"Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success"
About this Quote
The intent is to shame smallness without sounding cruel. By pairing "think" with "expect", Schwartz targets the quiet sabotage of low ceilings: people don’t just set modest goals, they pre-negotiate failure by forecasting modest results. The phrase "win big success" borrows the language of competition and gambling, implying that success is claimed, not granted. It flatters the reader with agency while conveniently dodging the messy variables - luck, capital, discrimination, timing - that complicate any neat equation between mindset and outcome.
The subtext is aspirational capitalism at its cleanest: the world rewards those who demand more from it, and the main barrier is internal. It’s also a management-friendly worldview. Tell employees to "think big" and you get extra labor disguised as self-actualization; the risk shifts downward while the narrative stays uplifting.
Context matters: mid-century American business culture loved scalable optimism - the era of salesmanship, corporate ladders, and psychology repackaged as performance. Schwartz’s quote works because it compresses that whole ideology into a chant you can repeat until it feels like strategy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Goal Setting |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Schwartz, David Joseph. (n.d.). Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-little-goals-and-expect-little-achievements-128461/
Chicago Style
Schwartz, David Joseph. "Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-little-goals-and-expect-little-achievements-128461/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-little-goals-and-expect-little-achievements-128461/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.










