Will Smith Motivational Quotes

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Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people - the ones who really belong in your life - will come to your. And stay.
Will Smith
Critical to success in corporate governance is a vision that inspires and motivates employees at all levels.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance)
Don't use yesterday's state of mind, to make today's decision.
C. Nzingha Smith (Lust Have Recipes, Aphrodisiac Cookbook)
Business is better able to solve societal problems than charity. Because solutions are sustained anywhere there is a profit motive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
The Lord would so cleanse the motive and desires of our hearts that we will seek but one thing only, and that is, His glory.
Smith Wigglesworth (Ever Increasing Faith)
The profit motive is the most potent source of collective motivation and the most efficient means for society to solve its problems. Anywhere you insert a profit motive - people will self assemble groups, leverage resources, and implement processes all in the effort to satisfy that profit motive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
Just remember everything happens for a reason. We just have to pick ourselves up, and look on the bright side of life.
Megan Smith (Trying Not to Love You (Love, #1))
Sometimes bad things that come in life aren’t necessarily bad things; they can be motivators to do more.
Adam Kirk Smith
Profit is good. Profit motivates businesses to be: (a) efficient - to do more with less, to consume fewer resources, to reduce and reuse waste. (b) productive - to allow for bigger profit margins. (c) Valuable - income, and therefore profit is only possible when we add value to our customers lives. When the value of our product or service is worth more to them than what it cost us to provide it, we profit.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
The board chair should have a clear vision for the organization's future and be able to articulate it in a way that inspires and motivates the board and management.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance)
Businesses profit by solving social problems. Therefore, it's business - not charity or government - that should be employed to solve many of the big societal problems of today. Whether it's the climate crises, or gender equity, or pollution or whatever... Business can solve those problems.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
Businesses are uniquely capable of creating social value and solving social problems - they have this wonderful fuel called the profit motive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
Don’t be hopeful, be expectant!
Natalie Grace Smith
When employees feel valued and respected, and when they trust that their company operates with integrity, they are more likely to be motivated, productive, and loyal.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Virtuous Boardroom: How Ethical Corporate Governance Can Cultivate Company Success)
When you look in the eyes of grace, when you meet grace, when you embrace grace, when you see the nail prints in grace’s hands and the fire in his eyes, when you feel his relentless love for you - it will not motivate you to sin. It will motivate you to righteousness.
Judah Smith (Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human)
What someone may lack in talent can be more than made up for in self-motivation, self-direction, and follow-through.
Miles Anthony Smith (Becoming Generation Flux: Why Traditional Career Planning is Dead: How to be Agile, Adapt to Ambiguity, and Develop Resilience)
Trust not in Sprites nor the motivations of a Gnome.
Jefferson Smith (Strange Places (Finding Tayna, #1))
Your only limitations are the ties you allow to bind you.
Saundra Dalton-Smith (Set Free to Live Free: Breaking Through the 7 Lies Women Tell Themselves)
What might have happened to them to make them the way they were? It did not change what they now did, but it changed, profoundly, how he perceived their motivations, their place in the world.
Sherwood Smith (The Fox (Inda, #2))
Integrating ESG considerations into boardroom discussions is really no longer optional - its just too much of an expectation by too many people who collectively have a lot of influence. Boards need to establish a framework for discussing ESG issues, tethered to the profit motive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance)
So what motivates people to work hard every day to do things that will satisfy the economy’s needs but not their own? Like so many thinkers, Smith believed that people want just one thing—happiness—hence economies can blossom and grow only if people are deluded into believing that the production of wealth will make them happy.14 If and only if people hold this false belief will they do enough producing, procuring, and consuming to sustain their economies.
Daniel Todd Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness)
Sometimes lifting yourself out of the ashes will cause you to be burned by other people. Guess what? You can handle it.
Antonio T. Smith Jr.
When you live in reaction you give your power away. Then you get to experience what you gave your power to.
N. Smith
Remember that a fresh breath of life follows every sigh of exasperation. Breathe in, breathe out, and ENJOY every moment. It is how everything begins and ends. - Charmainism
Charmaine Smith Ladd (Shake Hands with Yourself: A Peacemaker's Guide to Happiness & Inner Peace)
Don't let success go to your heads and don't let failure into your hearts.
Will Smith
Public services are never better performed than when their reward comes only in consequence of their being performed, and is proportioned to the diligence employed in performing them.
Adam Smith (An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations)
Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own. To prevent, therefore, this paltry misfortune to himself, would a man of humanity be willing to sacrifice the lives of a hundred millions of his brethren, provided he had never seen them? Human nature startles with horror at the thought, and the world, in its greatest depravity and corruption, never produced such a villain as could be capable of entertaining it. But what makes this difference? When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid and so selfish, how comes it that our active principles should often be so generous and so noble? When we are always so much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves, than by whatever concerns other men; what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others? It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impulses of self-love. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct.
Adam Smith (The Theory of Moral Sentiments)
Christ in me” means Christ bearing me along from within, Christ the motive power that carries me on, Christ giving my whole life a wonderful poise and lift, and turning every burden into wings . . . not as something you have to bear but as something by which you are borne.
James Bryan Smith (The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows)
True friends give you encouragement. True friends give you motivation, And inspiration. True friends give you love, And adoration, And respect. True friends invest in you and actively participate in your growth and development. True friends give you their truth, And encourage you To share your truth as well.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic)
The road to success is through commitment, and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard. And it is gonna get hard and you're gonna wanna quit sometimes, but it'll be colored by who you are, and more who you want to be.
Will Smith
I'm motivated by fear. Fear of fear. I hate being scared to do something. I started attacking things that I was scared of.
Will Smith
Yesterday is never as good as right now so enjoy every moment of the journey into TOMORROW.
C. Smith
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” -Zig Ziglar
Jen Smith (The No-Spend Challenge Guide: How to Stop Spending Money Impulsively, Pay off Debt Fast, & Make Your Finances Fit Your Dreams)
To live with dignity means you put your worth as a human being above the conscious pursuit of wealth, power and fame.
Di Smith (You're Awesome: Living a Fulfilled Life)
No matter what you're going through, there is always another brick sitting right there in front of you, waiting to be laid. The only question is, are you going to get up and lay it?
Will Smith (Will)
The profit motive is powerful. It incentivizes people to be valuable, efficient and productive. Because profit cannot be sustainability obtained without first being valuable, efficient and productive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
Be your best self and do not imitate anyone else. Find your strengths. They are your talents. They will make you smile and cause you to real joy on the inside. Don’t listen to those who ridicule the choices you make or the dreams you share. Let no one despise your youth. As Og Mandino explained in The Greatest Salesman in the World, “Experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.” Create your own experiences. And know that you are creating memories for a lifetime. Life is not about finding yourself; it is about creating yourself. You have to take chances to make your dreams reality. Face your fears head-on and move rapidly. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Make lots of them! Your odds for success will increase with the number of decisions you make. Have patience with your dreams and the expectations you have for others. Be impatient with yourself daily. Live as if this is your last day. Say “I love you” to all those who matter. Know that everyone matters. You must play full-out right now. Sit up, hold your head high. Breathe deeply. Lift your chest up. Stand up straight and with confidence. Dust yourself off. Stop being a party pooper in your own life. Smile. A bigger noticeable smile. Start acting happy. Yes, you act first. I promise the feeling of happiness will soon follow.
Robert Smith
Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumblebee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. —Ashley Smith
TheQuoteWell (Inspirational Quotes About Life: Inspiration, Motivation, and Wisdom for Daily Living.)
The thought experiment of Adam Smith correctly takes into account the fact that people rationally pursue their economic interests. Of course they do. But this thought experiment fails to take into account the extent to which people are also guided by noneconomic motivations. And it fails to take into account the extent to which they are irrational or misguided. It ignores the animal spirits.
George A. Akerlof (Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism)
For as Molly looked at him, she felt an immediate … she didn’t know what. Despite her love of the language arts, she also possessed an analytic mind, and that mind straightaway tried to seek out the why. And it couldn’t unearth the reason apart from his smile. Or, rather, how he smiled at her—warm and full-armed, like the embrace from a long-absent friend, without the slightest trace of fakeness or concealed motive. His was the most open face she’d ever seen in her life. Concomitant with these sensations, all delivered within a split second, was a thought, seemingly originating not in her mind but from the center of her torso and radiating out to the ends of each nerve, inexplicable in its suddenness and surety. A thought that children and very young people might have, but never middle-aged adults, especially one with a divorce behind her and the conviction that she already knew the world and what it was able to offer. But there it was, undeniably, the thought: I’m on a great adventure.
Ray Smith (The Magnolia That Bloomed Unseen)
Acceptance doesn't mean tolerating unhealthy relationships or problem behaviour. In relationships, acceptance has two key qualities. First, it means being willing to recognize that your partner, right here and right now, is struggling too. It means allowing for the possibility that his motivations might be good and constructive, even if it doesn't feel that way. It means not getting caught up in the belief that he's wrong or doesn't care about you, and instead embracing the possibility that he's doing the best he can. He may even be trying to make you happy--but in a way that only makes sense inside the male mind. Acceptance also means embracing the formidable task of empathizing with your partner's struggle when you least want to do so.
Shawn T. Smith (The Woman's Guide to How Men Think: Love, Commitment, and the Male Mind)
I must protest.” “To whom?” That seemed to flummox him. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “But a protest must be lodged nonetheless.” “I don’t think the dog meant to shoot him,” Iris demurred. “You mean the author does not make the canine’s motivations clear?” Iris assumed a scrupulously even expression. “Even she lacks such talent.
Julia Quinn (The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #4))
The profit motive and the service motive aren’t mutually exclusive.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
A fire needs three things: a dry bed, fuel, and room to breathe.
Alexis M. Smith (Marrow Island)
We aren’t really motivated by abstract ideas or pushed by rules and duties. Instead some panoramic tableau of what looks like flourishing has an alluring power that attracts
James K.A. Smith (You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit)
Be as successful as a Smith.
Gregory C. Dugger
Stop asking yourself how or why and tell yourself you can." - Charmainism
Charmaine Smith Ladd
We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can always control how we react.
Seth Adam Smith
Self-compassion, on the other hand, treating yourself with kindness, respect, honesty and encouragement after a failure, is associated with increased motivation and better outcomes
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
I will accomplish my goals by any moral means necessary.
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.
A good reputation is sign of success".
Stephen Rayment
Good things don’t happen in bulk, they take ample time. You have to have patience.
Evan Smith
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations
Adam Smith (An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations)
Lord Charles Canning, the last Governor-General and first viceroy of India (the transition from East India Company rule to the British Crown took place during his turbulent tenure, 1856–62) wrote candidly to Vernon Smith, president of the Board of Control, on 21 November 1857, at the height of the ‘mutiny’: ‘As we must rule 150 million of people by a handful [of] Englishmen, let us do it in a manner best calculated to leave them divided (as in religion and national feeling they already are) and to inspire them with the greatest possible awe of our power and with the least possible suspicion of our motives’.
M.J. Akbar (Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan)
Smith and Denton reporting on the spiritual lives of American teenagers found a common belief that, as they wryly put it, God was 'something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist', who was availabe on demand but undemanding. This has been popularly characterised as 'benign whateverism'. Its core is that we should try to be nice, kind, respectful and responsible, and by doing so achieve a state of 'feeling good, happy, secure, at peace.' Worse things might certainly be believed; but this is not enough to support a civilisation, inspire great art, induce fidelity, inculcate sanctity, motivate self-sacrifice, or lead us to insights into the nature of existence.
Iain McGilchrist (The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World)
humans are no less eager than in the past to dominate, degrade, humiliate, and control—often in order to confirm their own sense of pride and superiority. (Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that this was the main motive for slavery.) But
David Brion Davis (Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World)
She was motivated by something else: impatience. To Aimee poverty was one of the world’s sloppy errors, one among many, which might be easily corrected if only people would bring to the problem the focus she brought to everything.
Zadie Smith (Swing Time)
What renders you incapable of such a rudeness, is nothing but a regard to the general rules of civility and hospitality, which prohibit it. … But if without regard to these general rules, even the duties of politeness, which are so easily observed, and which one can scarce have any serious motive to violate, would yet be so frequently violated, that what would become of the duties of justice, of truth, of chastity, of fidelity, which it is often so difficult to observe, and which there may be so many strong motives to violate? But upon the tolerable observance of these duties, depends the very existence of human society, which would crumble into nothing if mankind were not generally impressed with a reverence for those important rules of conduct.
Adam Smith (Essays On, I. Moral Sentiments: Ii. Astronomical Inquiries; Iii. Formation of Languages; Iv. History of Ancient Physics; V. Ancient Logic and ... the External Senses; Ix. English and Ita)
Addiction to softer drugs like alcohol or pot can be just as damaging but more insidious. The costs mount so slowly that they can be difficult to detect. That’s especially true of pot. If she’s using daily, don’t accept her protestations that marijuana has no deleterious effect on her. I don’t care how many cannabis evangelists she can rally to her cause, researchers tell a different story about heavy pot use. Heavy pot use lowers IQ (Meier et al. 2012); it damages memory (Solowij and Battisti 2008); it impairs decision-making (Tamm et al. 2013); it devastates motivation (Treadway et al. 2012; Smirnov and Kiyatkin 2008; Bloomfield et al. 2014); and it increases anxiety (Zvolensky et al. 2008). Finally, no matter what you might have heard, pot is addictive. In part, this is because it lowers the amount of available dopamine in the brain, necessitating its continued use to maintain normal levels (Hirvonen et al. 2011).
Shawn T. Smith (The Tactical Guide to Women: How Men Can Manage Risk in Dating and Marriage)
the feeling does not arrive spontaneously, we need to create it through action. Doing nothing feeds the lethargy and that ‘can’t be bothered’ feeling and makes it worse. Motivation is a wonderful by-product of action. It’s that great feeling you get when you are on your way out of the gym, not on your way in.
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
(...) his (Adam Smith's) theory of sympathy rejected self-love as the basic motive for behaviour. He also defined virtue as consisting of three elements: propriety, prudence and benevolence. By this he meant propriety or the appropriate control and directing of our affections; prudence or the judicious pursuit of our private interests; and benevolence or the exercise of only those affections that encourage the happiness of others. How poor Adam Smith got stuck with disciples like the market economists and the neo-conservatives is hard to imagine. He is in profound disagreement with their view of society. (V - From Ideology Towards Equilibrium)
John Ralston Saul (The Unconscious Civilization)
Motivation is a wonderful by-product of action. It’s that great feeling you get when you are on your way out of the gym, not on your way in. It’s that feeling of energy and momentum you get once you have started something and your brain and body start to rise to the challenge for you. Sometimes the feeling is fleeting. At other times it lasts for much longer. Much of that will depend on all the other factors that are either working to foster it or squash it.
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
Will Smith > Quotes > Quotable Quote “The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple, right? You're not going to out-work me. It's such a simple, basic concept. The guy who is willing to hustle the most is going to be the guy that just gets that loose ball. The majority of people who aren't getting the places they want or aren't achieving the things that they want in this business is strictly based on hustle. It's strictly based on being out-worked; it's strictly based on missing crucial opportunities. I say all the time if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready.
Will Smith
Smith did not regard economic freedom as the sum of politics, nor did he believe that self-interest is the only, or even the most important, motive governing our economic behaviour. A market can deliver a rational allocation of goods and services only where there is trust between its participants, and trust exists only where people take responsibility for their actions and make themselves accountable to those with whom they deal. In other words, economic order depends on moral order.
Roger Scruton (How to Be a Conservative)
Over the last three centuries, psychologists have been able to define three distinct parts of the human mind: thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Thoughts, also known as cognition, include regular functions such as memory, judgment, and reasoning. This is where intelligence comes in because it is used to measure your cognitive functions. Emotions, on the other hand, include things like moods, feelings, and evaluations. Motivations refer to behaviors that you learn or biological urges.
Benjamin Smith (Emotional Intelligence: Exploring the Most Powerful Intelligence Ever Discovered)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which Smith published in 1776, is the most important book ever written about capitalism and its moral ramifications. Though The Wealth of Nations is in good part about commerce, it was not written for businessmen or merchants. A book focused on the analysis of market processes motivated by self-interest, it was written by one of the most admired philosophers of the Enlightenment, a former professor of logic, rhetoric, jurisprudence, and moral philosophy, in order to influence politicians and rouse them to pursue the common good.
Jerry Z. Muller (The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought)
One final note here: you’ve probably noticed that whenever I mention serial killers, I always refer to them as “he.” This isn’t just a matter of form or syntactical convenience. For reasons we only partially understand, virtually all multiple killers are male. There’s been a lot of research and speculation into it. Part of it is probably as simple as the fact that people with higher levels of testosterone (i.e., men) tend to be more aggressive than people with lower levels (i.e., women). On a psychological level, our research seems to show that while men from abusive backgrounds often come out of the experience hostile and abusive to others, women from similar backgrounds tend to direct the rage and abusiveness inward and punish themselves rather than others. While a man might kill, hurt, or rape others as a way of dealing with his rage, a woman is more likely to channel it into something that would hurt primarily herself, such as drug or alcohol abuse, prostitution, or suicide attempts. I can’t think of a single case of a woman acting out a sexualized murder on her own. The one exception to this generality, the one place we do occasionally see women involved in multiple murders, is in a hospital or nursing home situation. A woman is unlikely to kill repeatedly with a gun or knife. It does happen with something “clean” like drugs. These often fall into the category of either “mercy homicide,” in which the killer believes he or she is relieving great suffering, or the “hero homicide,” in which the death is the unintentional result of causing the victim distress so he can be revived by the offender, who is then declared a hero. And, of course, we’ve all been horrified by the cases of mothers, such as the highly publicized Susan Smith case in South Carolina, killing their own children. There is generally a particular set of motivations for this most unnatural of all crimes, which we’ll get into later on. But for the most part, the profile of the serial killer or repeat violent offender begins with “male.” Without that designation, my colleagues and I would all be happily out of a job.
John E. Douglas (Journey Into Darkness (Mindhunter #2))
One of our Church educators published what he purports to be a history of the Church's stand on the question of organic evolution. His thesis challenges the integrity of a prophet of God. He suggests that Joseph Fielding Smith published his work, Man: His Origin and Destiny, against the counsel of the First Presidency and his own Brethren. This writer's interpretation is not only inaccurate, but it also runs counter to the testimony of Elder Mark E. Petersen, who wrote this foreword to Elder Smith's book, a book I would encourage all to read. Elder Petersen said: Some of us [members of the Council of the Twelve] urged [Elder Joseph Fielding Smith] to write a book on the creation of the world and the origin of man.... The present volume is the result. It is a most remarkable presentation of material from both sources [science and religion] under discussion. It will fill a great need in the Church and will be particularly invaluable to students who have become confused by the misapplication of information derived from scientific experimentation. When one understands that the author to whom I alluded is an exponent of the theory of organic evolution, his motive in disparaging President Joseph Fielding Smith becomes apparent. To hold to a private opinion on such matters is one thing, but when one undertakes to publish his views to discredit the work of a prophet, it is a very serious matter. It is also apparent to all who have the Spirit of God in them that Joseph Fielding Smith's writings will stand the test of time.
Ezra Taft Benson
For all we know, the larger part of the motive for trying to expand science is not self-serving; it is merely mistaken. The idealistic element in it is its desire to achieve in the understanding of man what science has achieved in the understanding of matter. Its mistake is in not seeing that the tools for the one are of strictly limited utility for the other, and that the practice of trying to see man as an object which the tools of science will fit leads first to underrating and then to losing sight of his attributes those tools miss. (The mere titles of B.F. Skinner's “Beyond Freedom and Dignity” and Herbert Marcuse's “One-Dimensional Man” will, in opposite ways, suffice.) If it be asked, “But what did the nonscientific approach to man and the world give us?” The answer is: “Meaning, purpose, and a vision in which everything coheres
Huston Smith (Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World's Religions)
This emphasis on the difference between intentions and ultimate results constituted an implicit critique of the Christian and civic republican traditions, and continues to make moralists queasy. Both traditions had stressed the importance of good and benevolent intentions. By unlinking consequences from intentions, Smith called into question the necessity and possibility of elevating the economic behavior of individuals through preaching and propaganda. Yet just as he transmuted the Christian virtue of charity into the secular virtue of benevolence, on another level Smith preserved the classic republican concern for the common good. Those who could be motivated to devote themselves to promoting the public interest were in need of "superior reason and understanding, by which we are capable of discerning the remote consequences of all our actions, and of foreseeing the advantage or detriment which is likely to result from them.
Jerry Z. Muller (The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought)
In the light of the evidence it is hard to believe that most crusaders were motivated by crude materialism. Given their knowledge and expectations and the economic climate in which they lived, the disposal of assets to invest in the fairly remote possibility of settlement in the East would have been a stupid gamble. It makes much more sense to suppose, in so far as one can generalize about them, that they were moved by an idealism which must have inspired not only them but their families. Parents, brothers and sisters, wives and children had to face a long absence and must have worried about them: in 1098 Countess Ida of Boulogne made an endowment to the abbey of St Bertin 'for the safety of her sons, Godfrey and Baldwin, who have gone to Jerusalem'.83 And they and more distant relatives — cousins, uncles and nephews - were prepared to endow them out of the patrimonial lands. I have already stressed that no one can treat the phenomenal growth of monasticism in this period without taking into account not only those who entered the communities to be professed, but also the lay men and women who were prepared to endow new religious houses with lands and rents. The same is true of the crusading movement. Behind many crusaders stood a large body of men and women who were prepared to sacrifice interest to help them go. It is hard to avoid concluding that they were fired by the opportunity presented to a relative not only of making a penitential pilgrimage to Jerusalem but also of fighting in a holy cause. For almost a century great lords, castellans and knights had been subjected to abuse by the Church. Wilting under the torrent of invective and responding to the attempts of churchmen to reform their way of life in terms they could understand, they had become perceptibly more pious. Now they were presented by a pope who knew them intimately with the chance of performing a meritorious act which exactly fitted their upbringing and devotional needs and they seized it eagerly. But they responded, of course, in their own way. They were not theologians and were bound to react in ways consonant with their own ideas of right and wrong, ideas that did not always respond to those of senior churchmen. The emphasis that Urban had put on charity - love of Christian brothers under the heel of Islam, love of Christ whose land was subject to the Muslim yoke - could not but arouse in their minds analogies with their own kin and their own lords' patrimonies, and remind them of their obligations to avenge injuries to their relatives and lords. And that put the crusade on the level of a vendetta. Their leaders, writing to Urban in September 1098, informed him that 'The Turks, who inflicted much dishonour on Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been taken and killed and we Jerusalemites have avenged the injury to the supreme God Jesus Christ.
Jonathan Riley-Smith (The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading)
gave up on the idea of creating “socialist men and women” who would work without monetary incentives. In a famous speech he criticized “equality mongering,” and thereafter not only did different jobs get paid different wages but also a bonus system was introduced. It is instructive to understand how this worked. Typically a firm under central planning had to meet an output target set under the plan, though such plans were often renegotiated and changed. From the 1930s, workers were paid bonuses if the output levels were attained. These could be quite high—for instance, as much as 37 percent of the wage for management or senior engineers. But paying such bonuses created all sorts of disincentives to technological change. For one thing, innovation, which took resources away from current production, risked the output targets not being met and the bonuses not being paid. For another, output targets were usually based on previous production levels. This created a huge incentive never to expand output, since this only meant having to produce more in the future, since future targets would be “ratcheted up.” Underachievement was always the best way to meet targets and get the bonus. The fact that bonuses were paid monthly also kept everyone focused on the present, while innovation is about making sacrifices today in order to have more tomorrow. Even when bonuses and incentives were effective in changing behavior, they often created other problems. Central planning was just not good at replacing what the great eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith called the “invisible hand” of the market. When the plan was formulated in tons of steel sheet, the sheet was made too heavy. When it was formulated in terms of area of steel sheet, the sheet was made too thin. When the plan for chandeliers was made in tons, they were so heavy, they could hardly hang from ceilings. By the 1940s, the leaders of the Soviet Union, even if not their admirers in the West, were well aware of these perverse incentives. The Soviet leaders acted as if they were due to technical problems, which could be fixed. For example, they moved away from paying bonuses based on output targets to allowing firms to set aside portions of profits to pay bonuses. But a “profit motive” was no more encouraging to innovation than one based on output targets. The system of prices used to calculate profits was almost completely unconnected to the value of new innovations or technology. Unlike in a market economy, prices in the Soviet Union were set by the government, and thus bore little relation to value. To more specifically create incentives for innovation, the Soviet Union introduced explicit innovation bonuses in 1946. As early as 1918, the principle had been recognized that an innovator should receive monetary rewards for his innovation, but the rewards set were small and unrelated to the value of the new technology. This changed only in 1956, when it was stipulated that the bonus should be proportional to the productivity of the innovation. However, since productivity was calculated in terms of economic benefits measured using the existing system of prices, this was again not much of an incentive to innovate. One could fill many pages with examples of the perverse incentives these schemes generated. For example, because the size of the innovation bonus fund was limited by the wage bill of a firm, this immediately reduced the incentive to produce or adopt any innovation that might have economized on labor.
Daron Acemoğlu (Why Nations Fail: FROM THE WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty)
No matter what you’re going through, no matter the challenges that seem insurmountable whether personal or professional, you can get through it if you don’t give up.
Miles Anthony Smith
Where did this infamous character come from? His most intimate early portrait was created by Adam Smith in two major works, his 1759 Theory of Moral Sentiments and his 1776 book known as The Wealth of Nations. Today Smith is best remembered for having noted the human propensity to ‘truck, barter and exchange’ and the role of self-interest in making markets work.2 But although he believed self-interest was ‘of all virtues that which is most helpful to the individual’, Smith also believed it was far from the most admirable of our traits, knocked off that top spot by our ‘humanity, justice, generosity and public spirit . . . the qualities most useful to others’. Did he consider humankind to be motivated by self-interest alone? Not at all. ‘How selfish soever man may be supposed,’ he wrote, ‘there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.’3 Furthermore, Smith believed that an individual’s self-interest and concern for others combined with their diverse talents, motivations and preferences to produce a complex moral character whose behaviour could not easily be predicted.
Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist)
Adam Smith had a sharper eye. As I quoted last time, he understood that the “masters of mankind,” the merchants and manufacturers, would make sure that their own interests are cared for no matter how grievous the effect on others and would follow their vile maxim: all for ourselves, nothing for anyone else. Madison didn’t see things this way at the time of the Convention, though it didn’t take long for him to gain a more realistic understanding of the world. Already by 1792 he recognized that the Hamiltonian developmental capitalist state would be a social system “substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty,” leading to “a real domination of the few under an apparent liberty of the many.” In a letter to Jefferson he deplored “the daring depravity of the times [as the] stockjobbers will become the pretorian band of the government—at once its tools and its tyrant; bribed by its largesses, and overawing it by clamors and combinations.
Noam Chomsky (Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance)
Staying connected with your goal helps to keep triggering moments of increased motivation
Julie Smith (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?)
When someone is walking beside us, we have more courage to walk into the unknown and to risk the dark and messy places in our journey.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Inherent in this new type of distribution of wealth is trust that providing more freedom to humans ultimately drives positive innovation and growth.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
The rise of spiritual entrepreneurship will bring massive innovation to solving the world’s most pressing problems in unique ways.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Freedom is essential for any system to work, and love is the foundation for freedom.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Liminal space is the norm on the path of a spiritual entrepreneur because the nature of doing something tangible in the world, while maintaining a spiritual focus, requires constant transformation.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Despite the despair and suffering still on our planet, humanity is moving toward unity, justice, love, and peace.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Spiritual entrepreneurship is a collective community working together to expand love.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
The actions will help you to go after what you want to achieve. Remember, your focus is on efforts and not on outcomes!
Noah William Smith (2024… Your Year of More)
The next time you compete with someone, challenge yourself to connect with the individual. When two people compete with each other, it means they have goals in common.
Noah William Smith (How to Motivate Yourself in 15 Minutes)
The next time you want to increase your motivation level, consider your life overall and acknowledge how far you have come.
Noah William Smith (How to Motivate Yourself in 15 Minutes)
Always be grateful for your life. However, yearn to want even more to be thankful for.
Noah William Smith (How to Motivate Yourself in 15 Minutes)
Often the perspective we choose is the one we accept as reality. Fortunately, we can influence our view of reality as fast as we can click our fingers!
Noah William Smith (How to Motivate Yourself in 15 Minutes)
I also know the world can be a considerate place.
Noah William Smith (How to Motivate Yourself in 15 Minutes)
Small acts of kindness and love rippled out and had more of an impact than they ever could have imagined.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Thank you for believing that all humans have intrinsic value and that our job has society is to ensure that all are empowered and have enough.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Can we measure love? Or connection? Or beauty? Or the feeling of being alive?
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
How can I do my work from a place of love?
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
But there is value in telling a story from the perspective of the mundane, from the real perspective that many of us are in for most of our lives.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
They say when you put language to something, it creates meaning. Language creates the ability for someone to communicate and explore an idea more fully in a way that is not possible without language.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Enoughness isn’t necessarily about getting rich; it’s about the idea that God provides for our needs, and it is our responsibility to share with those who don’t have enough any abundance God has blessed us with.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Systems themselves are not bad or evil; in fact, God seems to love systems and works within organized and integrated networks! ... It is people who create a system for both good and evil purposes or take an inherently good system and change the rules to benefit only a few.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
External failure has no real correlation to spiritual failure. For a spiritual entrepreneur, external failure is often essential for spiritual success.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
It’s helpful to keep in mind that your road is unique, and simply being on it is enough. If you follow God’s light and allow him to carry you when you are too exhausted to go on, you will not get lost, even though you will certainly feel that way many times.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)
Understanding who we are, how God created us, how we grow, and how we give those gifts back to others is core work of the spiritual entrepreneur.
Sheri A. Smith (Spiritual Entrepreneurship: Raw Reflections of a Female CEO)