Quotes About Success

Creativity is a consequence of sheer productivity. If a creator wants to increase the production of hits, he or she must do it by risking a parallel increase in the production of misses. . . . The most successful creators tend to be those with the most failures!3 —Dean Keith Simonton, researcher, summarizing academic studies on individual creativity

there is little reason to believe that managers or other authorities will make more accurate predictions than anyone else about which new ideas will succeed and fail.

A hallmark of "successful" assholes is that they recruit, entice, or bribe toxic enablers to clean up the messes they leave behind—much like the cleanup crew that picks up the trash and poop after the circus parades through a town.

innovative companies need a wide range of ideas and that success requires a high failure rate.

Flying is only a figure for something else. If you cannot succeed here at this, then you will fail elsewhere at other things. You must strengthen your will, for you do not need a master. In truth, you have too many masters. It is being said that everyone is your master.

This one went unusually smoothly. When I finished it, I remarked to a friend that I felt like an engineer who had designed a machine and then sat back and realized it did everything I'd set out to do. Which made him say, quite emphatically, "No engineer has ever felt this.

The quality of a university is measured more by the kind of student it turns out than the kind it takes in.

Set priorities for your goals. A major part of successful living lies in the ability to put first things first. Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.

Success is doing our work one task at a time, one step at a time, one moment at a time, relishing the smallness of it while trusting God for its power to change the world through chain reactions of blessings we'll recognize only in heaven. So we must practice the power of plodding and despise not the day of small things.

And that's why He promises in the first psalm that as we internalize His Word and mull over it day and night, we'll be successful, converting His logic into our lives. We'll be like apple trees planted by rivers of water, bearing fruit in season, with leaves that don't wither; and whatever we do will prosper.

Our thoughts are the most important thing about us. All that we achieve or fail to achieve is the direct result of our thinking. Our thoughts are like seeds that produce crops.

The first four steps of selling are familiar to most people. Being a successful salesman requires: Having a product to sell that other people value. Locating a market (i.e., buyers) for your product. Implementing a sales presentation and/or marketing strategy. Closing the sale. These four steps have been discussed in many sales books, but, remarkably, I've never seen the fifth—and most important—step discussed in any book: 5. GETTING PAID!

Cornerstone No. 3 is the Mortality Theory, which states: Given that your time on earth is limited, it makes good sense to aim high and move fast.

Stressed-out individuals tend to press too hard for results at crucial moments, and the harder someone presses for a result, the less likely it is he will achieve it.

The first one is the Tortoise and Hare Theory, which states: The outcome of most situations in life are determined over the long term. The guy who gets off to a fast start merely wins a battle; the individual who's ahead at the end of the race wins the war. Battles are for ego-trippers, wars are for money-grippers.

In summation, if someone feels the psychological need to hold court, that's his business. Your job is to mind your business. Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by someone else's knowledge—or apparent knowledge. What another person knows or doesn't know will not affect your success one way or another, so from your standpoint it's an irrelevancy

Driving over the bridge separating downtown Kansas City from the old airport, my commission check safely locked away in my briefcase, my attorney looked over at me and asked, "Well, how do you feel?" Without hesitating, I looked at him and replied, "Deserving.

During the ensuing heated discussion, he said two things that would ring in my ears for the remainder of my days at Screw U. First, he said, "You have a lot of nerve trying to earn $15,000 on one deal. I mean, you're only a broker." Wham—right between the eyes. Talk about painting a clear picture of how I was perceived by a lender.

By contrast, a real positive mental attitude can play a major role in one's success, but such an attitude is a result of being prepared. In other words, a true positive mental attitude is possible only through one's having the ammunition to back it up.

You develop a positive mental attitude by being good at what you do, by understanding the realities of what it takes to succeed, and by having the self-discipline to base your actions on those realities.

I guess you might say that it was a paradox of sorts in that I prepared for long-term success by bracing myself against the effects of short-term failure. I again emphasize that this philosophy works only if you are prepared to succeed. It does not work if you simply use it as an excuse to fail in a situation where it may have been possible to succeed had you tried harder or been more persistent.

Stated in theory form, what I'm talking about here is the Theory of Intimidation, which states: The results a person achieves are inversely proportionate to the degree to which he is intimidated.

He hoped the experiment would indeed succeed today. The next Gray Council was coming up soon, and he and Adikor would have to explain again what they were giving back to the community through their work. Scientists usually got their proposals approved—everyone could clearly see how science had bettered their lives—but, still, it was always more satisfying to report positive results.

stuff." "You can have all