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Diligence/Perseverance/Determination/Dedication 
 
"Working hard without giving up. Consistent attention to quality work; remaining focused on your goal. Sense of commitment and duty. The inner strength to pursue a goal or task."

(See also Resilience, Motivation)

Click-Throughs to "Perseverance," "Diligence," etc. Categories 

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Defining Perseverance

Motivation to Persevere

Games, Activities and Clips

How to Persevere

Get Started!
Expect Difficulties
Don't Let Disabilities Get You Down
Be Willing to Do Things Over and Over to Get Them Right
Be a Plodder
Practice and Prepare With Discipline
Outlast the Others 
Have Goals Worth Enduring For
Take Calculated Risks
Do First Things First
Hang Around The Right People
Enjoy Your Work
Concentrate on What You're Good At...
...But Broaden Yourself Too
Make Good Use of Your Time
You're Never Too Old to Succeed
Strive Forward With Integrity 
Be Enthusiastic - Catch Fire For Something
Hold Your Ground Against the Opposition
Don't Be Discouraged Because of Lack of Training
Don't Be Discouraged Because of Failure
Don't Let Criticism Discourage You
Welcome and Learn From Criticism
Overcome Difficulties
Work When You Feel Well; Work When You Don't
Endure or Get Rid of the Small Things That Hold You Back
Go the Extra Mile
Strive For Excellence, Quality
Never Stop Improving
Never Give Up
Work Hard
Balance Work With Rest and Fun
Balance Work With Relationships

Resources on Perseverance

Intercom Insights

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Will Smith: A "Ridiculous, Sickening Work Ethic"

Want a great video for your students to motivate them to work hard at developing their skills? Show them this collection of clips by actor/rapper/film producer Will Smith. I've transcribed some of it below the link with an introduction you could use for the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70

(If it's moved, go to www.youtube.com and search "Will Smith's Wisdom")

Introduction

Will Smith - successful rapper, actor and film producer - has achieved such a level of success that Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor on the planet." He has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards. You may have seen him starring in Men in Black, I, Robot, Hancock, Hitch, Bad Boys, Pursuit of Happiness, The Wild Wild West and other hit films.

So is he just one of these naturally talented guys who can rehearse a couple of times and whip out a great performance? Not according to Smith. Listen to what he has to say about developing his skills.

Quotes from Will Smith

“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. While the other guys’ eating, I’m working.

There’s no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled. If you don’t study, if you don’t work really hard and dedicate yourself to being better every single day, you’ll never be able to communicate with people - with your artistry - the way that you want….

The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is: I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me; you might be smarter than me. But if we get on a treadmill together, there’s two things: you’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die.

It’s really that simple."

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The Meaning of "WD-40"

Everyone seems to love WD-40, the spray lubricant. Besides silencing squeaky wheels and loosening rusty bicycle chains, fans have discovered over 2000 uses...so far! What a great invention! By 1993, people were snatching up a million cans a week. Four out of every 5 households had at least one can.  

But did you ever wonder what the name "WD-40" stands for? It's a great example of persistence. 

Back In 1953, a chemist named Norm Larson was trying to invent something to prevent corrosion, like rust. He knew that corrosion was a problem in the aerospace industry and thought they'd buy his product if he could invent it.  Water causes corrosion, so in order to prevent it, you've got to displace water. Got any ideas for what "WD" stands for? (Give them a few seconds.) That's right, "Water Displacement." Now for the "40". He didn't get it right on his first or second attempt. He also failed the third and fourth times. He blew it again his fifth and sixth tries. In fact, how many times do you think it took him before he got it right? Right again - 40 tries. WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try." 

His buddies at the office started thinking of other uses for WD-40 besides the aerospace industry and began sneaking cans out of the office to use at home. Today, Norm's glad he didn't give up after his 39th failure.  In 2004 the WD-40 company sold over $242 million worth of products in over 160 countries. 

Do you ever get discouraged when your teacher hands you back a paper to do over again? What if she hands it back a second time? Would you be ready to give up? Next time you get discouraged because of failing over and over again, think of the success of WD-40, and keep on trying. It often takes lots of failures to become a winner. Every time you see a can of WD-40, let it remind you to never give up. In my mind, WD-40 will always stand for "Withstood Defeat, 40 Times."

For Discussion

1) How many of you have WD-40 at your house?
2) What do you use it for?
3) Why was it important that the inventor, Norm Larson, had perseverance?
4) In what areas of life are we most tempted to give up? 
5) In what way can we be more persistent this week?

(Source: www.wd40.com . Written by Steve Miller for Legacy Educational Resources, copyright February, 2005, all rights reserved.)

Don't Let Poverty and Bad Breaks Define You
(Lennon and McCartney Endure)

Some kids seem to get all the breaks. Not only do they get the coolest and most expensive gifts for Christmas and birthdays, but they also get those little extras to give them the edge in life – like the best guitars, professional athletic equipment,  or expensive lessons from the pros. How can regular young people – those whose parents struggle just to put food on the table – compete with that?

Well, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the chief songwriters and vocalists for one of the top-selling bands of all time, The Beatles, refused to allow humble beginnings to get in their way.

John Lennon's Humble Beginnings

Let's take John first. Do you know what it's like to grow up without a dad? John's dad left his mom the year after they married. And he didn't just move next door – he sailed from England to America, putting an ocean between them! Soon his mom started a new life with a new man, but she didn’t bring her son into the new family. John was raised by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, although he had a great relationship with his mom and visited with her regularly (p. 18). But George died suddenly of a hemorrhage when John was 12, leaving him once again fatherless. (p. 23) Later, his real mom would be taken from him suddenly when she was hit by a car. (p. 56)

By age 13 John majored in troublemaking – ever in detention or the principle’s office. (p. 24.) But at age 15 he fell in love with the new rock and roll music he heard at night on alternative radio, with a very weak signal from the continent that kept fading in and out. Soon, he was pestering Aunt Mimi to buy him a guitar. When she finally gave in, he became almost attached to the instrument, strumming it endlessly. (pp. 34-36)

Not being able to afford lessons, his mom would teach him banjo chords, which he could play with the first four strings, leaving the final two strings untuned. He put together a band and they would practice standing in the bath because of the superior acoustics.

His poverty posed another problem - the only way to learn the words to the songs they wanted to play was to buy a record, but none of them could afford to buy records. No matter. John made up his own words to go with the tunes. 

Paul McCartney's Humble Beginnings

Now let's look at Paul’s hardships. His parents worked jobs that didn't pay well, so that they could only make ends meet with both parents working. But when Paul was 14, his mom died of breast cancer, devastating both he and his dad. When Paul heard that his mom had died, he asked, "What are we going to do without her money?" (pp. 25-30)

Money Troubles for Their Band

In their mid teens, John and Paul began playing in a band together, called The Quarrymen, playing anywhere people would listen. But their lack of money continued to pose problems, such as:

• When they went to electric guitars, they had no money to buy amps. If the organizers couldn't provide one, they'd have to settle for a crappy sound by hooking up through the microphone system.(p. 59)
• If they played a church event, the church would have to pay for broken strings.
• They lost an opportunity to be "discovered" when they entered a talent competition. After passing the local heats in Liverpool, they were invited to the semifinals at the Hippodrome in Manchester. It was their big chance to get on TV and let the world view their talents! But their poverty robbed them of the opportunity. They had enough money for the bus trip to Manchester, but had to leave before the evening finals, because the only bus home left before the finals. They had no money to book an overnight stay. (p. 59)

The Power of Perseverance

Many would have gotten discouraged and quit, assuming that only those with money could make it in the music business. But John and Paul kept right on playing and singing. It would take them five more years before they were able to cut an album and start to get some serious recognition. (p. 167) But perhaps, in the end, it was best to take the long, harder road to success. During those years of obscurity, they lost some band members but added George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Time on the road allowed them to sharpen their skills at writing, playing their instruments and performing, so that when they became famous, they were ready to take the world by storm. 

Do money problems and family problems get you down? Do you feel everybody else gets the breaks, whether it be in academics, sports, music, or wherever you're trying to excel? The next time you feel discouraged, maybe you'll hear a Beatles song and remember that over 40 years ago, a couple of guys decided not to let family set-backs and lack of money define them. Instead, they co-wrote and published an astounding 180 songs, many of which are riding a new wave of popularity today.  

1. What disadvantages did John and Paul grow up with? (poverty, loss of family members, lack of formal musical training, not being able to buy the records to get the words right, etc.)
2. Do you think their heartaches and struggles contributed to their ability to write heart-felt lyrics that so many people identify with?
3. What do you think kept them moving forward when others might have given up?
4. In what area of life do you need to keep pressing on, despite your hardships?

[Copyright December, 2009, J. Steve Miller and Legacy Educational Resources ( www.character-education.info ). Feel free to post with this attribution. Not for resale. Sources: Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation, by Philip Norman (New York: MJF Books, 1981); Wikipedia, The Beatles.]

Work Can Be Fun – Even Hard Work

• "I want to play another 10 years."

• “ I want to play until I'm 41. And if I get to that point and still feel good, I'll keep playing. I mean, what …else am I going to do? I don't like anything else.”

• “Why would I ever want to do anything else?”
  

My point? Work isn’t so bad, as long as you can find fulfilling work that matches your strengths and interests. Believe it or not, lots of accountants, professors, builders and small business owners love their jobs so much that, even when they’ve made plenty of money, they choose not to retire.

So as you take part time jobs, reflect on what you like about them and what you hate about them. Get to know yourself. Most people don’t . The more accurately you can pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, your loves and your hates, the better you’ll be at finding work that you love; work that you love so much that you’d never trade it for leisure years at the beach.

(Quotes from Sports Illustrated, June 1, 2009, The Season Can’t Come Soon Enough for a Healthy Tom Brady, interview with Tom Brady by Peter King)

Discussion Questions

1) What are some of the difficulties Tom Brady faces in his work?
2) If you had Brady’s job and Brady’s money, would you get out now, or keep playing?
3) Why do you think he keeps playing?
4) Do you think that, given the same talent as Brady, that everyone would love his job?
5) Do you think other people can be just as passionate at their jobs, even when their work is difficult?
6) How can we find jobs that we love?

"Digital Dan" Overcomes Handicap

Dan Lawrence is one of those outspoken, opinionated radio personalities that America loves. And his show is the most popular on his station. ''His feisty personality and seemingly endless personal collection of vintage rock discs have made him a celebrity in this coastal town 250 miles north of San Francisco.'' But what separates him from all other disc jockeys is that he can't speak. 

You heard me right. While in Vietnam, he served near the Cambodian border as an engineer on a helicopter, often transporting ''Agent Orange'' and sometimes walking through sprayed areas. As a result, he later developed cancer, and doctors had to remove his voice box and vocal cords. But he found that he could use new technology to type his discussions, comments on songs, and answers to questions, then transmit them through a synthesizer to give him a digital voice. 

His show is called DMZ, standing for ''The Digital Music Zone.'' As he comes on the air, you hear the sound of helicopter rotors and then a voice: ''This is Digital Dan, the DJ with a chip.'' Although the initial discovery of cancer was a total shock to Dan, he determined not to be defeated, and those who talk to him marvel at his lack of bitterness. 

Digital Dan made it as a disk jockey without a voice. We all have our own shortcomings that we either have to work through or work around. What are your shortcomings? This week, let's realize that our handicaps and weaknesses can't doom us to defeat, unless we allow them. Next time we get down because of our shortcomings, let's think of Digital Dan and keep pressing forward. (Written by Steve Miller, © Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. Source: Atlanta Journal Parade Magazine, by Michael Ryan, pp. 18,19, May 11, 1997)

Discussion Questions

1) How did Dan lose his voice?
2) How does he still "speak" as a D.J.?
3) How do you think he kept from giving up and becoming bitter? 
4) What can we learn from "Digital Dan"?
5) What are some areas of your life that you consider weaknesses?
6) How do you think "Digital Dan" might have worked around those weaknesses?

Tom Cruise Overcomes Difficulties

Tom Cruise is a wildly successful actor. He has starred in blockbuster after blockbuster, is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, has been recognized for his achievements in acting by a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination, and has the physical agility (and guts) to perform 95% of the stunts in the movie Mission Impossible 2.  It's easy to look at Cruise and assume that he probably always had everything going for him. Think again. His life is actually the story of a survivor who learned to turn his shortcomings into assets.

His dad was consumed with his work and finally abandoned the family when Tom was 12. Tom couldn't afford some of the things other kids had because his dad refused to pay child support for his four children. He and his sisters had to work to contribute to the family income. They sometimes survived on food stamps. His social life was disrupted regularly by moves that forced him to change schools an average of once a year (8 elementary and three high schools). Lots of kids made fun of him. He was always the new geek, never the cool guy that girls flocked to. 

To make matters worse, he felt stupid and embarrassed because he was put in the remedial class for slow learners. He was later found to have a learning disorder called Dyslexia, which makes it incredibly difficult to learn skills like reading. Not knowing what was wrong, he just thought he was dumb and would often come home crying. He couldn't even distinguish his right hand from his left.

Concluding that academics weren't his forte, he plunged into athletics. He played football but was too small to excel. Wrestling, however, is divided into weight classes, giving him the opportunity to compete. But when running some stairs he slipped on his sister's papers and tore a tendon on his leg. 

So much for athletics. Unable to wrestle on the team, he tried out for a part in their high school play. He landed a starring role and fell in love with acting. A theater agent just happened to be in the audience the night of the performance and encouraged him to go into acting. The rest is history.

Cruise could have turned inward and bitter about his circumstances. But instead, he learned from them. He draws from the heartache he experienced as a child to express emotion when he acts. He learned to work harder than others by having to learn with a disability. He says that his school difficulties were a character course that made him a better person. As a result, he goes the extra mile for his producers and has the relational skills that make people love to work with him. 

All of us face difficulties at home, at school and with ourselves. Tom chose to keep trying until he found some area in which he could excel. Tom refused to let his disability limit his life. This week, let's learn from his tenacity and not give up so easily. Keep trying out new activities. You never know when you might find that area in which you shine. (Written by Steve Miller, © Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. Sources: 1 – ''Cruise Control'' (excerpt from 'Cruise') ( Cosmopolitan ) Frank Sanello; 12-01-1995; 2 – ''Man With a Mission,'' ( The Calgary Sun ) Lisa Wilton, Calgary Sun, 05-21-2000; 3 - ''Conversations With Cruise,'' Vanity Fair, June, 2000; Tom Cruise, by Phelan Powell, Chelsea House Publishers, 1999).

Discussion Questions

1) What did Tom Cruise have going against as he was growing up?
2) What are some different avenues he tried to excel in?
3) How do you think his dyslexia might make it difficult for him in acting?
4) How can we be more like Tom Cruise in overcoming our disadvantages?

"The Matrix: Rewritten"

Do you ever resent it when your teacher asks you to do a paper over in order to make it make it better?  What if she asked you to revise it a second time, or a third? Don't get discouraged! 

After the Wachowski Brothers originally wrote the story for the matrix, the script was rewritten, and rewritten to get it right. How many times do you think it was rewritten? The answer? Fourteen times. That's actually not so odd for people who have a passion to get things right. (Directors' cut - Inside The Matrix with the mysterious Brothers Wachowski - Matrix's mystery brothers; MICHAEL MCKENNA, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) 05-15-2003)

Ernest Hemingway was a great author, but that doesn't mean that the words just flowed effortlessly from his typewriter. He rewrote the conclusion to his novel, Farewell to Arms, seventeen times to finally get it the way he wanted it. (Reworded from R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man)

Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist, but that doesn't mean he could sit down and effortlessly draw whatever he wanted on the first try. Once, he drew a thousand hands.  (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man)

So this week let's not get discouraged when sometimes we have to do things over and over and over to get them right. It may be a football play or basketball drill that seems to go on forever. It might be a project that never seems to satisfy your teacher. But that's how we learn. And it's that relentless striving for perfection that helps us find success. 

Discussion Questions

1) Why do you think da Vinci drew a thousand hands?
2) How many of you thought "The Matrix" was a cool Movie?
3) Why do you think they rewrote the script so many times?
4) Why do we get discouraged when we have to do some things over and over?
5) What is some area that you can pursue this week, being willing to redo it over and over, until you get it right?

Rock Star Prepares to Succeed

You might think that most rock stars live totally undisciplined, party lifestyles. But Mick Jagger of the Stones, one of the most successful, longest lasting rock groups ever, paints a different picture. His grueling onstage antics, which equal a 5 to 10 mile run, require him to start working out two months prior to the tour. ''I still run about 7 miles a day when I'm working, lift weights, play team games, do exercises, and lay off the goodies. We behave – we have to at our age.'' 

Maybe that's a part of why Jagger has outlasted a lot of performers who burnt out in their early years. He's not just got the will to succeed, he's got the will to prepare.

As famous scientist Louis Pasteur said, "The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare." (© Copyright 2002 by Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

This week, let's realize that we lay the foundation for our future success with the sometimes boring preparation that we put in today. When we start losing motivation today, let's think of that aging rocker putting in his seven miles of running every day. If he can do it, we can do it. 

Discussion Questions

1) Do you think the Rolling Stones could have been successful without Jagger's commitment to prepare?
2) What are some areas you'd like to succeed in?
3) How important is preparation to success in these areas?
4) What are some ways you could prepare to succeed this week?

People Are Happiest When They Work
Work Ethic

Most of us secretly hope that we can somehow win or inherit $1,000,000.00 so that we can spend the rest of our lives playing instead of working. But a life without work might not be that great. Listen to Benjamin Franklin's observations of his fellow work-men while they were building forts in early America:

''…When men are employed they are best contented. For on the days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful; and with the consciousness of having done a good day's work they spent the evenings jollily; but on the idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humor….'' (Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin,  p. 165)

Apparently, work doesn't just give us enough money to live. Work is a part of really living. Today, let's start rethinking our concept of work. Many people seem to think that life starts after the bell rings, or after the clock reads 5:00 PM. But other people look at their work as a fulfilling part of their lives - a place where they enjoy their workmates and get fulfillment from their accomplishments.  As the great inventor Thomas Edison said,

''I never did a day's work in my life – it was all fun.'' 

Discussion Questions

1) What did Benjamin Franklin observe about the fortress builders?
2) What do you think Thomas Edison meant when he said, "I never did a day's work in my life - it was all fun."
3) Edison's work was difficult - researching scientific journals, performing experiment after experiment, keeping accurate records, etc. Why do you think he enjoyed it so much?
4) Do you think the joy of work is found in the type of work, or the mindset of the worker?
5) How can we begin to enjoy school and work more this week?

Bill Rogers Makes His Mark
Endurance

Bill Rogers has a lot that he could be bitter about. First, he has Multiple Sclerosis, a disease which drained his strength and left him unable even to write. Twenty years ago his company fired him, just six months before he would have been eligible for full retirement. For five years, he tried to get a job, but no one would hire him. At this point, most of us would have subscribed to the TV Guide and made our living room suitable for vegging out the rest of our lives. 

But Bill isn't that kind of guy. You see, one day someone at church asked for volunteers to work in a small food pantry. Bill took it on, saying he'd sweep the floors if necessary. And he has stuck with it, full time, for the past 14 years. In fact, that small food pantry, under his leadership, gave food to 2,797 families in the most recent year (c. 1996). And why stop at helping a few thousand people? Now he's caught a vision, soon to become reality, of building a $16,000,000 dehydration plant that could take crops that would otherwise be plowed under in a soft market (or blemished by hail, etc.), dehydrate them, and distribute them to the world's hungry. 

An industrial park, that sits close to where 60 percent of Georgia's vegetables are grown, (and about 1/3 of them have had to be dumped or plowed back into the ground) has donated the land. Many workers in the area are expected to lose their jobs in the next couple of years, providing plenty of work for the plant. Construction should start within the year, and could feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people. Bill Rogers may have been a useless cast off in many people's eyes, but instead he seems poised to make an incredible mark on the world.  

Are you sitting around bitter at how others have treated you? Do you feel beneath others because of your perceived handicaps? Next time I'm tempted to feel sorry for myself or give up, I hope that I think of Bill Rogers.  (Source: Atlanta Journal, written by Steve Miller,  © Copyright 2002 - All Rights Reserved)

Discussion Questions

1. How do you think Bill felt when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and lost his job?
2. Do you ever feel like life's dealt you a bad deck of cards? 
3. What are some of the bad blows that students experience?
4. Nobody would have blamed Bill had he chosen to sit in his room and watch TV for the rest of his life. Instead of letting the world get him down, he decided to change the world. How do you think that his choice helped not only the world, but himself?

Action Point: Rather than reflect on our own difficult circumstances, let's think of Bill Rogers and see how we can make a positive difference in the lives of others. 

At age 7, you could find Bonnie Gadusek working out on a balance beam her father had made and set up in her basement. She practiced five hours a day, every day. But at age 12, she climbed onto the uneven bars and missed the high bar, falling 8 feet onto her neck, dashing her Olympic hopes. She stayed in traction for two weeks, with so much pressure on her jaw that she ultimately lost most of her back teeth. Knowing that a second fall could be fatal, she gave up her beloved gymnastics. 

Many of us would have sunk into a bitter depression. But not Bonnie. Instead, she took up tennis. Wearing a brace during her first tournament, she couldn't serve over her head or pick up balls. But nevertheless, she managed to reach the finals, losing to the top seed. She went on to become the #11 ranked (14 year old and under category) tennis player in the Middle States. Her parents couldn't afford lessons, so she wrote coaches letters, asking them to take her on for free. Her persistence paid off and she got her coach. Her coach once observed, ''when other youngsters would be eating lunch, she'd be out serving shopping baskets full of balls.''

But then, another setback. She developed tendonitis and a bone chip in her right elbow. She had to wear a cast for 8 weeks, but continued to play – left-handed. During this time of recovery, she ran cross-country for her high school. She still holds the school's 2-mile record for girls. She decided that if her arm didn't heal, she would take up golf. Although she has sustained other injuries, she now plays with a knee brace and is one of the top-ranked players in women's tennis. 

When I see such dedication, such tenacity, I'm ashamed that I often get discouraged by my own setbacks. The next time life knocks me down, I hope I remember Bonnie Gadusek. Then I'll brush myself off, get back on my feet and keep walking. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

Discussion Questions

1. In what ways are you like Bonnie? In what ways are you different? 
2. Do you know some people who have Bonnie's ability to bounce back from defeat? What have they recovered from?
3. In what areas besides sports can we apply Bonnie's tenacity?
3. What keeps us from bouncing back from our own defeats and discouragements?
4. What can we do to develop the positive qualities we see in Bonnie's life?

Action Point: This week let's look at life's hurdles not as defeats, but as opportunities to try again in a different way. 

Rock Star Prepares to Succeed

You might think that most rock stars live totally undisciplined, party lifestyles. But Mick Jagger of the Stones, one of the most successful, longest lasting rock groups ever, paints a different picture. His grueling onstage antics, which equal a 5 to 10 mile run, require him to start working out two months prior to the tour. ''I still run about 7 miles a day when I'm working, lift weights, play team games, do exercises, and lay off the goodies. We behave – we have to at our age.'' 

Maybe that's a part of why Jagger has outlasted a lot of performers who burnt out in their early years. He's not just got the will to succeed, he's got the will to prepare.

As famous scientist Louis Pasteur said, "The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare." (© Copyright 2002 by Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

This week, let's realize that we lay the foundation for our future success with the sometimes boring preparation that we put in today. When we start losing motivation today, let's think of that aging rocker putting in his seven miles of running every day. If he can do it, we can do it. 

Discussion Questions

1) Do you think the Rolling Stones could have been successful without Jagger's commitment to prepare?
2) What are some areas you'd like to succeed in?
3) How important is preparation to success in these areas?
4) What are some ways you could prepare to succeed this week?

George Turns His Trials into Gold

During high school, a lot of people considered George a loser who was headed nowhere. He never applied himself in school and dreamed only about racing cars. But his dreams all ended just a few days before his graduation. While driving home from the library in his Fiat, he prepared for a left turn by glancing in his rearview mirror. But as he started the turn, he heard the sound of another car, a blowing horn, and the impact of a speeding Chevy crunching into the driver side of his car. It should have killed him. The little Fiat turned four or five complete flips before it wrapped around a solid oak tree. The impact was so great that it actually moved the entire tree a couple of feet over.

But miraculously, George survived. Get this: during the Fiat's third flip, his regulation racing seat belt snapped, throwing him out of the open top and onto the ground. He was close to death, but recovered slowly through two weeks in the hospital and months of physical therapy. His Fiat didn't survive, ending up in the junkyard.

He knew his dream of racing had come to an end. Some people would have gotten discouraged after life dealt them a bad hand of cards. Instead, George decided there must be some reason that he was left on earth, so he set his mind to get his act together and make something out of his life. He left his racing dreams behind and decided to go to college. There, he developed an interest in literature and writing. And instead of driving racecars, he began filming them. I'm glad George learned to deal positively with adversity. You see, without giving up his old life, George Lucas would have never found his niche in the film industry, and no one would have ever seen "Star Wars." (Facts from Skywalking: The Life And Times Of George Lucas, by Dale Pollock, Harmony Books, 1983, pp. xiii-39. Wording by Steve Miller © Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved.)

Action Point: For some of us this morning, our minds are consumed with a dream that's been  dashed. Perhaps a great relationship has just died. Perhaps you didn't make the team. Perhaps you're doing poorly in a subject you really want to excel in. Today, let's remember George Lucas, who knows the feeling of having his dreams dashed, but hung in there so that later he could know the feeling of success. 

Discussion Questions

1. How did George's wreck ultimately help him in the long run?
2. Without the wreck, do you think he would have ever become a great producer? Why or why not?
3. Sometimes,  when great people experience major setbacks, they keep their same dreams but go at them a different way. Other times, when encountering major setbacks, they reevaluate their dreams and pursue a different one. How can a person know when they should hold on to a dream and when they should trade in their old dream for a new one?
4. How can George Lucas' story help us in dealing with our setbacks in life?

(Hint: You could make these Lucas stories into a series, doing them consecutively over the intercom or school-wide TV.)

Lucas Learns From Criticism

Last week we introduced George Lucas, the producer of Star Wars and the Indiana Jones trilogy. Some think that when people find their niche, that their skills will come easily to them and everyone will recognize their genius. Yet, writing scripts didn't come easily for Lucas. While in college, he'd spend four early morning hours, from 5:00 AM till 9:00 AM, writing his first feature script. When he'd given it all he had, he dejectedly looked at the finished product and decided it was terrible. He showed it to filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who agreed. "It is (terrible)," said Coppola, "You're absolutely right."

Many people would have been so discouraged and humiliated that they would have changed majors. George thought of hiring a writer, but Coppola disagreed. He said, "…if you're going to make it in this business you have to learn how to write."

I'm glad he stuck with it. I'm glad he learned how to write. If he hadn't, none of us would have ever seen Star Wars. George Lucas might have never made it as a producer had he not been able to take criticism, learn from it and move on. (Atlantic Magazine, March, 1979, pp. 47-50)

Action Point: Today we'll probably get some criticism that's unwarranted. We may get some that's positive. Like George Lucas, let's commit ourselves to learn from the good criticism and become better people. 

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think it's so hard for us to take criticism?
2. Some criticism is helpful and some is destructive. How can we tell the difference between the two?
3. Why do many people refuse to learn from positive criticism?
4. What are the ways we benefit from positive criticism?

Lucas Endures Failure

In the last session, we learned how George Lucas bounced back from criticism. You see, many of us think that when a person has as much creative potential as George Lucas, his genius will be immediately recognized in his field and he'll quickly jump from success to success. But that's often not the case. Often, the road to success is paved with failures. 

Lucas worked on his first sci-fi film for three years at his own expense. After all that time, effort and creative energy, Warner Brothers rejected it, leaving Lucas with no film and deeply in debt.

But he didn't give up. He temporarily set aside his science fiction ideas and decided to produce a rock 'n' roll film set in the late 50's and early 60's. After being rejected by every company in town, many people would have given up. But he finally found one person who believed in the film, Ned Tannen of Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, some at Universal didn't like the idea at all, but Ned pushed it anyway over much opposition from angry executives. The film, American Graffiti, became a smash hit.

Action Point: This week, when the things we try to accomplish keep getting rejected, let's think of all George Lucas' rejections and keep plugging away. 

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think Warner Brothers would have rejected Lucas' first film? 
2. In this case, most all of the top decision-makers in Hollywood were dead wrong when they rejected this film. How can we know when to hang on to our dream and when to trust the wisdom of the biggies in our field? 
3. Give some examples of how we could use Lucas' endurance in fields other than filmmaking, like academics or sports or auto mechanics.

Jim Otto Endures for the Raiders

Jim Otto, who wore the number ''OO'' for the Raiders pro football team, was arguably the greatest center to ever play the game. According to player/coach/commentator John Madden, ''If someone came from another planet and wanted to know what a football player looked like, you'd show him a poster of Jim Otto.'' That's how well respected his is in the world of pro football.

For those who don't know football, the offensive center mans the middle of the bone-crunching action, on one play protecting the quarterback from 300 pound defensive linemen and on the next play drilling through them to pave the way for a run. His dedication, intelligence and leadership helped transform the Raiders into one of the most successful football franchises ever. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But what amazes me about Jim Otto is not so much his talent, but his willingness to play hurt. You see, the center gets hit every play, and Otto took quite a beating. His freshman year in college, he had surgery on both knees, but rebuilt his knees and played both offense and defense the next year.

In his 15 years with the Raiders, he broke his nose 10 times and endured 9 knee surgeries. He played with a hip pointer injury, broken fingers, broken ribs, a broken jaw, neck stingers (stretched or pinched nerves), numerous concussions, kicked-in teeth, one eye swollen shut and even double pneumonia in Super Bowl II. With all those injuries, how many games did he miss? None. That's right. He never missed a game, playing 210 consecutive games.

In 1972, he tore five ligaments in his knee during a preseason game. He could have gone on injured reserve. Instead, he played so well that he made the pro bowl!

Why did he keep playing even while he was hurt? In my opinion, it's because Jim Otto loves football. Although he's had a total of 37 football related surgeries; even though in his retirement he lives with two artificial knees and two artificial shoulders, enduring continuous pain, he holds no bitterness toward the sport and says he'd do it all again. Why? Because Jim Otto loves football.

Written by Steve Miller, Copyright 2002. Sources: 1. (Newsday, Special Report: Life After Football (1-14-97, pp. A64) 2. index.htmlindex.html..\index.html..\index.html ; 3.http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/100/78.html ;
4. http://sports.insidebayarea.com/top50.asp?story=Leigh_Steinberg
5. http://sports.insidebayarea.com/top50.asp?story=Joe_Otto
6. Double-O was football's limping gladiator By Dave Newhouse
7. OTTO PLAYED IN PAIN THAT WON'T QUIT, By Bob Kravitz, The Coffin Corner, Volume X, 1988, From The Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 23, 1984
8. Booklist review

Action Point: I thought that I'd gone through a lot to pursue my dreams until I read about Jim Otto. Now I'm sort of embarrassed at how many small things I let get me down. This week let's remember that most of us have to endure many hurts on the way to fulfilling our dreams. When something gets me down, I'm gonna remember Jim Otto, pick myself up and get back on the playing field. 

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think Jim Otto went too far by losing his health in order to pursue a sport that he loved? Why or why not?
2. Whether or not we think he went overboard, what can we learn from Jim about pursuing a dream?
3. Jim's motivation to endure so much was that he loved football. What are some things that you love enough to endure for?
4. Jim endured physical pain. What are some other types of pains or hurts that many of us have to bear on our way to success? (Emotional hurt, failures, unkind words, discouragements)
5. How can Jim's dedication in spite of his pain motivate us in our endeavors? (For example, he played hurt. Even if we're hurt, we can keep pursuing our goals.)

Expect the Road to Success to be Difficult

Last week we looked at the life of Jim Otto, arguably the greatest center to ever play professional football. I'll review a little of his life. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But it wasn't an easy road. When he signed up with the Raiders, the newly formed football team lost 19 straight games. Nineteen straight failures...how humiliating! Besides these failures, he endured injury after injury during his years of play. He broke his nose 10 times and endured 9 knee surgeries. He played with a hip pointer injury, broken fingers, broken ribs, a broken jaw, neck stingers (stretched or pinched nerves), numerous concussions, kicked-in teeth, one eye swollen shut and even double pneumonia in Super Bowl II.

But he didn't quit. Nor did he give up because of the suffering. One thing that helped Jim Otto was that he knew football was a rough sport and that his body would be beaten. According to Otto, ''I proudly wore the scars of a gladiator - a raspberry on the cheek, a chipped tooth, and surgical stitches that crossed my mangled legs like railroad tracks. To me, these wounds represented trophies of the battle." Speaking of his painful retirement, he says, ''I don't blame anybody. Every time you put on a helmet, you know ...you were going to get hurt. We knew the score.'' 

Jim Otto knew that getting hurt was a part of playing football. Since he never expected it to be a vacation to the beach, he wasn't surprised or discouraged when he kept getting hurt. How much would it change our lives if we simply saw life as Jim Otto saw football. This week, as each morning we put on our helmet to start a new day, let's fact the fact that we'll get hurt and face defeats. The road to success is paved with difficulties. So don't get blown out of the water when life caves in. If we give up in the hard times, we may never experience the great times on the other side. 

Discussion Questions

1) Did Jim Otto expect pro football to be easy?
2) What do you think he meant when he said, "Every time you put on a helmet, you know ...you were going to get hurt. We knew the score.'' ?
3) Otto expected to get hurt. How do you think this helped him be a successful football player? 
4) What danger do those face who expect the road to success to be easy? 
5) How can expecting hard times help us to face this week's challenges?

King of Comics Shows Diligence

When the comic book industry came dangerously close to folding in the late 50's, it is said that artist and collaborator Jack Kirby returned to work with Lee and found him ''sobbing while movers took the furniture out of their offices.'' When their competitors (DC Comics) scored a big hit with their ''Justice League of America'' superheroes, headed by Superman, Lee's boss demanded new characters in response.

The characters he and Kirby invented ''revitalized the industry and revolutionized the form,'' allowing Marvel to dominate the industry. His writing is compelling. In his stories, the characters develop and you see them, not just as super-heroes, but as real people with real problems.  We identify with his characters as they struggle with the same issues in life that we do. Just think of Peter Parker, the high school science nerd who became Spiderman. He loved a girl who didn't love him. He was rejected by his classmates. He faced difficult moral choices. As Lee put it, ''Everybody has problems, and everybody has secret sorrows.'' Lee invented superheroes everyone could identify with.

Discussion Questions

1) How many of you have seen the movies Spiderman or The X-Men or have read some of Stan Lee's comics?
2) What do you think made his comics so successful?
3) What if he'd gotten so discouraged that he'd given up when things went bad?
4) Could he have been successful without a strong work ethic?
5) What can we learn from Stan Lee?
6) What can we do this week to hang in there during the hard times and exhibit a strong work ethic?

Dr. Phil Wasn't Always Successful

Dr. Phil, the straight-talking TV therapist, is about as successful as anyone can get. He's a media sensation, having exploded onto the airwaves with a weekly spot on the Oprah Winfrey Show, before launching his own blockbuster show. His books are best-sellers, his live seminars sold-out.

To look at him now, you'd think that he must have shown signs of his future success in middle school and high school, probably a brilliant student who moved from success to success to reach his current pinnacle. Actually, in Dr. Phil's case, his record before college was rather dismal. His path to success was lined with more shortcomings and failures than successes.

Economic Hardships: His family didn't have much money, so that he couldn't dress as nicely as others.

Family Issues: His alcoholic dad went from job to job, requiring the family to pull up roots and move every 3 to 4 years.

Poor Grades: Phil did poorly in school, majoring in sports rather than academics.

Personality Problems: Phil seemed more destined for a juvenile detention center than becoming a problem solver. He failed as a boy scout, lasting only 2 weeks before being booted out for throwing rocks at cars. (p. 12) His uncontrolled anger regularly got him into trouble (p. 17). He was suspended for three days from school for getting into a fight and then talking back to the administrator. If not for his involvement in sports, he probably would have dropped out entirely.

According to Dr. Phil, "In high school and college, my friends and I were pretty violent. It wouldn't be unusual to find us in a bar fight before the end of the night on a regular basis...." [p. 32 - from interview on Pinnacle, CNN (September 8, 2001)].

Seeing him on TV, you'd think that he was always the smooth talker, probably the focal point of any party. But according to his high school classmates, he was the "strong, silent type, not someone who would strike up conversations easily with others." (p. 32)

Failed Marriage: After high school, he married his high school sweetheart. The relationship deteriorated quickly and they went their separate ways after about three years.

Failed Business: He opened a health spa in Topeka, Kansas, which folded two years later, as he filed for bankruptcy.

Yet, after all these failures, he continued to pursue success by studying Psychology through college and graduate school. He loved it. He worked intensely at his studies, completed his Ph.D. and went into counseling. But again, a defeat. He discovered that he hated one-on-one counseling and considered himself a failure at it.

In spite of all the defeats, he kept bouncing back, looking for other niches for his interests and talents. For awhile, he led seminars on success, bypassing the need to counsel one on one. Then he started a business counseling attorneys and defendants on how to present their cases most effectively to juries.

Then came his big break. When Oprah Winfrey got sued, she called for Dr. Phil. Oprah recognized his wisdom and talent and invited him on her show. Although his first show was a flop - he appeared so direct and uncaring compared to Oprah - she believed in him and had him back, the next time introducing him as a straight-talking counselor who could get to the root of problems. They loved him, and the rest is history.

Do you ever get discouraged by your failures? If you do, I think Dr. Phil would like to tell you, "Don't give up. Your school days are a small part of your life. You don't have to always be the way you see yourself today. Keep learning. Keep growing. Don't let your defeats stop you. Keep looking for your niche until you find it."

Discussion Questions

1. What are some ways in which Dr. Phil failed?

2. If you were in high school with Dr. Phil, what would you have thought of him?

3. What can we learn from Dr. Phil's background to help us in our own pursuit of success?

Defining Perseverance

Motivation to Persevere

Tenacity Brings Success

My strength lies mainly in my tenacity. (Notable scientist Louis Pasteur) 

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One of the main differences between those who succeed and those who fail can be found in how they approach life’s difficulties. Failures either try to avoid their problems or to work around them. Successful people accept them and work through them, even when it includes some suffering. It’s this process of meeting our problems head on and looking for solutions that gives life meaning. (Urban, Hal, Life’s Greatest Lessons or 20 Things I Want My Kids to Know, Great Lessons Press, Redwood City, CA, 1997)

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Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is in the doing, not the getting – in the trying, not the triumph.  (Wynn Davis)

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Nothing Can Replace Persistence and Determination

''Press on. Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are overwhelmingly powerful.'' (Calvin Coolidge)

We Give Up More When We Give Up Nothing

''Nobody gives up so much as those who are most determined to give up nothing.'' (Dan Dehaan, in Steve Bartkowski, Intercepted, p. 73)

It Gives Great Satisfaction

''There is only one way to succeed in anything and that is to give everything. I do and demand that my players do. Any man's finest hour is when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle….victorious.'' (Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi)

''The object of living is work, experience, happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else's work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.'' ( Henry Ford)

Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: ''I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.''

Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day. (Booker T. Washington)

Work Brings Contentment

Benjamin Franklin, while working to build forts, observed, ''…When Men are employ'd they are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd and cheerful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Day's work they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, etc., and in continual ill-humor….'' (Autobiography, p. 165, spelling and capitalization left as Franklin wrote them.)

Helps Overcome Worry

''I have always found, when I was worrying, that the best thing to do was put my mind upon something, work hard and forget what was troubling me.'' (Thomas Edison)

It Moves the World

The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. (Helen Keller)

It Brings Success

A former employee of Dr. Phil says, "Phil will be successful at whatever he does. He works like a horse. He never sits on his butt. He's very very smart and he's very, very driven." (The Making of Dr. Phil, by Sophia Dembling and Lisa Gutierrez (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2004), p. 153.)

Games, Activities and Clips

"Raw Egg People" Versus "Super Ball People" (Used in Lesson Plan "Hang in There: Endurance, A Secret to Success")

Materials Needed 

• Roll of large paper
• Tape 
• Three "super balls" (check especially gumball machines outside Walmart)
• Three raw eggs
• Two Tootsie Rolls (or other prize)

The Activity

Tape a very large section of paper to the wall. Put another large paper on the floor to catch the broken egg. Draw a set of concentric circles on the wall paper, making a target. Without explaining the point of the illustration, get six volunteers. The first three take the super ball and throw it at the target, trying to get the closest to the center. Give the prize to the winner. The second three throw the raw eggs. Give the prize to the winner. 

Debriefing: This activity defines two types of people: "Raw Egg People" and "Super Ball People". When raw egg people hit an obstacle, they splatter. The harder they hit, the harder they splatter, giving up on their goal. When super ball people hit an obstacle, they bounce back. The harder they hit, the harder they bounce back. My hope is that we can be more like "Super Ball People."

(NOTE: Inevitably, an attention seeker may throw the egg outside of the paper on purpose, acting like it was a mistake. Don't let it frazzle you! Calmly reassure him that not everyone has good aim and assign him clean-up duty.)

Is It Full?
(Object lesson on prioritizing the main things)

An expert on time management was speaking to a group of highly motivated overachievers, and announced a quiz. He pulls out a large, wide-mouthed jar and sets it before them. Next, he places about a dozen fist-sized rocks, one at a time, into the jar, until no more will fit. ''Is it full?'' he asks. ''Yes,'' responds the class. ''Oh really?'' he asks. So he reaches under the table and produces a bucket of gravel, which he manages to work down into the spaces between the larger rocks. ''Is it full now?'' he asks. Wizening up, one answers, ''Probably not.'' Sure enough, he reaches under the table and produces a bucket of sand, which he pours into the empty spaces. ''Is it full now?'' he asks. ''No!'' reply the students confidently. So he takes a pitcher of water and fills it to the brim. Then he asks, ''What is my point?'' One responds with the obvious connection that a high achiever would make. ''The point is,'' he said,'' no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!'' ''No,'' the speaker replied, ''that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.'' (Came over the internet. Don't know source.) So evaluate what is most important in your life, and schedule that in first, or you might find yourself consumed with the tyranny of the urgent, while neglecting what is most important. What are the big rocks, the things you should put into your jar first?

Balloon Grenades

Divide the class into two teams, with one row of empty seats between the teams.  Inform them that they are in close combat with enemy forces, locked in a deadly grenade toss that could end in their sure defeat. Grenades have been set on a delay to go off at an unspecified moment and both teams are throwing them back and forth, hoping that when they explode they will be on the enemy's side. 

At this point you take out a trash bag full of balloons and begin tossing them into the air. Yell out, "Keep them on the enemy's side, but don't set foot on their side or come in physical contact with the enemy, lest they shoot you!" 

To add to the excitement (as if you needed more!), play some motivating music in the background, like a theme from Rocky. 

After a couple of minutes, call time. The team with the most balloons on their side loses. You can play it once more if they insist.

Debriefing: In what ways is our striving for success much like a warfare? ( 1) In the business world we face stiff competition. 2) In many ways the road to success seems to be riddled with grenade holes and opposing forces.) Can you identify some of our enemies - the forces that work against our success? (Peers who tempt us to get involved with destructive behaviors, discouraging comments by others, past failures haunting us.) How can we win against these forces?)

Learning to Lean

How to Persevere

Get Started!

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere. (Bumper Sticker)

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The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. (Theodore Roosevelt)

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Don't wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it. (Stevenson)

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Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field in the hope that the cow will back up to them. (Elbert Hubbard)

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''If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war before her 18th birthday, you can get out of bed.'' (E. Jean Carroll)

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''You've got to get to that stage in your life when going for it is more important than winning or losing.'' (Tennis Champion Arthur Ashe)

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You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. (Famous Hockey Player Wayne Gretsky)

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You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. (Rabindranath Tagore)

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After all is said and done, more is said than done.

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Husband, lounging on the sofa, to wife: ''I'll think about spading the garden in a little while. Right now I'm thinking about painting the screens.''

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So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself. (Florence Nightingale)

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Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.'' (Chinese Proverb)

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Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. (Mark Twain)

Expect Difficulties

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records. (William A. Ward)

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''The battle of life in most cases is fought uphill, and to win it without a struggle is almost like winning without honor. If there were no difficulties, there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved. Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valor. All experience of life, indeed, serves to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of human advancement may, for the most part, be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance, and by a determination to overcome difficulties.'' (Edmund Burke)

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''Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.'' (Albert Einstein)

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''I never once flew over the right target without being fired at.'' (Colonel Nimrod McNair)

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Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it. (Bumper Sticker)

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Many people get a bad attitude toward life because of unfulfilled expectations. Thinking that life was supposed to be easy, they got discouraged when they met all kinds of obstacles and hard times. For such people, a change of mind can make all the difference in the world. Instead of thinking that life should be easy, think that life's supposed to be tough. That way, you'll expect hard times rather than be surprised by them. And when some things come easy, you'll be pleasantly surprised and thankful.   

This story came to me over the Internet. It shows me that you should be skeptical of free rides people offer you to success.

After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus-stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

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Jim Otto was arguably the greatest center to ever play professional football. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But it wasn't an easy road. When he signed up with the Raiders, the newly formed football team lost 19 straight games. Nineteen straight failures...how humiliating! Besides these failures, he endured injury after injury during his years of play. He broke his nose 10 times and endured 9 knee surgeries. He played with a hip pointer injury, broken fingers, broken ribs, a broken jaw, neck stingers (stretched or pinched nerves), numerous concussions, kicked-in teeth, one eye swollen shut and even double pneumonia in Super Bowl II.

But he didn't quit. Nor did he give up because of the suffering. One thing that helped Jim Otto was that he knew football was a rough sport and that his body would be beaten. According to Otto, ''I proudly wore the scars of a gladiator - a raspberry on the cheek, a chipped tooth, and surgical stitches that crossed my mangled legs like railroad tracks. To me, these wounds represented trophies of the battle." Speaking of his painful retirement, he says, ''I don't blame anybody. Every time you put on a helmet, you know ...you were going to get hurt. We knew the score.'' 

Jim Otto knew that getting hurt was a part of playing football. Since he never expected it to be a vacation to the beach, he wasn't surprised or discouraged when he kept getting hurt. How much would it change our lives if we simply saw life as Jim Otto saw football. Every time we put on our helmet to start a new day, we know we'll get hurt and will face defeats, but we understand that it's all a part of the road to a successful life. 

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“If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, ‘I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.’” (Popular Advice Columnist Ann Landers)

Don't Let Disabilities Get You Down

I may be slow, but I'm ahead of you. (Bumper Sticker)

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Wellington's mom considered him a dunce. At school he was called slow, idle, and dull. He showed no talent and nobody expected anything of him. Yet, he was industrious and persevered. By age 46 he defeated Napoleon, one of the greatest generals of all time.

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Dan Lawrence is one of those outspoken, opinionated radio personalities that America loves. And his show is the most popular on his station. ''His feisty personality and seemingly endless personal collection of vintage rock discs have made him a celebrity in this coastal town 250 miles north of San Francisco.'' But what separates him from all other disc jockeys is that he can't speak. 

You heard me right. While in Vietnam, he served near the Cambodian border as an engineer on a helicopter, often transporting ''Agent Orange'' and sometimes walking through sprayed areas. As a result, he later developed cancer, and doctors had to remove his voice box and vocal cords. But he found that he could use new technology to type his discussions, comments on songs, and answers to questions, then transmit them through a synthesizer to give him a digital voice. 

His show is called DMZ, standing for ''The Digital Music Zone.'' As he comes on the air, you hear the sound of helicopter rotors and then a voice: ''This is Digital Dan, the DJ with a chip.'' Although the initial discovery of cancer was a total shock to Dan, he determined not to be defeated, and those who talk to him marvel at his lack of bitterness. Digital Dan made it as a disk jockey without a voice. We all have our own shortcomings that we either have to work through or work around. How do you handle yours? (From Atlanta Journal Parade Magazine, by Michael Ryan, pp. 18,19, May 11, 1997.© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

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John Milton was one of the greatest English poets and authors. His books are still assigned and read in schools over 400 years after he wrote them. You probably picture him as a successful writer, typing away happily at his typewriter. Yet, he actually began to lose his eyesight in his mid-thirties and became totally blind at 46. There were no typewriters at his time and certainly no computers with voice recognition software. 

But he didn't give up. Instead, he changed the way he wrote. He would dictate to a secretary. It must have been very difficult trying to edit without being able to see your work, but he went on to write, after his blindness, two of his greatest works - "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained".

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I can't make it through the grocery store line these days without noticing Tom Cruise staring at me from a magazine cover. How many of you saw him play Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible II? His accomplishments are pretty incredible. At 37 years of age, he has starred in blockbuster after blockbuster, is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, has been recognized for his achievements in acting by a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination, and has the physical agility (and guts) to perform 95% of the stunts in MI2. It's easy to look at Cruise and assume that he probably always had everything going for him. Think again. His life is actually the story of a survivor who learned to turn his shortcomings into assets.

His dad was consumed with his work and finally abandoned the family when Tom was 12. Tom couldn't afford some of the things other kids had because his dad refused to pay child support for his four children. He and his sisters had to work to contribute to the family income. They sometimes survived on food stamps. His social life was disrupted regularly by moves that forced him to change schools an average of once a year (8 elementary and three high schools). Lots of kids made fun of him. He was always the new geek, never the cool guy that girls flocked to. Lots of kids made fun of him

And to make matters worse, he felt stupid and embarrassed because he was put in the remedial class for slow learners. He was later found to have a learning disorder called Dyslexia, which makes it incredibly difficult to learn skills like reading. Not knowing what was wrong, he just thought he was dumb and would often come home crying. He couldn't even distinguish his right hand from his left.

Concluding that academics weren't his forte, he plunged into athletics. He played football but was too small to excel. Wrestling, however, is divided into weight classes, giving him the opportunity to compete. But when running some stairs (trying to lose a pound to compete in his weight class) he slipped on some of his sister's papers and tore a tendon on his leg. 

So much for athletics. Unable to wrestle on the team, he tried out for a part in their high school play. He landed a starring role and fell in love with acting. A theater agent ''just happened'' to be in the audience the night of the performance, encouraged him to go into acting and the rest is history.

Cruise could have turned inward and bitter about his circumstances. But instead, he learned from them. He draws from the heartache he experienced as a child to express emotion when he acts. He learned to work harder than others by having to learn with a disability. He says that his school difficulties were a character course that made him a better person. As a result, he goes the extra mile for his producers and has the relational skills that make people love to work with him. (Sources: 1 – ''Cruise Control'' (excerpt from 'Cruise')( Cosmopolitan ) Frank Sanello; 12-01-1995; 2 – ''Man With a Mission,'' ( The Calgary Sun ) Lisa Wilton, Calgary Sun, 05-21-2000; 3 - ''Conversations With Cruise,'' Vanity Fair, June, 2000; Tom Cruise, by Phelan Powell, Chelsea House Publishers, 1999) © Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

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Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming totally deaf.

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Helen Keller faced incredible obstacles. Although both blind and deaf from the age of two, she refused to be overcome by her disability. Rather than retreating into the darkness of her world, she ambitiously pursued her dreams. In her own words, ''Security does not really exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.'' (Source: Last Days Magazine, Fall, '89)  

Be Willing to Do Things Over and Over to Get Them Right

Small attempts repeated will complete any undertaking. (Og Mandingo)

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Do you ever resent it when your teacher asks you to do a paper over in order to make it make it better?  What if she asked you to revise it a second time, or a third? Don't get discouraged! The script to the original ''Matrix'' was rewritten 14 times before the studio accepted it. (Directors' cut - Inside The Matrix with the mysterious Brothers Wachowski - Matrix's mystery brothers; MICHAEL MCKENNA, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) 05-15-2003)

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''I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes.'' (Thomas Edison)

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You might think that famous author Ernest Hemingway was just a natural with words, and could barely keep his pen writing as quickly as his thoughts would come. But early in his career he became obsessed with perfecting his writing, laboring hours to perfect a sentence or to find just the right word. He rewrote the conclusion to his novel, Farewell to Arms, seventeen times to finally get it the way he wanted it. (Reworded from R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man)

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''We wonder at the anatomical perfection of a da Vinci painting. But we forget that Leonardo da Vinci on one occasion drew a thousand hands.'' (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man)

Be a Plodder

William Carey moved his young family to India and spent the rest of his years there, translating, publishing, and teaching as a professor. During a period of about 40 years, he and his small team issued religious books and dictionaries into an incredible forty-four languages and dialects. He spearheaded the opening of scores of village schools, established a college, campaigned against and saw outlawed the practice of ''Sati,'' which forced widows to die when their husbands died. To what character trait did Carey attribute his incredible accomplishments? In his own words, ''If anyone should think it worth his while to write my life, if he give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.'' (William Carey, by Finnie, p. 25)

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''If there's no wind, row.''

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Victory is not won in miles, but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more. (Successful Western Writer Louis L'Amour)

Practice and Prepare With Discipline

''Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail.''

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William Barclay wrote, ''No one ever reached any eminence, and no one having reached it ever maintained it, without discipline.'' (The Gospel of Matthew, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975, p. 280)

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If I do not practice one day, I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it. If I do not practice the third day, the whole world knows it. (Ignac Paderewski)

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''The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.'' (Famous Football Coach for the Green Bay Packers, Coach Vince Lombardi)

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Bobby Knight, Indiana's basketball coach, was once asked about his great success. Was it because he had the will to succeed? He responded, ''The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare.''

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You might think that most rock stars live totally undisciplined, party lifestyles. But Mick Jagger of the Stones, one of the most successful, longest lasting rock groups ever, paints a different picture. His grueling onstage antics, which equal a 5 to 10 mile run, require him to start working out two months prior to the tour. ''I still run about 7 miles a day when I'm working, lift weights, play team games, do exercises, and lay off the goodies. We behave – we have to at our age.'' (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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A genius is a talented person who does his homework. (Thomas Edison)

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The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare. (Louis Pasteur)

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''Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with preparation.'' (Thomas Edison)

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Jascha Heifitz, arguably the greatest violist of our century, was once complimented by a woman on his genius. He responded, ''Madame, before I was a genius, I was a drudge.'' I suppose he was referring to his four hours of daily practice, which he begun at age 3 and continued until he died at age 75. Most would have slacked off after being regarded as the best of the best. But he never ceased his hours and hours of practice, day after day. (Reworded from R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man)

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Winston Churchill was known for his motivating, forceful speeches, and even his well-worded casual conversations. Just a natural speaker? Actually, people never saw what went on behind the scenes, when he wrote out and practiced, not only his words, but his pauses, his pretended groping for just the right phrase. He practiced repeatedly in front of his mirror to get the perfect facial expressions. As one person said, he spent the best years of his life writing impromptu speeches. (Reworded from R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man) 

Outlast the Others

''If I have a good trait, it's probably relentlessness. I'm a hound dog on the prowl. I can't be shook.'' (Popular performer Bruce Springsteen.)

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Heisman trophy winner and NFL running back Hershel Walker once said, ''My God-given talent is my ability to stick with something longer than anyone else.''

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A young woman was being interviewed by a prestigious Fortune 500 company. She asked the personnel manager if she could get into their well-respected training program. The personnel manager, already flooded by applications, said, ''Impossible now. Come back in about ten years.''

The applicant responded ''Would morning or afternoon be better?''

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A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. (Norwegian Proverb)

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''veni, vedi, velcro'' -- ''I came, I saw, I stuck around.''

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Hollywood superstar Harrison Ford took years breaking into the movie business. In his own words, ''I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up. Most people in this business gave up and went on to other things. If you simply didn't give up, you would outlast the people who came in on the bus with you. I knew it was going to take 10 or 15 years.'' Rather than spend his life in small parts, he decided to hold out for the bigger ones, supporting himself as a carpenter. ''Over 10 or 12 years, I became quite skillful at doing the kind of high-quality, old-time work that was much in demand.'' (Tom Seligson, Parade Magazine, Dec. 25, 88, pp. 8,9;  © Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Victory is the ability to fight five minutes longer than any other army in the world. (General Wellington)

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''When you feel you cannot continue in your position for another minute, and all that is in human power has been done, that is the moment when the enemy is most exhausted, and when one step forward will give you the fruits of the struggle you have borne.'' (Winston Churchill)

Have Goals Worth Enduring For

In the movie ''Mission: Impossible II,'' in a discussion between Anthony Hopkins and Tom Cruise about the difficulty of the assignment, Hopkins reminds Cruise, ''It's not Mission: Difficult, Mr. Hunt…it's Mission: Impossible.'' 

Think through your life vision. Could it be called ''Mission: Easy'' or ''Mission: Difficult''? If so, why not stretch yourself and shoot for something that others might think impossible? ( © Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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If I quit they win. (The X-Files)

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“Successful people have a sense of direction and purpose – they know where they’re going. They set goals, accomplish them, and then set new goals. They accept and enjoy challenges.” (Urban, Hal, Life’s Greatest Lessons or 20 Things I Want My Kids to Know, Great Lessons Press, Redwood City, CA, 1997, pp.  5,6)

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Pat Riley, one of the greatest Basketball coaches of all time, told of the part sacrifice plays in achieving greatness. ''Willing sacrifice is the great paradox. You must give up something in the immediate present – comfort, ease, recognition, quick rewards – to attract something even better in the future: a full heart and sense that you did something that counted.'' (Pat Riley, The Winner Within, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1993, pp. 40-52)

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The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success. (Brian Tracy)

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Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually. (Stephen R. Covey)

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''Deferred joys purchased by sacrifice are always the sweetest.'' (Mike Doyle)

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Before you can score you must first have a goal. (Anonymous)

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Use to discourage drinking, smoking, which borrow from tomorrow to pay today. Charles Kettering, the great industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist once said, ''My interest is in the future…because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there.''

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Develop a healthy disrespect for the impossible. (Gene Hoffman, Super Valu)

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In last week's (2003)Super Bowl, Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden led his Buccaneers to a masterfully orchestrated win over the Raiders. Since a year ago he was with the Raiders, having built them into Super Bowl material, some people were calling this match-up ''The Gruden Bowl.'' How did Gruden prepare his team? Two parts of the formula were that he gave them a clear picture of where they were heading and showed them how to get there.

According to All Pro safety John Lynch, ''He came in the first day and said the goal was a world championship. Then he showed us the road map, and we never wavered from that.'' (Coach Chucky The Buccaneers' Jon Gruden has all the qualities of the perfect NFL coach: He's tireless, hypercritical and, occasionally, scary as hell Date: 09-09-2002; Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: S.L. Price)

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For every 1000 people who hit at the leaves, only 1 is hacking at the root. (Henry David Thoreau)

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Eric Hoffer, the American longshoreman philosopher, who shrewdly observed that ''the feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we ar wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world.'' (From Halftime p. 80)

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I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. To reach heaven, we must sail sometimes in the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.)

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Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can be aroused by two things: first, an idea which takes the imagination by storm; and second, a definite, intelligible plan for carrying that idea into action. (British Historian Arnold Toynbee)

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All my life I said I wanted to be someone...I can see now that I should have been more specific.

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Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right. (Paul Rousseau)

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If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. (Yogi Berra)

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A lady told a concert pianist after a recital, ''I'd give half of my life to be able to play the piano that well.''

The pianist's response: ''Madam, that's exactly what I gave.''

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It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business. (Gertrude Stein)

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Vision/Mission: For the persuasive power of leadership to be really effective, the organization needs this goal – a dream that the institution is living out and that the leadership is serving. It is not the I or the ultimate leader that moves an instiution to greatness, but the dream. We are all subordinate to the great idea.'' (Mark Shepherd, past chairman, Texas Instruments)

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No wind favors him who has no destined port. (Michael de Montaigne)

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A goal is nothing more than a dream with a time limit. (Joe L. Griffith)

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Genius: a person who aims at something no one else can see and hits it. (Ervin L. Glaspy)

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''A goal is nothing but a dream with a deadline.'' (Basketball coach Pat Riley, in Robb Report, p. 74)

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''The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there.'' (Dale Carnegie)

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Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. (Washington Irving)

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The greatest things ever done on earth have been done little by little. (Thomas Guthrie)

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Planning/Goals: ''Wayne Gretsky, possibly the greatest hockey player of all time said, ''I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'' 

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One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one's greatest efforts. (Albert Einstein)

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If we don't change the direction we are going, we are likely to end up where we are heading. (Chinese saying)

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We terribly overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in five. (Ted Engstrom, President of World Vision)

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Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success, but in the value of the goal.

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Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. (Famous American Author, William Faulkner)

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As a boy, John Goddard dared to visit the magic kingdom of ''What If.'' When he was fifteen years old, John Goddard made a list of all the things he wanted to do in life. That list contained 127 goals he hoped to achieve. It included such things as: explore the Nile, climb Mt. Everest, study primitive tribes in the Sudan, run a five-minute mile, read the Bible from cover to cover, dive in a submarine, play ''Claire de Lune'' on the piano, write a book, read the entire Encylopedia Britannica, and circumnavigate the globe.

Now middle-aged, he has become one of the most famous explorers alive today. He has reached 105 of his 127 goals and done many other exciting things. He is still looking forward to visiting all 141 countries in the world (so far he's visited only 113), exploring the entire Yangtze River in China, living to see the twenty-first century (he'll be seventy-five years old), visiting the moon, and having many other exciting adventures. (Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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A goal is a dream with a deadline. (Steve Sjogren)

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Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. (Dale Carnegie)

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''Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.'' (Charles E. Hummel)

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I heard the story of a pilot who announced to his passengers: ''I've got some bad news and some good news: The bad news is that we're lost. The good news is that we're making great time.'' Without goals, zeal may get you nowhere.

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Only a man who plans, prioritizes, and performs with positive action can find time for the important . . . and the unexpected. (From the collection of Barry St. Clair)

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Warren Buffett, America's most successful investor, said, ''Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.'' (Quoted in NewsInc, January, 1991)

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''The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.'' (Arnold Palmer, famous golfer)

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What do I really want? This is one of the most important questions you will ever ask yourself. Spell out your desires. (Alfred A. Montapert)

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Write down on paper your goal in life. With that down in black and white, we can get somewhere. Few can define their goal, much less write. You cannot find happiness until your goal is clear and in view. (Ross Byron)

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A television talk show had a panel of millionaires. Each of them was asked, ''What is your goal?'' Not one answered, ''To make money.'' For each, the goal was the challenge of making it to the top. (Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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There are two tragedies in a man's life. One is not having reached one's goal, and the other is having reached it.''

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John Templeton, successful founder of Templeton Funds, said, ''You can deal with the future more clearly if you don't focus on next week.''

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We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. (Omar Bradley)

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''The evidence is overwhelming that you cannot begin to achieve your best unless you set some aim in life. What would football be without a goal? You see men play over their heads to reach their goal, whether in sports or throughout life.'' (Henry J. Kaiser)

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''That ship which sails by every wind comes never in the harbor.'' (Finnish Proverb)

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Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. (Henry Ford)

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Christian educator Howard Hendricks shared of spunky old lady who refused to stop growing. He remembers a party, where people were standing around making small talk and she quickly tired of it all. So she comes up to him and asks, ''Hendricks, what are the best five books you have read lately? Let's not bore each other. Let's discuss something, or argue.'' I believe it was on her 86th birthday that she died in her sleep. The lady's daughter asked Hendricks to come to the house, wanting to show him something. It seems that before she went to bed that last night, she had written out her goals for what she wanted to accomplish in the next ten years. That's the way I want to go - not coasting to a stop, but pressing on toward the goal. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Do you have specific goals in life? The book, The One Minute Manager, asks why an employee may be highly motivated to bowl, but bored with his job. His answer? Because at work, no one has clued him in as to where the pins are. Since the managers have left the goals too vague, the worker finds himself bowling at pins that are hidden behind a sheet. He throws the ball, and hears the crash of some pins, but has no idea how many fell. No one plays golf on an unlit course at night. Why? Because if you can't see the green or the flag, you'll never know how well you did. (Reworded from The One Minute Manager). When you take the time to write specific goals for yourself, or help your family to write their specific goals, you make the game of life more fun. (Idea: This would make a great object lesson. Get some plastic bowling pins and a ball. Set a sheet in front and let students bowl. Then do it without the sheet. Ask which is more fun and why? Then ask how this would apply to an evangelistic strategy, or piano practice. Or, turn off the lights, give a student a putter and ask him to put for a taped-off area.) (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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You must have long range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short range failures. (George H. Bender)

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We're lost, but we're making good time! (Yogi Berra, Coach of the Yankees)

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I visualized where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there. (Michael Jordan)

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''That which is not worth doing is not worth doing well.'' (Warren Buffett, America's most successful investor, quoted by John Train in ''The Midas Touch.'')

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It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best. (W. Edwards Deming)

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Jim Otto was arguably the greatest center to ever play football. During his stellar career with the Raiders, he was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. During those years, he endured inexpressible suffering because of his love for football. He broke his nose 10 times and endured 9 knee surgeries. He played with a hip pointer injury, broken fingers, broken ribs, a broken jaw, neck stingers (stretched or pinched nerves), numerous concussions, kicked-in teeth, one eye swollen shut and even double pneumonia in Super Bowl II. His last couple of seasons were especially painful. But his wife Sally says that she never told him to retire, because ''I knew what his goal was, to win a Super Bowl.''  

Isn't that a major part of learning to endure...having a goal related to something you love? What's a goal that you'd be willing to suffer for?

Take Calculated Risks

H.J. Heinz has a very successful frozen food subsidiary named Ore-Ida. They strongly believed that they must take risks in order to be successful. Sure, many of the experiments would turn out to be failures, but even then they could learn from the failures. In order to reinforce more risk-taking and learning, they decided to shoot off a canon in celebration of every failure, so that workers would be encouraged to keep trying. (Rewritten by Steve Miller from Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

Do First Things First

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly. (Thomas Huxley)

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Charles Schwab was the successful president of Bethlehem Steel Company. This was the practice that he considered the most important that he ever learned: Take five minutes to think through the tasks he should tackle tomorrow, then list them in order of priority. The next day, he would take on each problem in the order he had set.

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Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. (Lin Yu Tang)

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''It is one thing to know what to do, and another to be able to do only that.''

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Never put off till tomorrow what you can avoid altogether. (Bumper Sticker)

Hang Around the Right People

A writer for the Chicago Tribune recently interviewed a man who helps people who've lost their jobs, usually because of addictions. The interview brought out the importance of having the right friends:

''As one recovering addict put it, 'I don't just have to avoid using, I have to avoid using behavior. That means giving up all my old friends.' Misery doesn't just love company, it has an active recruiting program. Rather than refusing to fail, the successful refuse to stay with failure.'' (Chicago Tribune, 12/30/01)

Enjoy Your Work

There is no inherent problem in our desire to escalate our goals, as long as we enjoy the struggle along the way. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience)

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People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it. (La Rochefoucauld)

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''I never did a day's work in my life – it was all fun.'' (Thomas Edison)

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I believe the ultimate in self-actualization is when a person is confused about the difference between employment and recreation. (Ken Blanchard, author of the One-Minute Manager)

Concentrate on What You're Good At

''Maintaining focus is a key to success. You should understand your circle of competence, the thing that you're good at, and spend your time and energy there.'' (Bill Gates, Column, New York Times Syndicate, March 12, 1997)

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In last week's (January, 2003) Super Bowl, Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden led his Buccaneers to a masterfully orchestrated win over his former team, the Raiders. Since a year ago he was with the Raiders, having built them into Super Bowl material, some people called this match-up ''The Gruden Bowl.''

Coach Gruden's success is in part due to his concentration on a few things. According to Gruden, ''I'm a real shallow guy,'' he says without a hint of embarrassment. ''It's not like I've got a three handicap, or I can play the guitar, or I can tell you anything about the stock market. It's not like you and I could have a conversation about anything else. I've got this job, I've got my three boys and my wife, my family. That's it. I like to fish a little. But there's not a lot of me.'' (Coach Chucky The Buccaneers' Jon Gruden has all the qualities of the perfect NFL coach: He's tireless, hypercritical and, occasionally, scary as hell Date: 09-09-2002; Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: S.L. Price)

Ever feel like you aren't good at anything that really counts? Jon knows the feeling all too well. In high school, his older brother James excelled at academics - maintaining a 4.0 average. Today James directs cardiothoracic imaging at Emory's medical school and teaches biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech. Jon felt pretty dumb in comparison with his 2.0 average. According to Jon, ''people thought something was wrong with me.'' When they got into shouting matches, after Jon might call James a geek, James might come back telling Jon that he was just smart enough to one day be his chauffeur. Just what Jon needed to hear.

Not being adept at making good grades, Jon's passion was sports. But here his self-esteem hit another wall. It wasn't bad enough that his older brother got the brains. His younger brother Jay got the athletic talent. In college, Jon was determined to be a great quarterback, lifting weights in the off-season, throwing endless passes, consistently running and lifting weights. While in his best condition ever, after running five miles, he'd taunt his less disciplined younger brother, now a Junior in high school, who spent his hot summer days watching TV and munching microwave popcorn. Finally, when Jay had had enough taunting, he challenged Jon to 2-mile race. In the last 2/10 of a mile, Jay took off, leaving a humiliated Jon behind. That's when he finally faced the facts: he was a loser at athletics.

His dismal college career confirmed his fears. Except for three attempted passes and holding the ball for place-kicks, he was a perennial benchwarmer, watching the game from the sidelines.

But Jon wasn't destined to be a star player. He just hadn't yet found his niche. Today he's in his niche, and life couldn't be grander. He makes his living watching from the sidelines. In fact, John will receive a cool $17.5 million dollars over the next 5 years to strategize and motivate from the sidelines.

Last Sunday you saw him lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the 2003 Super Bowl. This former bench warmer is the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl ever, the hero of Tampa Bay.

But it makes you wonder…. What if Jon had become disillusioned because he was seldom allowed to play more ''significant'' positions in college? What if simply concluded, like many do, that he was destined to be a failure, when he was actually gaining valuable experience for the future?

Don't ever believe the lie that life as you see it now is all there is. Don't wallow in yor pain or become discouraged because of your defeats. Keep looking for your niche, a way that your particular giftedness can be used to the max. Jon did. You can too. 

(Written by Steve Miller, Copyright January 30, 2003. Sources: A Wise Investment Date: 01-23-2003; Publication: The Tampa Tribune; Author: IRA KAUFMAN) (Coach Chucky The Buccaneers' Jon Gruden has all the qualities of the perfect NFL coach: He's tireless, hypercritical and, occasionally, scary as hell Date: 09-09-2002; Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: S.L. Price)

But Broaden Yourself Too

Joe Louis reigned for eleven years, eight months as boxing's heavyweight champion of the world, longer than anyone else in history. But although he was incredibly wise in boxing, he failed in his finances. First, he took bad advice from an accountant who told him to delay paying the taxes he owed from his earnings. He should have gotten a second opinion. This failure cost him dearly.

Second, he spent his money wildly and never saved. Sadly, this potentially wealthy man remained in debt for the rest of his life. It's so easy to be selectively wise - brilliant in one area of life but foolish in another. The world is full of brilliant businessmen who are clueless husbands and fathers, successful pastors who are foolish with their money. We must apply our wisdom to all areas of life. (Written by Steve Miller. Source: Joe Louis, A Champ for All America, by Robert Lipsyte, Harper Collins Publishers, 1994, pp. 5, 74,75)

Make Good Use of Your Time

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. (Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, May 5, 1787)

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''He who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.'' (Victor Hugo)

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''Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.'' (Management expert Peter Drucker)

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Time is what keeps everything from happening at once - Bumper Sticker

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In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. (Bumper Sticker)

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''The easiest way to find more time to do all the things you want to do is to turn off the television.'' (O.A. Battista)

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''Time flies. It's up to you to be the navigator.'' (Robert Orben)

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''Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.'' (Benjamin Franklin)

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The word ''amuse'' is a combination of two words, ''a'' meaning ''not'' and ''muse'' which means ''thinking.'' We can't gain wisdom while devoting the enormous amounts of time to amusement that our contemporaries enjoy. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Every second has a period after it. You can't live it over again. (From Dan Dehaan)

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''Most misfortunes are the result of misused time.'' (Napoleon Hill)

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Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he or she is supposed to be doing at that time. (Robert Benchley)

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''Our days are identical suitcases – all the same size – but some people can pack more into them than others.'' (Grit)

You're Never Too Old to Succeed

Roy Croc sold paper cups and played the piano part time to support his family in the early 20's. He became the Lily Tulip Cup Company's top salesman after 17 years, but decided to strike out on his own in the milk shake business. One day he heard of some guys using his machines to produce 40 shakes at a time. He went to investigate and found the McDonald brothers successfully using an assembly line to cook and serve burgers, fries and shakes. He recommended starting a chain, but the McDonald brothers thought it would be too much trouble. Yet, Croc convinced them to let him go for it and at 52 years of age started the McDonald's chain, which he built into a billion dollar business in only 22 years! 

Think other people are always ahead of you and you're always a year or two behind? Think it may take you more years to graduate than others, or more years to finish college? Next time you see those golden arches, remember Roy Croc. Not everyone is a fast starter. Some bloom later. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

Strive Forward With Integrity

''I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball.'' (Pete Rose, professional baseball player who was banned from playing by those citing evidence that he'd bet on games he played in.)

Be Enthusiastic - Catch Fire For Something

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure. (Thomas Edison)

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How did Communism at one time take over so much of the world? In many places, it won because of its zealous adherents, those who sincerely believed that Communism offered the world something better and dedicated their lives to converting others to their cause. Oh that more Christians would live for Jesus as all out as some of these have lived for Communism. Here's a letter from an American college student who had converted to Communism in Mexico. The letter's purpose? To let his fiancée know why he must break their engagement.

''We Communists have a high casualty rate. We're the ones who get shot and hung and lynched and tarred and feathered and jailed and slandered, and ridiculed and fired from our jobs, and in every other way made as uncomfortable as possible. A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned. We live in virtual poverty. We turn back to the party every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. We Communists don't have the time or the money for many movies, or concerts, or T-bone steaks, or decent homes and new cars. We've been described as fanatics. We are fanatics. Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor, THE STRUGGLE FOR WORLD COMMUNISM.

We Communists have a philosophy of life which no amount of money could buy. We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life. We subordinate our petty, personal selves into a great movement of humanity, and if our personal lives seem hard, or our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the party, then we are adequately compensatee by the thought that each of us in his small way is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind. There is one thing in which I am in dead earnest and that is the Communist cause. It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife and mistress, my bread and meat. I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens as time goes on. Therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both drives and guides my life. I evaluate people, books, ideas and actions according to how they affect the Communist cause and by their attitude toward it. I've already been in jail because of my ideas and if necessary, I'm ready to go before a firing squad.'' (True Discipleship, by William MacDonald, Walterick Publishers, pp. 33,34)

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''Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.'' (Famous Author Charles Dickens)

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When famous writer Truman Capote was asked why he wrote, he responded, ''The serious artist is obsessed by his material.''

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Pete Rose was asked which goes first on a baseball player – his eyes, his legs or his arm. He said, ''None of these things. It's when his enthusiasm goes that he's through as a player.''

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''Wayne Gretzky has become one of my personal heroes. He impacted the sport of hockey in such a way that his Jersey Number 99 was permanently retired by the National Hockey League. Known as ''The Great One,'' it has been predicted that hockey will never again see a player who played the sport with as much passion as Wayne.

During his long and illustrious career in hockey Wayne Gretsky accomplished a lot. But when you look at Wayne as a hockey player, Time Magazine called him ''A Most Unlikely One'' As a player Wayne was not that fast and had a shot that was strangely weak. On his team he was always the last in strength training and his physique was anything but impressive. If you looked at the outside of Wayne Gretsky, he was the most unlikely one to have accomplished what he did during his lifetime.

When Time Magazine ran this by Wayne his face lit up and he said ''Maybe it wasn't talent the Lord gave me. Maybe it was passion.''

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When someone lives a focused life....of passion, it's amazing what can be accomplished.'' (From article by Cherie Ewings and Dann Spader entitled ''Lessons from a Passionate Life'' © Copyright 2002 CK Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Every production of genius must be the product of enthusiasm. (Benjamin Disraeli)

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If you don't have enthusiasm, you don't have anything. (Kemmons Wilson, Sr., founder, Holiday Inns)

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''I don't know about having too much zeal; but I think it is better the pot should boil over than not boil at all.'' (An American Indian)

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''The real secret of success is enthusiasm. Yes, more than enthusiasm I would say excitement. I like to see men get excited. When they get excited, they make a success of their lives.'' (Walter Chrysler)

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''Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.'' ( Famous Author Charles Dickens)

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I have found enthusiasm for work to be the most priceless ingredient in any recipe for success. (Samuel Goldwyn)

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You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. (Henry Ford)

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A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. (Winston Churchill)

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Gates would shoot for a ''seven-hour turnaround'' between leaving work one day and arriving the next. Even well after after Microsoft established itself as the industry leader, he worked like a maniac. In his later 30's he was still working seventy-two hours per week. (Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented An Industry - And Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, p. 14, 443)

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Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty ranked enthusiasm ahead of imagination, business acumen, and ambition.

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Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. (Confucius)

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No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life. (Famous Hollywood Producer Samuel Goldwyn)

Hold Your Ground Against the Opposition

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. (Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States who was afflicted with polio as a young man)

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An oak is an acorn that held its ground.

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During the Civil War, General Grant was defeated at Shiloh. Newspapers everywhere demanded that Lincoln remove him. But Lincoln replied, ''I can't spare this man. He fights. He's got the grip of a bulldog, and when he gets his teeth in, nothing can shake him off.'' He became known as one of the greatest generals of his time.

Don't Be Discouraged Because of Lack of Training

When we get discouraged because of our own inadequacies as compared with others who have the benefit of more and better training, just remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

Don't Be Discouraged Because of Failure

Thomas Edison experienced many failures in his life. When he was perfecting the incandescent lamp, he experimented with ten thousand failures. A friend said that ten thousand failures were a LOT of failures. 

Edison replied: ''I didn't fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn't work." Edison's realized that failure wasn't the end, but just the beginning. He said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." (Get the # right. Have another quote saying was 1,000, already in Perseverance collection on site.)

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Abraham Lincoln, a Man Acquainted with Failure

What would your life be like if you'd experienced this many failures: 

Age 22, failed in business.

Age 23, ran for legislature and was defeated.

Age 24, failed again in business.

Age 25, elected to legislature.

Age 26, sweetheart died.

Age 27, had a nervous breakdown.

Age 29, defeated for speaker.

Age 31, defeated for elector.

Age 34, defeated for Congress.

Age 37, elected to Congress.

Age 39, defeated for Congress.

Age 46, defeated for Senate.

Age 47, defeated for vice president.

Age 49, defeated for Senate.

Who was this failure? At the age of 51, he was elected President of the United States. Since then he has become recognized as one of the greatest men of his time:

He was Abraham Lincoln. 

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Joe Barrow thought he'd trained and sparred enough. It was time for him to get into the ring for his first fight and show everyone that he could make it as a boxer. But the bright, hot lights didn't reveal much promise that night. Joe was knocked down seven times, to the jeers and shouts of the crowd. His only show of promise that night was that although he was knocked down seven times, he also got back up seven times. The winner said of Joe, ''Well, any kid that hauls himself up seven times has got something.''

Joe's dad said, ''Well, you tried. That's the end of that. I got you a job at the Ford plant.'' But Joe wasn't content there. Instead, he persevered and learned from his failure. Back at the gym, his trainer tied Joe's right hand to the ring post and sent in a sparring partner to teach Joe how to protect himself with his left up. The partner pummeled him with both fists, but Joe learned his lesson. And he kept training and learning until he became the heavyweight champion of the world, under the name Joe Louis, a name he'd taken for boxing so that his mom wouldn't know he was fighting.

He reigned as heavyweight champion of the world for eleven years, eight months, longer than anyone else in history. But he would have never made it had he not learned to get back up from defeat, even when he was knocked down seven times in his first match. (Written by Steve Miller. Source: Joe Louis, A Champ for All America, by Robert Lipsyte, Harper Collins Publishers, 1994, pp. 5, 19-24.)

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''I am willing to fail. Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success, but in the value of the goal.'' (Source lost)

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He who never makes mistakes never makes anything. (English proverb)

''To laugh is to risk appearing the fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out to another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self

To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd, is to risk their loss

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken; because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change grow, love, and live. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave. He has forfeited freedom. Only a person who risks is free.'' (Source lost)

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The person who succeeds is not the one who holds back, fearing failure, nor the one who never fails… but rather the one who moves on in spite of failure. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. (Teddy Roosevelt, former President of the United States)

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It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Former American President)

There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. (Distinguished zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley)

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Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don't fail is the last time you try something, and it works. One fails forward toward success. (Charles Kettering)

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In Baseball, if a batter fails two-thirds of the time, he's still considered an excellent batter. It's too bad this standard isn't applied to everything else in life. (Found in Microsoft Network article)

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If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate. (Thomas Watson, Sr.,  Founder of IBM)

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History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. (B. C. Forbes)

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He who never fails, never does anything.

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He who never makes mistakes, never makes anything.

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According to Steve Ballmer at MicroSoft, ''It doesn't matter if we bang our heads and fail. We keep right on banging and banging and banging and banging and banging.'' (Philip Elmer DeWitt, ''Mine, All Mine,'' Time, June 5, 1995)

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Denver's professional football team, the Bronco's, were playing a rookie quarterback who had a difficult first season. One time he got set for the next play and in front of seventy-thousand people lined up, not behind the center who was prepared to snap the football to him, but behind a guard. But I'm glad he endured that season and brushed off the embarrassment. John Elway went on to become one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time. (Written by Steve Miller. Source: Speaker's Library of Business Stories, Griffith, Joe, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Copyright 1990.)

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Ever feel like you aren't good at anything that really counts? Jon knows the feeling all too well. In high school, his older brother James excelled at academics - maintaining a 4.0 average. Today James directs cardiothoracic imaging at Emory's medical school and teaches biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech. Jon felt pretty dumb in comparison with his 2.0 average. According to Jon, ''people thought something was wrong with me.'' When they got into shouting matches, after Jon might call James a geek, James might come back telling Jon that he was just smart enough to one day be his chauffeur. Just what Jon needed to hear.

Not being adept at making good grades, Jon's passion was sports. But here his self-esteem hit another wall. It wasn't bad enough that his older brother got the brains. His younger brother Jay got the athletic talent. In college, Jon was determined to be a great quarterback, lifting weights in the off-season, throwing endless passes, consistently running and lifting weights. While in his best condition ever, after running five miles, he'd taunt his less disciplined younger brother, now a Junior in high school, who spent his hot summer days watching TV and munching microwave popcorn. Finally, when Jay had had enough taunting, he challenged Jon to 2-mile race. In the last 2/10 of a mile, Jay took off, leaving a humiliated Jon behind. That's when he finally faced the facts: he was a loser at athletics.

His dismal college career confirmed his fears. Except for three attempted passes and holding the ball for place-kicks, he was a perennial benchwarmer, watching the game from the sidelines.

But Jon wasn't destined to be a star player. He just hadn't yet found his niche. Today he's in his niche, and life couldn't be grander. He makes his living watching from the sidelines. In fact, John will receive a cool $17.5 million dollars over the next 5 years to strategize and motivate from the sidelines.

Last Sunday you saw him lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the 2003 Super Bowl. This former bench warmer is the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl ever, the hero of Tampa Bay.

But it makes you wonder…. What if Jon had become disillusioned because he was seldom allowed to play more ''significant'' positions in college? What if simply concluded, like many do, that he was destined to be a failure, when he was actually gaining valuable experience for the future? Remember, things won't always be as they are now. Learn what you can where you are. Hang in there and the things you learn now may be exactly what you need to succeed in the future. 

(Written by Steve Miller, Copyright January 30, 2003. Sources: A Wise Investment Date: 01-23-2003; Publication: The Tampa Tribune; Author: IRA KAUFMAN) (Coach Chucky The Buccaneers' Jon Gruden has all the qualities of the perfect NFL coach: He's tireless, hypercritical and, occasionally, scary as hell Date: 09-09-2002; Publication: Sports Illustrated; Author: S.L. Price)

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''He's not a failure-he just started at the bottom, and liked it there.''

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Failures can be divided into those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. (W.A. Nance)

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There comes a time when you need to realize that you're failing because you're operating outside your area of giftedness. As W.C. Fields said, ''If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.''

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''Learn to be a good loser. Never be discouraged when things don't work out - keep at it!'' (Thomas Edison, on his advice to young men)

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On not giving up because people think you're slow...

Thomas Edison, probably the greatest inventor of all human history, said of his schooling: ''I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was always at the foot of the class. I used to feel that the teachers did not sympathize with me, and that my father thought I was stupid.'' (Cradles of Eminence, pp. 248ff)

Not clicking at school? This boy started speaking later than most. Not a good all-around student, his teachers found him to be a problem. Further, he had odd mannerisms, no friends, and his father was ashamed of his lack of athletic ability. He had to leave school for six months during his senior year because of a nervous breakdown. But I'm glad he didn't give up. His name was Albert, Albert Einstein. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Albert Einstein's parents and teachers considered him dull. His son once said, ''He was even considered backward by his teachers. He told me that his teachers reported to his father that he was mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.'' At 16, his father ''urged him to forget his 'philosophical nonsense' and apply himself to the 'sensible trade' of electrical engineering. A slowness of speech had predisposed his parents to think him dull.'' He also found learning languages difficult. He failed to pass his college entrance exams in zoology, botany and languages. Because of this, he had to return to secondary school for another year. (Cradles of Eminence, p. 248ff)

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Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of president Franklin D. Roosevelt, was one of the most active first ladies in history. Known for her work in race relations, she headed up the United Nation's Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Commission, and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She lectured, wrote books and a syndicated newspaper column, and proved to be a charming White House Hostess. And we could go on and on. 

You'd expect that she had grown up in the most favored of all circumstances. But actually, her mother rejected her as a homely child, and accused her of lying and stealing sweets. She lived in a fantasy world, as if she was mistress of her father's household for years. She was orphaned at age sixteen, and placed in the custody of her grandmother, who had been separated from her alcoholic husband. And her four uncles and aunts had their own problems. One uncle had a drinking problem. An aunt, distraught over a failed love affair, locked herself in a room. The grandmother, realizing she had failed her own children, resolved to be more strict with Eleanor. She dressed her oddly and refused to let her have playmates. Most who hear this story, when asked what this child was like in five years, assumed she would be delinquent, mentally ill and retarded. But they are then startled to realize that they have just heard the childhood of Eleanor Roosevelt. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved. Sources:  World Book Encyclopedia, and Cradles of Eminence, p. xiii) 

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If you must make mistakes, make a new one each time. Learn from your mistakes. 

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Scott Adams created ''Dilbert'' one of the most successful comic strips in history. It appears in 2000 newspapers in 65 countries. But he wasn't so successful when he started out. He sent his portfolio to one cartoon editor after another, only to receive rejection after rejection. A real slap in the face came from an editor who called to suggest he take art classes. Then, Sarah Gillespie, an expert in the field, phoned to offer him a contract. According to Adams,

''At first, I didn't believe her. I asked if I'd have to change my style, get a partner -- or learn how to draw. But she believed I was already good enough to be a nationally syndicated cartoonist.

Her confidence in me completely changed my frame of reference and altered how I thought about my own abilities. This may sound bizarre, but from the minute I got off the phone with her, I could draw better. You can see a marked improvement in the quality of the cartoons I drew after that conversation.'' (Source: James M. Kouzes and Barry Posner, Encouraging The Heart, Jossey-Bass, 1999)

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Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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When the singer Bob Dylan performed at a high school talent show, his classmates, failing to recognize he was a kid bound for glory, booed him off the stage.

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A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. (Elbert Hubbard)

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Christopher Columbus set out to discover a new trade route to India. He missed by half a globe. Yet few of us would call him a failure.

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Winston Churchill didn't respond well to school. He was put in remedial reading. His father was ashamed of his dullness and was certain he would never be able to earn a living in England. (Cradles of Eminence, p. 264)

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Colonel Sanders was broke at age sixty-five and used a small Social Security check to start what became Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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Chuck Colson, the lawyer who became special counsel to President Richard Nixon, found himself plunging from a position of power, prestige, and money to a federal prison on a Watergate related charge. But what could have been seen as life's greatest defeat propelled him into a major ministry, as he became a Christian and founded his Prison Fellowship in 1976. With more than 17,000 volunteers and 170 staff working in 31 countries, Colson leads a ministry of significant influence. Defeats can make you either bitter or better. I thank God that Colson allowed his defeats to make him better. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill)

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''I'd rather shoot for a star and hit a mountain peak than to aim for a mud puddle and hit it every time.'' (Heard from pastor Miles Seaborn)

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The greatest failure is the failure to try. (William A. Ward)

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. (Confucius)

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Author Ernest Hemingway was reported to have said that he had received enough publisher's rejection notices to wallpaper his bedroom. (Article from Fayetteville, Georgia local newspaper)

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Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. (Henry Ford)

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It is defeat that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle, and makes people invincible, and formed those heroic natures that are now in ascendancy in the world. Do not, then, be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause. (Henry Ward Beecher)

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W. Clement Stone, a successful insurance company executive and founder of Success magazine, was a high school dropout.

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Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's Restaurants, earned his high school equivalency diploma twenty-five years after he made his first million dollars. (Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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People fail in direct proportion to their willingness to accept socially acceptable excuses for failure. (W. Steven Brown, president, Fortune Group)

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Eighty percent of all newly advertised products fail. The manufacturer decides the consumer is a fool. That's why the product fails. Period.

In addition, 58 percent of all innovations ultimately fail. Except, that is, for those originated by top management – these fail at a rate of 74 percent.

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R.H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on. Novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books. . (Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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Henry Ford went broke five times before succeeding.

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Richard Hooker took seven years to write a book about the Korean War. It was rejected by 21 publishers before it was finally published as M*A*S*H and became a runaway best seller. It was then made into a blockbuster movie and a long-running TV series.

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Frederick Forsyth's best-selling book, The Day of the Jackal, was once turned down with the comment of ''no reader interest.'' It has since sold eight million copies.

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When Benjamin Franklin sent a paper on Electricity and Lightning to the Royal Society, his paper was duly read, and laughed at. But he printed it into a booklet and saw it distributed throughout Europe, translated into French, Italian, German, and Latin. Ironically, he was later given an honorary induction into the same society that had once laughed at his paper. (Autobiography, pp. 172-175) 

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Benjamin Franklin, in his two years of formal education, failed in Math. At 10, he was taken in to assist in the family business. But he would later study Math on his on, more than making up what he couldn't catch in school. (Autobiography, p. 9)

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In his book, In Search Of Excellence, the author studied successful companies and found that the best companies gave their employees room to fail. (chpt. 2?)

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H.J. Heinz's creditors forced him into bankruptcy.

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Walt Disney suffered bankruptcy along with a nervous breakdown.

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Milton Hershey went bankrupt before he dominated the chocolate industry.

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A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. (George Bernard Shaw)

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I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. (General George S. Patton)

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Popular writer Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books during his lifetime. Here's what he said about persistence in his field:

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. (Isaac Asimov)

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''I think and think, for months, for years; 99 times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.'' (Albert Einstein)

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Thomas Edison was a great inventor. But some fail to realize that he went through 1,000 failed light bulbs before finally inventing one that worked.

Don't Let Criticism Discourage You

Criticism is something we can avoid easily--by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. (Aristotle)

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Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. (Franklin P. Jones)

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Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs. (John Osborne)

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The person who can't dance says the band can't play.

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Criticism debilitates only those who allow it that power. As Fred Allen said, ''If criticism had any real power to harm, the skunk would have been extinct by now.''

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The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

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After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, ''Can't act! Slightly bald! Can dance a little!'' Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home. He's now recognized as one of the greatest all-around performers in motion picture history.

An ''expert'' said of Vince Lombardi, ''He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivation.''

Someone said of Albert Einstein, ''He doesn't wear socks and forgets to cut his hair. Could be mentally retarded.''

Socrates was called ''an immoral corruptor of youth.''

(Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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1. In 1926, Lee de Forest, the man who invented the cathode ray tube, said: ''While theoretically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.''

2. In 1943, Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board for IBM said: ''I think there is a world market for about five computers.''

3. In 1945, Admiral Leahy said this about the atomic bomb: ''This is the biggest fool thing we've ever done – the bomb will never go off – and I speak as an expert on explosives.''

4. Said a recording company executive, turning down the Beatles in 1962: ''We don't think they will do anything in this market. Guitar groups are on the way out.''

5. Wrote Business Week in 1968: ''With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself.'' . (Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.'' (Harry Emerson Fosdick)

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The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. (Walter Bagehot)

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Criticism is something we can avoid easily -- by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. (Aristotle)

Welcome and Learn From Criticism

As a high school student, Bill Gates was already an accomplished programmer. But he still wanted to learn from those better than him. As a senior, he and Paul Allen landed a job where they could work on state-of-the-art computer problems, under the scrutiny of brilliant analysts. John Norton was flown in from One Space Park to ''audit the project, interview the suspects, review everybody's code, straighten out the screw-ups.''

To many people a person like this would be a pain, a dreaded overseer. But to Gates, a person who intensely desired to write excellent code, he was an incredible blessing. In Gate's words, ''He was a god! He would take a piece of source code home, come back and just totally analyze the thing.'' He loved it! (Written by Steve Miller, copyright Feb., 2003. Source: Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented An Industry - And Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, p. 54)

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''A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.'' (Newscaster David Brinkley)

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Jim Otto, who wore the number ''OO'' for the Raiders pro football team, was arguably the greatest center to ever play the game. According to player/coach/commentator John Madden, ''If someone came from another planet and wanted to know what a football player looked like, you'd show him a poster of Jim Otto.'' That's how well respected his is in the world of pro football.

For those who don't know football, the offensive center mans the middle of the bone-crunching action, on one play protecting the quarterback from 300 pound defensive linemen and on the next play drilling through them to pave the way for a run. His dedication, intelligence and leadership helped transform the Raiders into one of the most successful football franchises ever. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Yet amazingly, John Madden, Otto's coach for 6 seasons with the Raiders, says, ''Jim was a great football player, but he wasn't a great athlete. He wasn't real big, real strong or real fast.'' So how did he come to dominate his position and become so wildly successful? Madden says ''he made himself into a great football player. He was a hard-worker, a guy who really was committed.'' A big part of that work was mental. Madden remembers that every time the team would analyze films of past games, Otto would sit up front. While most players wanted to see their good plays over again, Otto asked to review his bad plays, even though there would only be a few, so that he could learn from his mistakes.

If we ever want to excel in a field, we've got to do what Jim Otto did. We must solicit honest input from others about our strengths and weaknesses, honestly face these, and work to correct them. (Written by Steve Miller, from The Pain of Glory, by Jim Otto and Dave Newhouse, Sports Publishing, Inc., 2000, pp. xii, xiii.)

Overcome Difficulties

Some have said that when life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. That's just what Gwen Stephani of the band ''No Doubt'' did after a seven year romantic relationship went sour. But instead of turning bitter or lashing out, she wrote songs about the experience.

The result? Her song ''Don't Speak'' became the most popular single on the radio (with over 10,000 plays per week) and helped propel their ''Tragic Kingdom'' album to the top of the charts.  (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity. (Unknown)

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''When the going gets tough, the tough get going.'' (Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi)

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For every difficulty that supposedly stops a person from succeeding there are thousands who have had it a lot worse and have succeeded anyway. So can you. (Brian Tracy)

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''We are all continually faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.'' (John Gardner)

Work When You Feel Well; Work When You Don't

When asked to explain his genius, Thomas Edison replied, ''It's 99 percent perspiration, and 1 percent inspiration.''

''The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day in his figures. They didn't waste much time waiting for inspiration. (Ernest Newman)

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On Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Although he played well in high school, no colleges wanted to offer him a football scholarship. But finally, after football season his senior year, some assistant coaches from Nevada dropped in to see him play basketball.

"Colin, a shooting guard, jumped center, got the tip, took a backdoor alley-oop pass and barely missed a dunk attempt. One coach turned to the other and said, 'That's our guy.' Kaepernick was playing with a 103-degree temperature."

"Colin once pitched a no-hitter, rode the team bus back to Pitman [his high school] and was taken directly to the hospital with pneumonia."

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Ninety percent of the work done in this country is done by people who don't feel well. (Theodore Roosevelt)

Endure or Get Rid of the Small Things That Hold You Back

''It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.''

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''Bear'' Bryant, incredibly successful football coach, was once asked why his team was so successful. He responded, ''It's the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny things that beat you.''

Go the Extra Mile

Pat Riley is a super-successful basketball coach. How does he do it? According to one interviewer, ''He convinces his players to sacrifice.'' No player ever comes to practice late. Most are an hour early. 

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Never stop reaching for more:
Do more than exist – live.
Do more than touch – feel.
Do more than look – observe.
Do more than read – absorb.
Do more than hear – listen.
Do more than listen – understand.

John H. Rhoades

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Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.'' (Booker T. Washington)

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''Personally, I have never received a promotion in my life that I could not trace directly to recognition that I had gained by rendering more service and better service than that for which I was paid.'' ( Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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Jim Otto, who wore the number ''OO'' for the Raiders pro football team, was arguably the greatest center to ever play the game. According to player/coach/commentator John Madden, ''If someone came from another planet and wanted to know what a football player looked like, you'd show him a poster of Jim Otto.'' That's how well respected his is in the world of pro football.

For those who don't know football, the offensive center mans the middle of the bone-crunching action, on one play protecting the quarterback from 300 pound defensive linemen and on the next play drilling through them to pave the way for a run. His dedication, intelligence and leadership helped transform the Raiders into one of the most successful football franchises ever. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Yet amazingly, John Madden, Otto's coach for 6 seasons with the Raiders, says, ''Jim was a great football player, but he wasn't a great athlete. He wasn't real big, real strong or real fast.'' So how did he come to dominate his position and become so wildly successful? Madden says ''he made himself into a great football player. He was a hard-worker, a guy who really was committed.''

His work ethic started as a young boy, when he was 9 years old. He would tag along with the high school football players when they went to practice each day. Since there was no room in the car, he'd ride in the trunk. While the high schoolers practiced on the field, he'd go through the same routines off to the side. When they'd finish their drills with the blocking dummies, he'd go throw his skinny body into them, using the techniques that he overheard from the coaches. (p. 34)

Coming from a poor family who didn't have enough money to purchase him a uniform, he did back-breaking bean-picking for $1.50 to $2.00 a day. At that rate, it took him an entire summer to purchase his first helmet. Another summer of work bought him his shoulder pads. (p. 29)

But for all his dedication, his 9th grade coach wouldn't let him play. The coach was prejudiced against players who went to a local Christian school, deriding them as sissies. Jim was ostracized and would come home each day crying. But he wouldn't let his mom talk to the principle about it. He wanted to prove himself. He'd go out each day and practice in his overalls, next to the other players in their uniforms. He was finally given a uniform, although it was much rattier looking than the others, obviously an attempt to embarrass him into quitting.

The coach refused to play him. There wasn't even room for him on the bench, so he sat in the grass next to the bench during games, wearing his ratty practice uniform.

The team won the last game of the season, finishing undefeated. The coach promised that everyone would receive a football letter (the letter initial of the team to be sewn on a jacket). But even this was taken away from him. He received a message from the coach that said he wouldn't be receiving a letter, although others on the team who didn't play at all received letters.

Lesser people would have quit at the first sign of hardship. But Jim kept working. He was determined to become a great football player, and nothing was going to keep him from his goal. When he started with the high school team the next year, he had a different coach who saw his drive and potential and played him. His work paid off as he began to shine, receiving all-state honors and a scholarship offer.

All through high school and college, as well as the pros, he was always at practice, participating whether he was injured or not. His hard work, more than any natural skill or talent, made him into a football great. (Written by Steve Miller, from The Pain of Glory, by Jim Otto and Dave Newhouse, Sports Publishing, Inc., 2000, pp. vii, viii, 29-46)

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Steven Spielberg, wildly successful producer of such films as Schindler's List, ET, Back to the Future, etc., once said, ''I like to sweat the details. The second-unit stuff is what makes the audience eat the popcorn faster. Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.'' (Time Magazine, 1997)

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Successful people are the ones who develop the habit of doing what unsuccessful people won't do. (College president and former pastor Joseph Aldrich)

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Do whatever you can to get a foot into your chosen field. Frank Woolworth, founder of Woolworth's, hated farming so much that he offered to work in a dry goods store for free just for the opportunity to have a future other than farming. This experience gave him the knowledge that led to his eventually owning over one thousand stores before he died. (Source: Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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Director George Lucas poured tons of money into a sci-fi film, but it was rejected. Later, he decided to try another sci-fi movie. This time he did his homework, wanting to produce a modern day fairy tale. He researched kid's movies, ancient myths that have endured, the elements in fairy tales that have made them pass the test of time and be loved by generation after generation of kids.

And his drive for perfection carried over to the filming. To make the space battles look realistic, he based his drawings on a meticulous study of real war footage. He was looking for those elements that make an audience believe what they are seeing. He watched every movie that had ever been made which showed air to air combat. He wanted to know why each shot worked, for instance, that slight roll of the wings that made it look real. It is no wonder, then, that Star Wars grossed $3.5 million in its first 9 days, becoming the most successful box office hit up until that time. (Atlantic Magazine, March, 1979, pp. 47-50)

Strive for Excellence, Quality

Professional golfer Curtis Strange has had many successes including being named Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America in 1985. How does he stand out amid so many outstanding golfers? According to Sports Illustrated, ''Along with immense talent, immense desire is the reason Strange is the decade's most steadily improving golfer.'' Strange says, ''I don't think I have hit a shot in the last 6 years where I haven't given 110%.'' (Sports Illustrated, Jan. 13, 1986)

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''Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.'' (http://www.successories.com/)

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''The quality of your work will have a great deal to do with the quality of your life.'' (Orison Swett Marden)

Never Stop Improving

Larry Bird was one of the greatest basketball players of all time, having won every major distinction that pro basketball gives to its players. How did he achieve so much? In his own words: ''I think hard work is what got me here. I didn't get all the stuff I can do by sitting around. I worked hard for it. I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep going and pushing to get to that next level. And that's what I try to do. I feel I owe it to the fans and the Boston Celtics to be the best I can possibly be year after year, and that's why I keep working.''

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Bill Gates says, ''We never waste a lot of time talking about what we're doing well. It just isn't our culture. Every meeting is about 'Sure, we won in seven of the categories, but what about that eighth category?'' (Steven Levy, ''Gates, Face to Face,'' Newsweek, Dec. 2, 1996, p. 62)

Never Give Up

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. (Thomas Edison)

Work Hard

''If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guiding genius.'' (Joseph Addison)

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Kemmons Wilson, Sr., founder of Holiday Inns, at a high school commencement: ''I really don't know why I'm here. I never got a degree, and I've only worked half days my entire life. I guess my advice to you is to do the same. Work half days every day. And it doesn't matter which half. The first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.'' (Source: Joe Griffith, Speaker's Library of Business Quotes)

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“Successful people are action-oriented. They get things done because they’re not afraid of hard work, and they don’t waste time. They use it in constructive ways. They don’t get into ruts or become bored because they’re too busy looking for new experiences.” (Urban, Hal, Life’s Greatest Lessons or 20 Things I Want My Kids to Know, Great Lessons Press, Redwood City, CA, 1997, pp.  5,6)

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''I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.'' (Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman)

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You have enormous untapped power that you will probably never tap, because most people never run far enough on their first wind to ever find they have a second.**********************

Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day. (Booker T. Washington)

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''The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 percent.'' (Andrew Carnegie)

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Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. (Thomas Edison, American Inventor)

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''Writing books for children is hard work, a lot harder than most people realize. And it never gets easier. The most important thing about me is that I work slavishly – write, rewrite, reject and polish incessantly. I know my stuff all looks like it was rattled off in 23 seconds, but every word and every sentence is a struggle.'' (Theodore Seuss Geisel PhD., better known as Dr. Seuss)

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Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Ever time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves. (Dale Carnegie)

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I've run out of sick days, so I'm calling in dead! (Bumper Sticker)

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Successful Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn once said ''For as long as I can remember, whatever I was doing at the time was the most important thing in the world for me.''

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Benjamin Franklin felt it was not only necessary to be diligent about his work, but also to acquire a reputation for diligence. Because of this, people believed in him and gave his printing business their work. From his autobiography: ''I dressed plainly; I was seen at no Places of idle Diversion; I never went out a-fishing or Shooting;…'' A competitor in the printing business ''was very proud, dress'd like a Gentleman, liv'd expensively, took much Diversion and Pleasure abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his Business, upon which all Business left him….'' Because of his diligence and frugality, Franklin was able to retire early, devoting his time to civic and international affairs, and his inventions. (Autobiography, pp. 67, 73, 88) 

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Enthusiasm and persistence can make an average person superior; indifference and lethargy can make a superior person average. (William A. Ward)

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Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, 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.'' (P.T. Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey's Circus)

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''The most profound basic of all is simple hard work.'' (Pat Riley, one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, in The Winner Within, by Pat Riley, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1993 p. 86)

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The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.'' (Thomas Edison, American inventor)

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When the comic book industry came dangerously close to folding in the late 50's, it is said that artist and collaborator Jack Kirby returned to work with Lee and found him ''sobbing while movers took the furniture out of their offices.'' When their competitors (DC Comics) scored a big hit with their ''Justice League of America'' superheroes, headed by Superman, Lee's boss demanded new characters in response.

The characters he and Kirby invented ''revitalized the industry and revolutionized the form,'' allowing Marvel to dominate the industry. His writing is compelling. In his stories, the characters develop and you see them, not just as super-heroes, but as real people with real problems.  We identify with his characters as they struggle with the same issues in life that we do. Just think of Peter Parker, the high school science nerd who became Spiderman. He loved a girl who didn't love him. He was rejected by his classmates. He faced difficult moral choices. As Lee put it, ''Everybody has problems, and everybody has secret sorrows.'' Lee invented superheroes everyone could identify with.

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In Voltaire's Candide, a Turk gives an important insight on work:  "Work," the Turk says, "keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need."

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I never blame fortune -- there are too many complicated situations in life. But, I am absolutely merciless toward lack of effort. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

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Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can. (Danny Kaye)

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Young Bill Gates didn't just enjoy programming; he was obsessed with it. The summer after his high school graduation, he worked with programmers to test a system. ''All-night programming became the norm'' and marathon work sessions might involve a challenge to find out, according to Gates, ''who could stay in the building like three days straight, four days straight. Some of the more prudish people would say 'Go home and take a bath.' We were just hardcore, writing code.'' (1)

Speaking of the early days of Microsoft, Gates said, ''…for us life was working and maybe going to a movie and then working some more. Sometimes customers would come in and we were so tired we'd fall asleep in front of them.'' (2) For a period of 6 years, Gates took only 15 days off from work. (3) According to one person, ''If you don't like to work hard and be intense and do your best, this is not the place to work.'' (4) The editor of MNC was asked, ''How does Microsoft keep up such a [work] pace?'' He answered, ''One big reason: Bill Gates never sleeps. He's constantly looking for new revenue sources, even when his existing products are generating fat rivers of cash.'' (5)

Another spoke of Microsoft's ''maniacal work ethic.'' How hard do you work for the dreams God's given you? What if we all had the same zeal for God that Bill Gates has for dominating the software market? (6)

1 - (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright February, 2003. Source: Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented An Industry - And Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, pp. 55,56)
2 - (''Just two billionaire buddies sitting around on a Sunday afternoon reminiscing about inventing the most important software ever,'' Press Release, Time Inc., Sept. 12, 1997)
3 - (Bill Gates Speaks, by Janet Lowe, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., p. 37)
4 - (Ichbiah and Knepper, The Making of Microsoft, p. 226)
5 - (Simon Walch, ''X-Ray,'' America Online, Jan. 26, 1998)
6 - (Written by Steve Miller, Copyright Feb., 2003. Source: Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented An Industry - And Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, p. 446)

Balance Work With Rest and Fun

The early builders of Microsoft often worked 80-hour weeks. But they balance it with fun. They'd ''play hockey in the hallways, trick each other, play their musical instruments at work, plaster one another's offices shut, decorate their spaces in any way they chose, and have fun.'' According to one developer, people need to understand that they're all adolescents. (p. 65, Bill Gates Speaks, by Janet Lowe, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

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Super successful coach Vince Lombardi, of the Green Bay Packers, once said that fatigue makes cowards of us all. And although some say, ''If the devil doesn't take a day off, then neither should I,'' some ministers are responding, ''Since when should the devil be my mentor?'' Remember, even God took a day of rest. (© Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved)

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''When it comes to a question of burning out or rusting out, I don't want to do either.'' (Youth minister and author Dewey M. Bertolini, in Back to the Heart of Youth Work)

Balance Work With Relationships

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush; anxious for greater developments and greater wishes and so on; so that children have very little time for their parents; Parents have very little time for each other; and the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world. (Mother Teresa)

Need more resources on "Perseverance"? See also our related categories: Resilience, Motivation .