Customer Reviews

Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence

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In this his latest book, Tim Sanders creates a context, a frame-of-reference, for several concepts introduced in earlier works, notably in Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference (2008), The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams (2006), and Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends (2003). More specifically, the lessons he learned from a grandmother who raised him after the death of his mother. For a period of time, he lost touch with her (Billye) and with her wisdom. Eventually, he was reunited with both. So what we have in Today We Are Rich is a prequel to the earlier books.

As Sanders explains, his grandmother probably had the greatest influence (the most beneficial influence) on his professional as well as personal development. When introducing the first of seven principles of Total Confidence, that fact immediately becomes obvious:

Principle 1: Feed Your Mind Good Stuff

"Billye got up with the chickens at the crack of dawn and yet kept bankers' hours. What did she do during the hours in between? She fed her mind good stuff.

"Billye was just as judicious in her response to what others tried to put in her head. She avoided "gossip snipes" as if they had an infectious disease. She even dumped negative-minded friends after one too many offenses. When one of the ladies at our church asked her why a Christian woman would quit friends over the words they used, Billye would paraphrase Dr. Norman Vincent Peale from The Power of Positive Thinking: "What comes out of the mind is what you put in the mind. You must feed your mind like you feed your body."

"Her positive-intake plan wasn't selfish--it was purposeful. The filter she put on what or whom she listened to wasn't prudish--it was prudent. The secret to positive thinking, she had learned, lies in consuming the right mind food. From waking thoughts to the edge of sleep, she fed her mind mostly good stuff."

* * *

"You should be as careful about what you put into your mind as about what you put into your mouth. Your mind is a machine. When you ingest a piece of information, your mind goes to work, chewing on it, digesting it, and then converting it into a thought. When good stuff goes into your mind, good thoughts emerge. People who maintain purposeful mind diets of positive stimuli think healthy thoughts.

"The reason it is so important to feed your mind good stuff is that the resulting thoughts determine your success or failure, your happiness or misery, and most important, the circumstances of your life. Those who do not have a diet plan for their minds are subject to their worst memories and the world's constant fear chatter--and those result in disturbing thought patterns.

"That's essentially the premise behind Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich: `Every man is what he is, because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind. . . . We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.'

"And Hill wasn't the only one to write about the importance of our thoughts. James Allen wrote his groundbreaking book As a Man Thinketh in 1903, with Proverbs 23:7 as its premise: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (King James Version). The premise of his book was simple, yet profound: `Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thoughts bear bad fruit.'"

This extended excerpt offers at least some indication of how and why Billye's influence on young Sanders proved to be so significant. With regard to the other six principles, they are:

Principle 2: Move the Conversation Forward
Principle 3: Exercise Your Gratitude Muscle
Principle 4: Give to Be Rich
Principle 5: Prepare Yourself
Principle 6: Balance Your Confidence
Principle 7: Promise Made, Promise Kept

My maternal grandmother arrived from Sweden as a teenaged indentured servant to a wealthy family living in the Hyde Park area near the University of Chicago. Eventually, she married and had four children, my mother the youngest. After my parents divorced, my mother and I moved in with Edith Johnson in a large house shared with two bachelor uncles, a married aunt, and her family. My mother worked six days a week (and frequently several evenings) to earn enough to support us and so, to a significant extent, I was raised by my grandmother. I think she and Billye were kindred spirits.

As I read Sanders' accounts of his conversations with Billye, I fondly recalled my own grandmother in the kitchen baking Swedish coffee cakes, sharing (in her own words) almost exactly the same advice that Sanders received from Billye.

This is Tim Sanders' most important book, at least thus far, because he focuses so eloquently on values and behavior that ultimately determine how "rich" or impoverished a person is. For him and for me, and probably for many others, the value of having a grandmother for all seasons is incalculable.

These kinds of books don't usually interest me because inspirational books are, for the most part, seldom inspirational. Usually they just feel like they're an attempt by the author to make money rather than to inspire readers. This book is different. A friend gave it to me and forced me to read it. I did--and I'm quite glad. Tim Sanders writes with a kind of authenticity and honesty that makes the book feel like more than just words--it feels as though someone who has learned some very valuable lessons from a very valuable friend simply has to pass this wisdom on to others. The book centers on the knowledge that Tim's grandmother passed along to him, knowledge that comes from a person who wasn't wealthy, beautiful, or famous--just someone who somehow managed to learn more than in her life than most of us learn in ours. Even as I was reading the book I started putting some of the advice to work in my life, and already feel as though I am profiting from the results. It's a book I will read again many times. Perhaps you should, too.

Dale Carnegie would enjoy meeting Tim Sanders. Sanders is more or less a good-news guru for the business space and his new book "Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence" solidifies this role. Sanders returns the reader to making a difference with oneself, first.

Frankly, Americans could use some good news and a bit of a pep talk right now. Record unemployment, bankruptcies and foreclosures dot the landscape. We are a society that seems to be sliding sideways, to use one of Sander's terms.

Tim Sanders brought readers Love is the Killer Ap applying principles of positive thinking to new subjects and spreading the news with the technology evangelism of a true Yahoo! Executive. Now Sanders is focused on writing and speaking, casting himself as a people-centric business expert.

Sanders builds a solid case for bringing values-driven actions down to the smallest increments in our daily lives, looking at what we can do each day for those around us. Far from new age psychobabble, Sanders delivers pragmatic actions to build positive habits. But unlike many books that fall in this category, Sanders directs his suggestions to practices of giving as a primary source of improving self-esteem, confidence and daily satisfaction. Describing this as a virtuous cycle--giving which gives to the giver and receiver, leads to more giving and more satisfaction--Tim Sanders invites readers to return to the `good loop' and details basic life skills to keep one there.

Today We Are Rich is a personal account, detailing Tim's own life's struggles and the tools he has applied to propel himself away from despair and general `stuckness'. In doing so, he discusses specifically Christian disciplines, even though prayer, requests for forgiveness and recognition of a higher power suggest a much broader application and audience.

A short read of a few hundred pages, Today We Are Rich could be a non-fiction self help book, a memoir or a business handbook, depending on the reader's frame of mind. Like so much described in the book itself, responding is a personal choice--but it is likely at least some of these suggestions will be of use, even if only as a brief reminder of the broad world outside the line of our personal vision.

Closing with a discussion of the good loop of giving and receiving, Sanders observes "This is where I want to end up, a virtuous cycle, where I can make a difference to others and the results continuously refresh my body soul and body.... I invite you into this loop too. It's big enough for all of us."

Tim Sanders offers up an easily followed formula for not only identifying the confidence that each of us rightly possesses, but more importantly a regiment of mental exercises that will allow us to tap into this natural internal resource so that we can use it to make a difference not only in our lives and in the lives of those around us but in the world.

Yes I realize that might sound a little hokey but that is what I believe his work to be. Tim's themes are focused on common sense and the often written about 'power of positive thinking'. This could turn some readers off but I would suggest that if you are in that camp that is turned off by such a suggestion then you should most definitely give the book a read.

What to expect:
The opening of the book provides Tim's narrative around his motivation for writing it. You will find the story inspiring.

From there Tim outlines Seven Principals of Total Confidence. They are:
- Feeding the mind good stuff (i.e. consume positive knowledge and shut out negative)
- Moving the conversation forward (driving your internal monologue in positive action oriented direction)
- Exercising your gratitude muscle (making a point to be truly grateful in every area of your goings on)
- Give to be rich (acting with out expecting a return on your actions)
- Prepare yourself (example of the of the old axiom of luck being the intersection of preparation and opportunity)
- Balance your confidence (my favorite chapter! the idea of guiding your actions to make sure they lie squarely between your passion and purpose)
- Promise made, Promise kept (very good step by step on what a commitment from you should mean - including knowing when NOT to promise something)

Really enjoyed the book, I thought the principles discussed we're very actionable. I was inspired by Tim's personal story as well as the people he talked about. The message is he gives is enlightening to say the least.

"Today We Are Rich" by Tim Sanders is one of the BEST books I've read this year (and I've read a lot). Tim takes you through stories from his own life and others' lives, showing and teaching life principles that help harness total confidence in one's life. He opens your eyes, showing you that you are indeed rich, how "confidence is rocket fuel," and that you have a lot of potential and a lot to offer the people and world around you.

Buy this book! Read this book! Then buy copies of this book and give it to everyone you know! This book - if enough people read it and apply these life principles - has the capacity to indeed rock this world for the better. I HIGHLY recommend you buy this book, no matter what age you are or where you are in life.

I read this book only because Amazon offered it as a Daily Deal on my Kindle, but now I would've gladly paid ten times the amount. This book is written for anybody who feels like they are going sideways and need something to give themselves a push. Its immensely practical with steps you can take today. The author also is quite adept at writing in a method thats engaging and makes so much sense. You'll find yourself nodding along in agreement as you read through this book.

Read it. Use it. Love it.

Long ago, a client recommended I read Love is the Killer App, a book that changed my life for the better. It, like Today We Are Rich, resonated with me as an important guide to reconciling the need to succeed with the calling to treat others with the dignity and compassion that all people crave. More than that, Tim has provided a compelling account of how the two reinforce and bolster one another, the way steel reinforces concrete.

Today We Are Rich provides a complementary foundation and grounding to Love is the Killer App, as well as adding a more personal account that demonstrates Tim's commitment to relationship.

As someone that has recommended and purchased many, many copies of Tim's books for friends and business partners, I can say with confidence that his is a message worth sharing.

Loved this book. Great message and practical steps to put good habits into practice. I highlighted half of the book. So full and rich.

I thoroughly enjoyed Today We Are Rich. Very practical book that I reflect on often. The title though my office as I don't believe in the "get rich quick scheme" of many books. The books is more about living a life of gratitude - with gratitude you can have a "richness" that is attrattive to others. I did a summary of the book for friends. Here it is:

Ideas from the Book "Today We are Rich"
by Tim Sanders

Definition of rich - There's bank account rich and there's rich in spirit. The second kind is achieved when you make a difference. It's the forever kind of rich that no one can take away from you. When you're willing to share, you're worth something. By being able and willing to give, you are rich. Uncertainty takes away momentum - uncertainty is a spiritual enemy that will siphon off your confidence (your rocket fuel). It turns a go-getter into a giver-upper. Learning lessons from mistakes - the key in mistakes is to not relive each detail of a painful past experience. Our subconscious minds have a tendency to remember every single detail. We have to train our minds to weed out the details and focus on the insights - what did you learn from the experience. The opposite occurs when you want to relive a successful experience where you excelled. For success is in every single detail, and create a picture of the experience in your mind that you can store for later use. Dealing with bad news - we have to take control in our emotional life. When we get bad news, we need to slow down the emotional function long enough to give your logical function a chance to act.

Having processed bad news. We need to categorize in four areas:

Good news - Either for myself or someone else, mutual news - no direct effect, get busy news - adversity that I need to respond to, bad news - an irrevocable negative effect on me or one of my interests.

When dealing with bad news we have to first itemize what resources we have to bring to bear on this situation. Instead of focusing on what we lack, I need to first focus on the resources that we have. This strategy can help worry be converted to strategy as the conversation becomes solution centered.

Be careful of the "Devil's advocate" person in the room. Devil's advocate people can bring negativity to your team. It's a psychological form of bullying. The next time someone tries to bring this idea up, let the person sharing the idea finish their idea completely and then ask them what obstacles they thought about that we would have to address with their solution. From experience, every time you will hear the same obstacles that the Devil's advocate brings up. The tone however is much more positive as the speaker lays out the objections and his or her answer to it because they've already thought about it in their analysis. If they don't bring up the obstacle then, the Devil's advocate person can have other obstacles.

Leadership-Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "A leader's role is to describe reality, and give hope."

In negotiation or any communication remember that feeling are facts. We may use something as a feeling, but it's a fact to the person that's feeling it. They're not opinions offered up for my judgement or correction.

Always express gratitude - "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." Quote on wealth - Ralph Waldo Emerson gave this stern warning to his congregation: "Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar. "

Giving to empower others - Henry Ford once said, "Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving." Key thought on giving - when you give and expect a return on your investment, you are just an investor. When you give and expect public recognition - you're just a self promoter. But when you only give for the love of giving you are a generous person."

On preparation - There is a big difference between working hard and in the end being willing to do the hard work required to prepare for opportunities. The best prepared will always win. To be the best prepared, you need to do some things that aren't necessarily fun or easy.

Rehearsal is a great example of a successful preparation process. No one wants to rehearse, and that's natural, because rehearsing is hard. Rehearsals require thinking, imagination, pretending, and more planning than people are used to. In many cases it will require you to face your future - including the worst case scenario. A full rehearsal will gobble up time and resources. Practicing is easy, it's quick, and it has nowhere near the impact of rehearsal.