“Following the path of least resistance is what makes man and rivers crooked” – Larry Bielat
‘Truth is heavy so few men carry it’ – Jewish Proverb
‘Effective mentorship is sine-qua-non for successes’
‘Do not create a storm in a tea cup’
‘Don’t get swallowed up in a cup of water’
Warning: This column may be hazardous to areas of mediocrity in your life.
I know that you have entrusted to me one of your most precious resources, your time. I promise to do my best by the grace of God, to be a good steward of the minutes we spend together. Thank you. Mucho gracias.
Great men are little men expanded. Great lives are ordinary lives intensified. Just one ‘little extra’ will turn your daily ordinary life into extra ordinary living.
I pray from the depth of my heart that you will earnestly locate that ‘little extra’ that will make your joy complete and full.
Life is not a zero-sum game. Life is a choice not a chance. The willingness to go the extra mile actually does make a difference.
Unfortunately, most people have developed a maintenance mentality that minimizes the pain in life but does not allow them to strive for mastery.
You are designed for greatness. Do not entertain the fear of failure. You are not a failure because you failed in your last attempt of something worthwhile.
Failure is not ‘trying and failing’;failure is not trying at all. Many great successes are built on the debris of failure.
Albert Einstein: Physicist
(Best known for the General Theory of Relativity)
Most of us take Einstein’s name as synonymous with genius, but he didn’t always show such promise. Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social.
Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. It might have taken him a bit longer, but most people would agree that he caught on pretty well in the end, winning the Nobel Prize and changing the face of modern physics.
Walt Disney: Business Man
(Founder of The Walt Disney Company)
Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world.But Walt Disney himself had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn’t last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.
Isaac Newton: Scientist
(Best known for: Universal gravitation, Newton’s method, Newtonian mechanics, optics, infinitesimal calculus)
Newton was undoubtedly a genius when it came to maths, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed miserably, so poorly in fact that an uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally blossomed into the scholar we know today.
Thomas Edison: Inventor and businessman
(Best known for Electric Light Bulb.)
In his early years, teachers told Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course, all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.
Henry Ford: Businessman
(Founder of Ford Motors)
While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, he wasn’t an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him broke five times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.
Soichiro Honda: Businessman
(Founder of Honda Motors)
The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for a job after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.
Akio Morita: Businessman
(Founder of Sony Corporation)
You may not have heard of Morita but you’ve undoubtedly heard of his company, Sony.
Sony’s first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didn’t cook rice so much as it burns, selling less than 100 units. This first setback didn’t stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion dollar company.
Orville and Wilbur Wright (Wright Brothers): Airplane Inventors
(Education: Completed High School)
These brothers battled depression and family illness before starting the bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight. After numerous attempts at creating flying machines, several years of hard work, and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.
Abraham Lincoln: US politician and president
While today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of America, Lincoln’s life wasn’t so easy. In his youth he went to war as a captain and returned as a private (if you’re not familiar with military ranks, just know that private is as low as it goes) Lincoln didn’t stop failing there, however. He started numerous failed businesses and was defeated in numerous runs he made for public office.
Any time you are feeling down about your failures in life, keep these famous people in mind and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.
Be unstoppable, no matter what!
You can set your own level in life! The future is so flexible.
ZigZiglar said, ‘People are designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seed of greatness .’
Within us all is a deep well of incredible potential. Bob Richard, the Olympics pole-vaulter, said,
“There is genius in every man.”
You have incredible potential, yes, but you will only achieve in life when you begin to stretch yourself and realize that life will not necessarily give you what you desire but what you diligently put demand on.
The genius in you is crying for expression. You need to do things, believe things, and think in new and better ways. Indeed, very few could die totally satisfied with the fact that they did everything, and were everything they could have been.
One of the tragedies of life is that most of us settle for mediocrity rather than reaching for good success. Most of us generally focus on the wrong thing(s). The fastest way to destroy a great destiny is to have a double or wrong focus. Sometimes, we look up to those who excel and call them lucky or blessed. We want to be like them, and we often try to imitate their behavior and learn from their lives.
It is easy with such an undertaking to focus on the wrong thing-to try to copy the actions, skills and practice of the successful rather than getting to the heart, the inner working, of such a life. Unfortunately, others respond more negatively to the successful individual. These people’s hearts are filled with envy, secretly delighting in the failure of others and critical of any who are achieving beyond the norm.
Such smallness of spirit is the seedbed for ‘village gossip’ and harmful attitudes towards the very leaders who could help us rise to their level.
In examining this phenomenon and its impact upon the economics of community and nations, the series of my writings is born to challenge us to make the most out of life by tapping into the mystery and benefits of excellence in life. My writing is for those who are truly allergic to mediocrity and are ready to push themselves into the ocean of excellence. Excellence is not the native of any country.
Every man of distinction is a product of inspiration. Success is not attainable in isolation but association. More often than none every lone ranger dies alone. There is nothing new under the sun. There is nothing you want to accomplish that people have not accomplished. There are no new successes, but new successors. The choice of the right mentor is the beginning of success. Elisha had only Elijah and he was worth more than all the other sons of the prophets. If you lack somebody to inspire you, you are sure to expire. Every reference in life must have a reference
Avail yourself of the accomplishment of others to inspire you. Everyone needs inspiration; pay the price for it. Most people are suffering from inspiration deficiency. You need inspiration to keep you in motion.
You need inspiration to get you out of frustration. There are men, books, writings, works, etc positioned by God to inspire you for great things ahead.
The secrets of men are in their stories; read their books, and listen to them and you will encounter the secret that made them great. Inspiration is getting fired up by the gallant steps of others. You are not copying them but integrating what is working to your life. The hob of every outstanding accomplishment is information.
Critics are always looking out for what is not working or what is wrong and will hardly see what works to inspire them. If you will live an open hearted life, your will not lose colour in life. Allow good things to set you on fire. Don’t criticize them. Stretch a little extra, walk the extra mile and turn defeats and failures into outstanding success. DON’T GIVE UP!
Every reference in life must have a reference.
END OF YEAR PRAYERS / DECLARATION
- As this year is running to an end, my life, marriage, career, business shall not run to an end, in Jesus name.
- I shall see the end of this year, this year shall not see my end, in Jesus name.
- End of year disaster and tragedy; disappear from my life and family, in Jesus name.
- People shall not gather in my house to mourn this year, celebration shall overtake celebration in my family, in Jesus name.
- I shall not end this year in the grave, mortuary or sick bed, in Jesus name.
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