From my recent readings into child raising, business, and self help books, it seems that a new flavor entered my mind when I think about the phrase "Know thyself".

In child raising, punishment is not the answer. Discipline is, and it starts with understanding why the child acted a certain way. Only after that understanding is obtained, can a corrective, positive discipline action take place.

In business (Good to Great), It is the understanding of the company's HedgeHog Concept. To fully understand what is it you're trying to accomplish. Even the mere identification of the HedgeHog Concept yields great results. The three circles of the HedgeHog Concept are

1. What are you passionate about
2. What isy our economic denominator
3. what can you be the best at 

In order to discover this, an iterative understanding process must take place. 

1. Ask questions, guided by the three cirlces
2. dialogue and debate, guided by the three cirlces
3. executive decisions, guided by the three cirlces
4. autopsies and analysis, guided by the three circles

In "Think and Grow Rich" it lists 13 steps or areas in which to become successful. I call them "The Know Thyself Steps". It's a book about oming to an understanding of who you are.

So then getting the understanding first is not just a tactic, method or technique, but it's more of a lifestyle or personality trait. I've already seen many parallels between the latter 2 books. Perhaps there are parallels with all three books. The obvious of which is: seek to understand before all else.