Quotes from Dan Miller

every problem brings with it the seed of a solution

Embrace the work opportunity you have today. It may be the stepping-stone you need on your way to success.

You can't hammer a nail over the Internet.

Your only "security" is knowing what you do well. Knowing your areas of competence will give you freedom amid corporate politics and unexpected layoffs. Wayne Gretzky was once asked why he was such a great hockey player. He responded with an eloquent morsel of wisdom: "I simply went to where the puck was going to be." An average player would go where the puck was or is.

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both. —James Michener

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eye off the goal." —Hannah More6

Playing it safe is like body surfing in two feet of water. You may not drown, but you're also not in deep enough to catch any but the most meager of waves. The most dangerous strategy is to play it safe. In its place, Break-It Thinkers take risks and break rules and challenge convention, making change an ally." —Robert Kriegel 2

Here are a few mind teasers to help you think in unexpected ways (see answers at end of chapter). • A bus with 15 passengers crashed and all but 9 people were killed. How many survivors were there? • How many animals of each species did Moses take on the ark? • I have 2 coins that total $.35 in value. One is not a quarter. What are the 2 coins?

The fruits of a fulfilling life—happiness, confidence, enthusiasm, purpose, and money—are mainly by-products of doing something we enjoy, with excellence, rather than things we can seek directly.

Just because you have the ability to do something does not mean that it is well-suited to you.

Better questions to ask regarding a career or job choice would be: What was I born to do? What would be my greatest contribution to others? What do I really love to do (and when I'm doing it, time just flies by)? What are the recurring themes that I find myself drawn to? How do I want to be remembered?

Next time you meet someone, try asking, "How are you making the world a better place?" rather than the normal, "What do you do?

If failure is not a possibility then winning is not so sweet.

A Prayer for Joy" Help me, O God, To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad And to follow where it leads. May joy, not guilt, Your voice, not the voices of others, Your will, not my willfulness, Be the guides that lead me to my vocation. Help me to unearth the passions of my heart That lay buried in my youth. And help me to go over that ground again and again Until I can hold in my hands, Hold and treasure, Your calling on my life. —Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul

Perfectionism is not as much the desire for excellence as it is the fear of failure couched in procrastination." —Dan Miller

As Thomas Merton put it, "A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him.

Success is never an accident. It typically starts as imagination, becomes a dream, stimulates a goal, grows into a plan of action—which then inevitably meets with opportunity. Don't get stuck along the way." —Dan Miller

Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you. So carve your name on hearts and not on marble." — C. H. Spurgeon

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." —Mark Twain

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." —Oliver Wendell Holmes

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art." —Leonardo Da Vinci

Have fun in everything you do. Challenge yourself to bigger and better things.

Henry Ford said, "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."3

Continual learning is the key to continual living. If you stop learning you have effectively stopped living.