β
Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.
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Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
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Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
β
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Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)
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Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.
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Bernard Branson
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Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.
β
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
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Whenever I am in a difficult situation where there seems to be no way out, I think about all the times I have been in such situations and say to myself, "I did it before, so I can do it again.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
The type of person you are is usually reflected in your business. To improve your business, first improve yourself.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Success comes from the inside out. In order to change what is on the outside, you must first change what is on the inside.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work β the most you will make is 5 dollars.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Failure is constructive feedback that tells you to try a different approach to accomplish what you want.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
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You have to work on the business first before it works for you.
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β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Many times in life, we are held back from achieving our goals because we do not commit ourselves wholeheartedly. With an escape route in mind, we hold ourselves back from giving our all.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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If a treeβs strength is judged while it is still a seed, it is mistaken as weak.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
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Whenever you are going through lifeβs challenges, remember that for iron to be cast into its desired form, it must first go through intense heat.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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He who masters the power formed by a group of people working together has within his grasp one of the greatest powers known to man.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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What is considered impossible is someone elseβs opinion. What is possible is my decision.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
β
If there is one trait that your brand must speak of, it is trust.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
Even though our time in this life is temporary, if we live well enough, our legacy will last forever.
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Idowu Koyenikan (All You Need Is a Ball: What Soccer Teaches Us about Success in Life and Business)
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Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.
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Peter F. Drucker
β
Your brand must communicate the value that you bring to a working relationship.
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
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Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.
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Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life)
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If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
β
What the society thinks is of no interest to me. All that's important is how I see myself. I know who who I am. I know the value of my work.
β
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Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in)
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You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
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Sometimes success isn't about making the right decision, it's more about making some decision.
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Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life)
β
Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you're both engaged in the same business - you know they're doing something that you aren't.
β
β
Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)
β
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.
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Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
β
If you are going to be in business, you must learn about money: how it works, how it flows, and how to put it to work for you.
β
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Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
β
There is no better teacher than history in determining the future... There are answers worth billions of dollars in 30$ history book.
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Charles T. Munger (Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger)
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In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.
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β
Warren Buffett
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Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
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Robert Louis Stevenson
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Leadership begins and ends with relationships
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Richard Polak (Work Smart Now: How to Jump Start Productivity, Empower Employees, and Achieve More)
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Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
β
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Albert Einstein
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Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.
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Paramahansa Yogananda
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Today is a new day and it brings with it a new set of opportunities for me to act on.
I am attentive to the opportunities and I seize them as they arise.
I have full confidence in myself and my abilities.
I can do all things that I commit myself to.
No obstacle is too big or too difficult for me to handle because what lies inside me is greater than what lies ahead of me.
I am committed to improving myself and I am getting better daily.
I am not held back by regret or mistakes from the past.
I am moving forward daily.
Absolutely nothing is impossible for me.
β
β
Idowu Koyenikan (Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability)
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What others think about you is none of your business.
β
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Jack Canfield (The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be)
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Your comfort zone is a place where you keep yourself in a self-illusion and nothing can grow there but your potentiality can grow only when you can think and grow out of that zone.
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Rashedur Ryan Rahman
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Stop allowing your day-to-day life to be clouded by busy nothingness.
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Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
β
6 Ways To Give Your Mind A Break:
1. Stop stressing
2. Stop worrying
3. Give rest to the problems weighing you down
4. Lighten up
5. Forgive yourself
6. Forgive others
β
β
Germany Kent
β
Getting the right people and the right chemistry is more important than getting the right idea.
β
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
β
What is it that inspires you? What do you love to do? What would you do for free? At the beginning of my busi-ness career, my why was to become a millionaire, not a good why! And why not? Because that is an aspiration rather than a why. Aspirations, I have found, wonβt fuel me when the going gets tough. But a true βwhyβ will.
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Richard Polak
β
Our current monetary system is the reason why our planet is swimming in cheap, low-quality products, because businesses want to spend the least amount of money to create a product, which makes it low-quality, and businesses also make products that donβt last on purpose so they can make more money when the customer has to buy the same product again, and sometimes rebought an absurd amount of times. If money was taken out of the equation, only the people whose passion to make certain products would be making them, and theyβd be the people whoβd make the best products since it would be done out of passion instead of the want for money.
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Jasun Ether (The Beasts of Success)
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Donβt build roadblocks out of assumptions.
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Lorii Myers (Targeting Success, Develop the Right Business Attitude to be Successful in the Workplace (3 Off the Tee, #1))
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Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.
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Peter Thiel (Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future)
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To become successful, one must put themselves in the paths of giants!
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Lillian Cauldwell
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Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
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A.A. Milne (Not That it Matters)
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Be a King. Dare to be Different, dare to manifest your greatness.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
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Success in warfare is gained by carefully accommodating ourselves to the enemy's purpose.
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Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
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A confident woman wears a smile and has this air of comfortability and pleasantness about her.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu
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You become what you think about
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Napoleon Hill (Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude)
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Men love women who are courageous for it means they can go all the way with him in his pursuit of his good dreams and intentions.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu
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When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
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Life's had to break you down so you could be rebuilt
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Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life)
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Reading is good, action is better.
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β
Eric Ries (The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses)
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Victims recite problems, leaders provide solutions.
β
β
Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life)
β
Once you can clarify your unique vision for the end goalβcomfort, happiness, security, etc.β you can get started on the path toward the reality of success.
β
β
Curtis L. Jenkins (Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living)
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When faced with a challenge, get smarter.
β
β
Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
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Don't die without fulfilling your purpose.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
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Itβs impossible for me to applaud your successes when my hands are too busy patting myself on the back. But if I clap for you, and you pat my back, we can both feel like winners.
β
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Jarod Kintz (So many chairs, and no time to sit)
β
To earn more, you must learn more.
β
β
Brian Tracy
β
Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you.
β
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Stella Adler (The Art of Acting)
β
The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals.
β
β
Rensis Likert
Lorii Myers (Targeting Success, Develop the Right Business Attitude to be Successful in the Workplace (3 Off the Tee, #1))
β
you must get the right talent and set the proper expectations. If you donβt, you will pay for the job twiceβthrough your employeesβ time and your own.
β
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Curtis L. Jenkins (Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living)
β
They tell you: Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big. As a matter of fact, dream and donβt stop dreaming until your dream comes true.
I think thatβs crap.
I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing.
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Shonda Rhimes (Year of Yes)
β
Firestarters are flexible. They recognize situational needs and are able to flow into the accessible role identity most relevant to overcome emergent challenges.
β
β
Raoul Davis Jr. (Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators, and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life)
β
It is an acceptance of being uncomfortable that drives change.
β
β
Curtis L. Jenkins (Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living)
β
the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.
β
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Peter Thiel (Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future)
β
What is the point of hiring smart people, we asked, if you donβt empower them to fix whatβs broken?
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
β
Blaming others is an act of refusing to take responsibility. When a person canβt accept the fact or the reality, they blamed another person or the situation instead of taking accountability.
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Dee Dee Artner
β
It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
β
β
Henry David Thoreau
β
Youβll never stumble upon the unexpected if you stick only to the familiar.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
β
Getting lost along your path is a part of finding the path you are meant to be on.
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β
Robin S. Sharma (The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life)
β
Business schools don't create successful people. They simply accept them, then take credit for their success.
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Josh Kaufman (The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume)
β
if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.
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Eric Ries (The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses)
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Watch, listen, and learn. You canβt know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity.
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Donald J. Trump
β
Success in any field, but especially in business is about working with people, not against them.
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Keith Ferrazzi (Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time)
β
Dare to be different. Represent your maker well and you will forever abide in the beautiful embrace of his loving arms.
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Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
Once you achieve intimacy and connection, I predict that innovation, partnership, execution and success won't be far behind.
β
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Susan Scott (Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst "Best" Practices of Business Today)
β
You donβt have to ask permission to take responsibility.
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Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar)
β
The biggest mistake we could ever make in our lives is to think we work for anybody but ourselves.
β
β
Brian Tracy
β
As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.
β
β
Eric Ries (The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses)
β
God is never tired of bringing the sun out every morning, taking it in the evenings and bringing out the moon.
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β
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
β
No one else knows exactly what the future holds for you, no one else knows what obstacles you've overcome to be where you are, so don't expect others to feel as passionate about your dreams as you do.
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β
Germany Kent
β
Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverleyβs Candies. Though her handcrafted confectionsβrose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and mindsβare singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.
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β
Sarah Addison Allen (First Frost (Waverley Family, #2))
β
[She] knew there were women who worked successfully out of the home. They ran businesses, created empires and managed to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children who went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard or became world-renowned concert pianists. Possibly both.
These women accomplished all this while cooking gourmet meals, furnishing their homes with Italian antiques, giving clever, intelligent interviews with Money magazine and People, and maintaining a brilliant marriage with an active enviable sex life and never tipping the scale at an ounce over their ideal weight...
She knew those women were out there. If she'd had a gun, she'd have hunted every last one of them down and shot them like rabid dogs for the good of womankind.
β
β
Nora Roberts (Birthright)
β
Every man has a specific skill, whether it is discovered or not, that more readily and naturally comes to him than it would to another, and his own should be sought and polished. He excels best in his niche - originality loses its authenticity in one's efforts to obtain originality.
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Criss Jami (SalomΓ©: In Every Inch In Every Mile)
β
Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, money, circumstances, than failures and success, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, ability, or skill. It will make or break a business, a home, a friendship, an organization. The remarkable thing is I have a choice every day of what my attitude will be. I cannot change my past. I cannot change the actions of others. I cannot change the inevitable. The only thing I can change is attitude. Life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it.
β
β
Charles R. Swindoll
β
When you focus on lack and scarcity and what you donβt have, you fuss about it with your family, you discuss it with your friends, you tell your children that you donβt have enough - βWe donβt have enough for that, we canβt afford thatβ - then youβll never be able to afford it, because you begin to attract more of what you donβt have. If you want abundance, if you want prosperity, then focus on abundance. Focus on prosperity. (Lisa Nichols)
Many people in Western culture are striving for success. They want the great home, they want their business to work, they want all these outer things. But what we found in our research is that having these outer things does not necessarily guarantee what we really want, which is happiness. So we go for these outer things thinking theyβre going to bring us happiness , but itβs backward. You need to go for the inner joy, the inner peace, the inner vision first, and then all of the outer things appear. (Marci Shimoff)
β
β
Rhonda Byrne (The Secret (The Secret, #1))
β
Great CEOs face the pain. They deal with the sleepless nights, the cold sweats, and what my friend the great Alfred Chuang (legendary cofounder and CEO of BEA Systems) calls βthe torture.β Whenever I meet a successful CEO, I ask them how they did it. Mediocre CEOs point to their brilliant strategic moves or their intuitive business sense or a variety of other self-congratulatory explanations. The great CEOs tend to be remarkably consistent in their answers. They all say, βI didnβt quit.
β
β
Ben Horowitz (The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers)
β
Christian does a great job helping an aspiring writer get inspired to write and finish their book. Itβs easy to read and understand, and provides encouragement and specific guidance, without being too harsh or detailed on fiction writing only. If you are struggling with how to put your thoughts onto paper, give this a read and establish a rhythm for your writing. Christianβs success at completing over 21 published manuscripts while leading a busy life are testament in if there is a will, there is a way. And it provides some good humor throughout.β
Rachel Braynin, Sr Program Manager at Lulu Publishing
β
β
Christian Warren Freed (So...You Want to Write a Book?)
β
There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home. Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city. For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe. We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place.
β
β
Josephine Hart
β
WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now. The old proverb is full of truth and meaning, "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." Many a man acquires a fortune by doing his business thoroughly, while his neighbor remains poor for life, because he only half does it. Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business. Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.
β
β
P.T. Barnum (The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money)
β
Andrew Carnegie famously put it. Thereβs nothing shameful about sweeping. Itβs just another opportunity to excelβand to learn. But you, youβre so busy thinking about the future, you donβt take any pride in the tasks youβre given right now. You just phone it all in, cash your paycheck, and dream of some higher station in life. Or you think, This is just a job, it isnβt who I am, it doesnβt matter. Foolishness. Everything we do mattersβwhether itβs making smoothies while you save up money or studying for the barβeven after you already achieved the success you sought.
β
β
Ryan Holiday (The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph)
β
Sasha: Men don't understand a lot of things. Every young girl is going to be drawn more to a failure than to a successful man, because they're all attracted by the notion of active love... Do you understand? Active. Men are busy with their work, and therefore for them love is something right in the background. A conversation with the wife, a stroll with her in the garden, a nice time, a cry on her grave - that's all. But for us love is life. I love you, that means that I dream of how I'll cure you of your depression, of how I'll go with you to the ends of the earth...
When you're up, so am I; when you're down, so am I. ... The more work there is, the better love is ...
β
β
Anton Chekhov (Ivanov (Plays for Performance Series))
β
And libertarianism is good because it helps conservatives pass off a patently pro-business political agenda as a noble bid for human freedom. Whatever we may think of libertarianism as a set of ideas, practically speaking, it is a doctrine that owes its visibility to the obvious charms it holds for the wealthy and the powerful. The reason we have so many well-funded libertarians in America these days is not because libertarianism has acquired an enormous grassroots following, but because it appeals to those who are able to fund ideas. Like social Darwinism and Christian Science before it, libertarianism flatters the successful and rationalizes their core beliefs about the world. They warm to the libertarian idea that taxation is theft because they themselves donβt like to pay taxes. They fancy the libertarian notion that regulation is communist because they themselves find regulation intrusive and annoying. Libertarianism is a politics born to be subsidized. In the βfree market of ideas,β it is a sure winner.
β
β
Thomas Frank (The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule)
β
In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?
The essence of man is imperfection. Know that you're going to make mistakes. The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. Wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.
Achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business.
When achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong epidemic.
Procrastination is too high a price to pay for fear of failure. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Forget motivation. Just do it. Act your way into feeling, not wait for positive emotions to carry you forward.
Recognize that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. If you can take action and keep making mistakes, you gain experience.
Life is playing a poor hand well. The greatest battle you wage against failure occurs on the inside, not the outside.
Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?
Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. If you are continually experiencing trouble or facing obstacles, then you should check to make sure that you are not the problem.
Be more concerned with what you can give rather than what you can get because giving truly is the highest level of living.
Embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.
Everything in life brings risk. It's true that you risk failure if you try something bold because you might miss it. But you also risk failure if you stand still and don't try anything new.
The less you venture out, the greater your risk of failure. Ironically the more you risk failure β and actually fail β the greater your chances of success.
If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.
The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.
Determining what went wrong in a situation has value. But taking that analysis another step and figuring out how to use it to your benefit is the real difference maker when it comes to failing forward. Don't let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action.
The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying?
Commitment makes you capable of failing forward until you reach your goals. Cutting corners is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline.
Successful people have learned to do what does not come naturally. Nothing worth achieving comes easily. The only way to fail forward and achieve your dreams is to cultivate tenacity and persistence.
Never say die. Never be satisfied. Be stubborn. Be persistent. Integrity is a must. Anything worth having is worth striving for with all your might.
If we look long enough for what we want in life we are almost sure to find it. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail.
The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.
Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.
β
β
John C. Maxwell (Failing Forward)
β
At last, Sturmhond straightened the lapels of his teal frock coat and said, βWell, Brekker, itβs obvious you only deal in half-truths and outright lies, so youβre clearly the man for the job.β
βThereβs just one thing,β said Kaz, studying the privateerβs broken nose and ruddy hair. βBefore we join hands and jump off a cliff together, I want to know exactly who Iβm running with.β
Sturmhond lifted a brow. βWe havenβt been on a road trip or exchanged clothes, but I think our introductions were civilized enough.β
βWho are you really, privateer?β
βIs this an existential question?β
βNo proper thief talks the way you do.β
βHow narrow-minded of you.β
βI know the look of a rich manβs son, and I donβt believe a king would send an ordinary privateer to handle business this sensitive.β
βOrdinary,β scoffed Sturmhond. βAre you so schooled in politics?β
βI know my way around a deal. Who are you? We get the truth or my crew walks.β
βAre you so sure that would be possible, Brekker? I know your plans now. Iβm accompanied by two of the worldβs most legendary Grisha, and Iβm not too bad in a fight either.β
βAnd Iβm the canal rat who brought Kuwei Yul-Bo out of the Ice Court alive. Let me know how you like your chances.β His crew didnβt have clothes or titles to rival the Ravkans, but Kaz knew where heβd put his money if he had any left.
Sturmhond clasped his hands behind his back, and Kaz saw the barest shift in his demeanor. His eyes lost their bemused gleam and took on a surprising weight. No ordinary privateer at all.
βLet us say,β said Sturmhond, gaze trained on the Ketterdam street below, βhypothetically, of course, that the Ravkan king has intelligence networks that reach deep within Kerch, Fjerda, and the Shu Han, and that he knows exactly how important Kuwei Yul-Bo could be to the future of his country. Let us say that king would trust no one to negotiate such matters but himself, but that he also knows just how dangerous it is to travel under his own name when his country is in turmoil, when he has no heir and the Lantsov succession is in no way secured.β
βSo hypothetically,β Kaz said, βyou might be addressed as Your Highness.
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Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
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In theory, the risk of business failure can be reduced to a number, the probability of failure multiplied by the cost of failure. Sure, this turns out to be a subjective analysis, but in the process your own attitudes toward financial risk and reward are revealed.
By contrast, personal risk usually defies quantification. It's a matter of values and priorities, an expression of who you are. "Playing it safe" may simply mean you do not weigh heavily the compromises inherent in the status quo. The financial rewards of the moment may fully compensate you for the loss of time and fulfillment. Or maybe you just don't think about it. On the other hand, if time and satisfaction are precious, truly priceless, you will find the cost of business failure, so long as it does not put in peril the well-being of you or your family, pales in comparison with the personal risks of no trying to live the life you want today.
Considering personal risk forces us to define personal success. We may well discover that the business failure we avoid and the business success we strive for do not lead us to personal success at all. Most of us have inherited notions of "success" from someone else or have arrived at these notions by facing a seemingly endless line of hurdles extending from grade school through college and into our careers. We constantly judge ourselves against criteria that others have set and rank ourselves against others in their game. Personal goals, on the other hand, leave us on our own, without this habit of useless measurement and comparison.
Only the Whole Life Plan leads to personal success. It has the greatest chance of providing satisfaction and contentment that one can take to the grave, tomorrow. In the Deferred Life Plan there will always be another prize to covet, another distraction, a new hunger to sate. You will forever come up short.
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Randy Komisar (The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur)