special offer ever offered on the Hidden Secret today so you can read the book and the great bonuses over the weekend and start your first Monday of the New Year right, knowing you will have definitively changed your life.

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New Year’s resolutions come fast and furious this time of year, but in 2009, I’m keeping it simple. Sure, if I could lose weight and get in shape, it would be great, but I’m resolving to make my bed every day and put my purse in the same place when I come in the house. My motivations: to make my bedroom look better and avoid the mad search for my purse every time I leave the house.

As I started thinking about my resolutions and motivations, I began pondering motivation in general. What motivates me at work? Of course, money plays a role, but doing a good job is a motivating factor as well. And then there’s my family, a major reason I work in the first place. I want to do well for them too.

So as we enter a new year, I invite you to share your own motivations in the comments below. And if you’re not sure what your work-related motivations are, these articles can help you sort it out. Happy new year!

• “What Motivates You?”
• “Work Values Checklist”
• “Don't Just Tell Employers You’re Motivated -- Show Them”
• "Take Time to Think About Work"

Look back at any person’s successful journey and you’ll see it’s not the result of one particular thing.

Look closely and you’ll see it’s a result of a domino effect of an intricate woven web of iterative thoughts, actions, results, people, etc., that synergized and helped contribute to their particular successful achievement.

It’s damn near impossible to go back and sort it all out, to see the entire process because it’s not linear but comprehensive and holistic. There are too many parts affecting one another, spiraling out into different possibilities, bumping into other results, synergizing etc. It’s not the result of doing A -> B -> C.

But what we do find that there is a consistency of great advice that was applied, which domino effected down the road and led to harmonious synergies that enabled one to achieve their goals.

This brings us to an important point in that you MUST contemplate the future benefits from “domino effecting” advice and the possible synergies that arise. Failure to do so is the reason why most people don’t apply any great advice because their view is so short term. It’s too narrow.

For example, saving 10% of your income every month is a rule we’ve all heard, yet we know many don’t apply it. Saving 10% every month may not seem like a lot in the short term but if you expand your view long term, you see there are many domino effect benefits that ensue.

It adds up quickly over the years, accrues interest, and you can use it as the capital you need to fund a business idea you might come across. Many entrepreneurs have used the savings they accumulated to build successful business that yielded 100,000 times more than their initial capital, simply because they instilled the habit of saving and had that in the bank to use when the opportunity presented itself.

Moreover, savings helps you avoid using credit cards and paying interest in the event you run into a financial emergency.

It also helps your mental health by freeing you from worry, knowing that there is a cushion you can fall back on. It evokes self discipline, forces you to budget, and pay attention to detail, traits that can help you in all areas of life.

Only when you begin to see the long term benefits that domino effect and the possible synergies that might occur, do you see the awesome power of the advice at hand and go on to implement it.

If you think about it, everything you to do today forms the basis of what you do tomorrow. One small change could ripple effect and cause huge changes down the road.

Best your changes are guided by the best self improvement advice, thereby cultivating the greatest positive domino effect and greatest possible synergies that might occur.

But don’t get too wrapped up in predicting the possible benefits and synergies that will happen because it’s way too complex and there are way too many possibilities to contemplate.

Instead, just apply the best advice you can and let go and be pleasantly surprised at how it all turns out down the road and when it happens, trace back your journey and you’ll see the domino effect and the synergy happening firsthand.

This is another reason why I urge people to read autobiographies because it allows you to see this whole picture, to see the domino effect and the synergies that happen. When you do, you begin to appreciate self improvement advice that much more and you have a greater desire to actually apply it in your life.

This ability to domino effect and see possible synergies down the road goes hand in hand with cultivating the ability to see the big picture, to have patience, and to engage in long term thinking, all of which begins to reinforce one other in a great cycle that strengthens both sides as time goes on.

For example, had I not read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich when I was a child, my first book would never have been written. People would never have clearly understood what the Hidden Secret was and never would’ve been able to benefit enormously from it. Not only that, had I not instilled the habit of writing down my ideas when they struck, who knows if I would’ve been able to discover the Hidden Secret in the first place. Moreover, had I not read all those books on self improvement and goal achievement, maybe I never would’ve been able to connect all that information to discover the Hidden Secret as well.

Looking back, there were so many factors and habits that contributed to not only writing that book, but creating this site and never in my wildest dreams would I have envisioned the domino effect and the great synergies that happened as a result of reading all those books, writing, capturing inspiration when it happened, brainstorming, etc.

I’m sure everyone has their own story of this as well and I urge you to stop, reflect and look back to see what those constant “seeds” you planted were, the ones that domino effected and resulted in the great synergies that have positively affected you in your life right now.

It’s a great feeling to see how what you did earlier in life helped you in so many ways right now, especially when you never saw it coming.

And the best thing about that is you begin wonder what will happen in the future when you start applying new kinds of advice today.

But it’s way too complex and there are way too many possibilities that can happen to predict exactly what that will be.

All you’ll know is that you will be glad you implemented the advice NOW.

And you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results of the domino effect and the synergies that happen as a result later on down the road.