Quotes About Effort

I couldn't unpeach the peaches.

At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then--and only then--it is handed to you.

No one ever said it would be easy

An honest work generates its own power; a dishonest work tries to rob power from the cataracts of the given.

But books don't happen by accident.

Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it. -

The Cul-de-Sac ( French for dead end ) ... is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes

When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it's not, dream bigger.

A brilliant author or businesswoman or senator or software engineer is brilliant only in tiny bursts. The rest of the time, they're doing work that most any trained person could do.

The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice.

Mediocre is merely a failed attempt to be really good.

If it wasn't a mystery, it would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't be worth much.

There are fewer and fewer good jobs where you can get paid merely for showing up. Instead, successful organizations are paying for people who make a difference and are shedding everyone else. Just

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it. And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

1. Your business needs more linchpins. It's scary to rely on a particular employee, but in a postindustrial economy, you have no choice. 2. You are capable of becoming a linchpin. And if you do, you'll discover that it's worth the effort.

Finding security in mediocrity is an exhausting process. You can work only so many hours, fret only so much. Being a slightly better typist or a slightly faster coder is insufficient. You're always looking over your shoulder, always trying to be a little less mediocre than the guy next to you. It wears you out.

A great school experience won't keep you from being remarkable, but it's usually not sufficient to guarantee that you will become so. There's something else at work here.

My new favorite word is 'awkward.'...The reason we need to be in search of awkward is that awkward is the barrier between us and excellence, between where we are and the remarkable. If it were easy, everyone would have done it already, and it wouldn't be worth the effort.

Excellence isn't about working extra hard to do what you're told. It's about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.

Sometimes, never let them see you sweat, is truly bad advice. The work of an individual who cares often exposes the grit and determination and effort that it takes to be present. Perfecting your talk, refining your essay and polishing your service until all elements of you disappear might be obvious tactics, but they remove the thing we were looking for: you.

For the rest of us, it's not about what you're born with, it's about what you do.

Selling ice cream on the beach in the summer is easy. Raising people's expectations, engaging in their hopes and dreams, helping them see further—that's the difficult work we signed up for. From now on, your customers know more than you do about your competitors. And so your commodity work, no matter how much effort you put into it, is not enough.

People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of. Organizations settle too. For good enough instead of best in the world. If you're not going to put in the effort to be my best possible choice, why bother?

It's insulting to call a professional talented. She's skilled, first and foremost. Many people have talent, but only a few care enough to show up fully, to earn their skill. Skill is rarer than talent. Skill is earned. Skill is available to anyone who cares enough.