The Essence of Success

“Only a few exceptional persons make any serious demands of themselves. The great majority of us miss the far greater accomplishments of which we are capable—and the greater joy in living this would bring to us—because we quit and sit down, gasping at the first sign of fatigue…

The next time you get tired, and you’re doing something important, stay with it and see what happens. Each of us has tremendous second wind, mental and physical. Passing through the fatigue barrier to draw upon our idle reserves can make the difference between existing and really living. Emerson said, ‘Vigor is contagious; and whatever makes us either think or feel strongly adds to our power and enlarges our field of action.’”

“But patience is not passive and should never be confused with idleness and a phlegmatic insensibility. On the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength; it is perseverance—it is knowing that to persevere is to prevail.

Aristotle wrote that patience is so like fortitude that she seems either her sister or her daughter. And Rousseau said, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

A great life, a great home and family, a great career, a great business, a great accomplishment of any kind—all these come with patience—patience with others, with the world and with ourselves. It is said that every day begins a new year for each of us. If you’re in the mood for a little self-improvement—for turning over a new leaf—write the word patience some place where you’ll see it every day for the next, oh, say, 50 or 60 years. You’ll be amazed what this one word can do for your life.

There is as much difference between genuine patience and sullen endurance as there is between the smile of love and the malicious gnash of teeth. If your turn has not yet come, keep at it, and be patient.”

“Two young boys were raised by an alcoholic father. As they grew older, they moved away from that broken home, each going his own way in the world. Several years later, they happened to be interviewed separately by a psychologist who was analyzing the effects of drunkenness on children in broken homes. His research revealed that the two men were strikingly different from each other. One was a clean-living teetotaler, the other a hopeless drunk like his father. The psychologist asked each of them why he developed the way he did, and each gave an identical answer, ‘What else would you expect when you have a father like mine?’”

“According to the Bureau of Standards, ‘A dense fog covering seven city blocks, to a depth of 100 feet, is composed of something less than one glass of water.’ That is, all the fog covering seven city blocks, at 100 feet deep could be, if it were gotten all together, held in a single drinking glass. It would not quite fill it. And this could be compared to our worries. If we can see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn’t tend to blind us to the world, to living itself, but instead could be relegated to their true size and place. And if all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size, you could probably put them all into a water glass, too.”

“Perseverance can accomplish anything. My friend W. Clement Stone tells the story of Tom, who was born without half of a right foot and only a stub of a right arm. As a boy, he wanted to engage in sports as the other boys did. He had a burning desire to play football, of all things. Because of this desire, his parents had an artificial foot made for him. It was made of wood. The wooden foot was encased in a special stubby football shoe. Hour after hour, day after day, he would practice kicking the football with his wooden foot. He would try and keep on trying to make filed goals from greater and greater distances. He became so proficient that he was hired by the New Orleans Saints. Now, just offhand, what would you say a person’s chances of playing professional football were, if he were born without half of a right foot and a withered arm? But the screams of 66,910 football fans would be heard throughout the entire United States when Tom Dempsey, with his crippled leg, kicked the longest field goal ever kicked in a professional football game within the last two seconds of the game, to give the Saints a winning score of 19 to 17 over the Detroit Lions. ‘We were beaten by a miracle,’ said Detroit coach Joseph Schmidt. But they were beaten by perseverance.”

“‘What kind of folks live around here?’ he asked.

‘Well, stranger,’ said the sodbuster, ‘what kind of folks was there in the country you come from?’

‘Well, there was mostly a low-down, lying, thieving, gossiping, backbiting lot of people.’

After a few seconds of reflection, the sodbuster replied: ‘Well, I guess stranger, that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find around here.’

And the stranger had just about blended into the dusty gray cottonwoods becoming a lump on the horizon, when another newcomer drove up.

‘What kind of folks live around here?’ the stranger asked.

And again the sodbuster replied, “Well, stranger, what kind of folks was there in the country you come from?’

The friendly stranger said with a smile: ‘Well, there was mostly a decent, hardworking, law-abiding, friendly lot of people.’

And again the sodbuster said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find around here.’”

“I got to thinking that people are like sailing craft, and you can compare life itself to an ocean. Now, think of the people you know—and think of yourself—as vessels. The smallest would be a little skiff that bounces and bobs even in calm weather over the smallest waves. It isn’t safe to go to sea in a boat that small; it will be swamped by the first large wave that comes along.

From the smallest vessel, let’s go now to the largest ocean liner. It doesn’t even feel the small waves in the harbor. Not until it reaches the great swells of the open sea does it begin to compensate for roll and pitch. And even the worst storms find it equal to the task. It might arrive in port a day or two late, but it will get there safely, with its passengers and cargo.

What kind of vessel are you? Are you the big liner that sails serene and confident far out into the deep, open sea—that pays no attention to the small, or even medium-sized, waves that break and disintegrate against its tall sides? Or are you the small rowboat that bobs and rocks in the slightest breeze?”

“One day a young man came to my office and told me he wanted very much to make a great success of himself. He asked if I could show him the secret.

I told him to decide definitely upon what he considered success to be for him, and then work at it for 12 to 16 hours a day until he achieved it—and when he wasn’t working at it, to think about it. By doing this, he could reach his goal. However, to achieve success, he must force himself back on the track every time he strayed off, realizing that failures are as necessary to success as an excavation is to a basement.

I never saw that young man again. I wonder if he took my advice. It is an unusual person whose desire is larger than his distaste for the work involved.

Successful people are dreamers who have found a dream too exciting, too important, to remain in the realm of fantasy. Day by day, hour by hour, they toil in the service of their dream until they can see it with their eyes and touch it with their hands.”