How to Succeed in Life – Through Famous Quotes of the Most Successful People on Earth
No commentsThis is a repost and a slight modification from my old website. I thought it would be useful to post again:
Years ago I made it my desire to be successful in life and be able to give back to the world. I was raised on the principle that you should leave the world a better place than when you came.
I have searched high and low, read books, magazines, websites, listened to podcasts, and watched videos seeking guidance in my goals to be, in the words of Borat, a “great success.”
Although the idea of success is different to every person – whether it be money, fame, or something as simplistic as to have a good family life. I have learned that the rules and advice to reach your idea of success are the same everywhere for everyone.
Below is a list of the most common advice that I have collected from those who have made it. Note that in order to make the list, the advice, or some variation, had to of shown up more than once and from more than one person.
So here it is, what one should do in order to become successful.
Convince Your Brain That You Are Already Successful (Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Problogger.net)
I truly believe that the human mind is far more powerful than anything in the world. This is why navy seals can hold their breath for so long and why people can learn to ignore pain. With the proper training, you can train your mind to do about anything.
Convincing your brain that you have already achieved a goal makes you that much closer to it. I have learned that goals are much more difficult to achieve when they are placed up on a pedestal. Believing that you have attained them already keeps them on your level and makes them easier to achieve.
“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” -Bill Cosby
Learn To Go With Your Gut Instinct (Anyone who has ever founded a startup)
I remember a high school teacher of mine telling me to always go with my first instinct on a test. Well the same rule applies in life and in business. Always do what feels right at the time. Although you probably won’t be right every time, you will be when it really counts.
“When in doubt, don’t.” -Benjamin Franklin
Life Is All About Relationships So Don’t Burn Bridges (Tina Seelig, Stanford Professor)
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” -Theodore Roosevelt
You will run into the same people over and over again in life so you need to make good relationships now.
You are not going to like everyone and everyone is not going to like you, no matter how nice of a person you are or how much you donate to charity. Just take a look at Bill Gates. He and his wife probably donate more to charity than anyone, yet he still had a group of people who hate him.
“Don’t be so petty. Sometimes you have to do business with people you don’t like. It doesn’t mean you have to be like them or like them.” -Donald Trump
Learn to treat all people with respect, no matter what.
“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.” -Thomas Jefferson
Learn Everything You Can On Sales And Marketing
“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success… The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” -Thomas A. Edison
No matter how cool the newest technology is, it is useless unless it provides value.
Would you use the slick looking iPod if it was difficult to use? What if it didn’t even play music? Would you use Google if you got back a “No results found” message every time?
Create things with value to the user in mind before anything else. Then learn to convey your message.
Many Ideas Come Out Of Something That Already Exists
Barbara Carey has used this concept to bring over 100 products to market and acquire more than a dozen patents.
“There’s a way to do it better – find it.” -Thomas A. Edison
Be Persistent (Napoleon Hill, Barbara Carey)
“I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work… Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.” -Thomas A. Edison
Successful people do not get that way accidentally nor do they usually achieve great success on the first try.
“All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.” -Mark Twain
Make Mistakes Then Learn From Them
“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” -Thomas A. Edison
If the answer is no, find out why. If you get the wrong answer, learn the right one.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
Know Your Weaknesses And Surround Yourself With Positive People That Can Do What You Cannot
This is similar to the “self-fulfilling prophecy” and why many people who are told that they will never amount to anything often don’t. If somebody tells you enough times that you are a mongoose, after awhile you will probably start believing them. Surround yourself with encouraging people that believe in you and you will believe in yourself.
If you are passionate about your idea, it is likely that others will be also and they will want to help you. Call on those people when you need them.
Learn To Say No
Saying no to someone is better than saying yes and not being able to give 100%. I used to think that I could and should do everything I had an opportunity to do, but have since learned that it is not possible.
“You can do it all, just not all at the same time.” -Tina Seelig
Try New Things And Keep What Works
“When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.” -Thomas A. Edison
Ideas are like baseball, your going to strike-out more than you hit out of the park and your probably going to bat under .500.
“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” -Thomas A. Edison
When You Are Ready To Quit, You Are Closer Than You Think (Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy)
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” -Thomas A. Edison
Many things that have failed could of succeeded with a little more effort.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” -Thomas A. Edison
Learn When To Call It Quits (Om Malik)
In contrast you don’t want to beat your head on to a wall repeatedly and expect different results.
As I said above, try lots of things and keep what works. If nothing works and your most creative part of your brain is exhausted. Maybe you should pull the plug. After all, the most important decision that we make everyday is what we spend our time on.
Never Miss An Opportunity
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Always give 100%.
“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” -Thomas Jefferson
Above is the advice that I have collected on my road to success, I hope it helps others as it has helped me.
USF Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies ranked 5th in Princeton Review
No commentsSo I finally decided to take the plunge and get my masters degree – something that I have thought about since before I graduated from Florida Southern College. Up until last fall I hadn’t found a program that I really liked that was attainable.
After searching around, I stumbled upon the Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies MS program at the University of South Florida. Princeton Review had the program ranked 9th in 2007 and 5th in 2008 for Entrepreneurship programs and Colleges and Universities. It was exactly what I was looking for and available 30 minutes from my doorstep!
Here are some excerpts from a recent St. Pete Times article:
USF launched its Center for Entrepreneurship in 2002 after decades of offering entrepreneurship courses within its traditional MBA program. It was recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship three consecutive years beginning in 2004.
Last year, the Princeton Review ranked it No. 9 in the nation after surveying entrepreneurial offerings from more than 2,300 undergraduate and business schools. In September, the Review named it No. 5.
What makes USF’s program different, says director Michael W. Fountain, is the cross-discipline involvement of the university’s colleges of business, engineering and medicine.
…
Among the more than 30 businesses launched by recent graduates is a health and fitness center, a bath and skin care line, and an independent record label.
All are important to the regional economy, Fountain said, since roots for home-grown businesses run deeper than transplanted ones and are better able to weather adverse economic conditions.
…
But there’s more to the program than starting new businesses, USF officials say. The program also teaches students how to strengthen the performance of existing companies, a talent that makes them attractive hires.
Love-Hate Relationship with Cell Phones
No commentsWith Kristi and I drawing to the end of our cell phone contract with Alltel, I am beginning to look at what other options are available to possibly switch from Alltel. The 3 problems we face by switching providers are:
Friends and Family
Most of our friends and family have Alltel also. This is nice because Alltel offers free cell-to-cell between Alltel customers. So, we can talk for free to just about everyone we talk to on a regular basis and, therefore, never come close to going over our minutes, even with my various business ventures.
Service Great, Phones Suck
With “smart” phones like the iPhone and the G1 from Google being released every few months, it sucks that Alltel is usually the last carrier to get the things the cool kids are using. But in the same breath, my phone has bars where many friends do not get service with carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
Where I Live
I just found out that T-Mobile does not have high speed towers in Central Florida so if I got the G1 we would not have access to many of the advanced features. Asside from that is the alternative of getting an iPhone. They are probably the slickest of the bunch but the plans are over-priced and I swore I would never return to AT&T. I am anxious to see what the new Blackberry looks like and if it solves my problems. (Note: This was written before it’s release)
*UPDATE*
Verizon and Alltel Merger
Now that Verizon and Alltel are joining forces, I think we’ll wait and see what they offer. Last I heard, the merger will commence sometime during mid January. I hope it doesn’t take as long as the AT&T/Cingular merger.
Ignorant People Should Not Vote!
No commentshttp://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3
After listening to this the other day, I thought of a brilliant idea. Why not put a simple but relevant 5 question quiz at the top of every ballot and if you cannot get at least 3 questions correct then your vote doesn’t count. This will ensure that only informed people vote. This example is against Obama but I’m sure this kind of ignorance happens on both sides of the coin. Trust me, I live in Central Florida. I see it daily.
Disclosure: Personally, I like both Obama and McCain. I just feel people should be educated before making decisions like this.
iBrowser – Free Image Uploader for Tiny MCE (and SPAW, FCKeditor, Xinha, and HTMLarea)
No comments
I, like many other people, did not realize that TinyMCE did not include the image upload plug-in as shown in the full featured example. But after using TinyMCE for quite some time without the image upload feature, I became comfortable with the interface and the source code, and was hesitant to switch.
In the forum I came across a third party plug-in iBrowser written by Jaeger Consulting that works with Tiny MCE, SPAW, FCKeditor, Xinha, and HTMLarea.
The readme is vague at best and doesn’t offer any solutions to troubleshoot problems. Of course, the plug-in didn’t quite work right out of the box. Following are the steps I took to implement iBrowser.
- Download the latest version of both iBrowser (1.3.8) and TinyMCE (3.1.1 at the time of this writing)
- Upload the “ibrowser” directory to the TinyMCE “plugins” directory
- Create one or more directories to store uploaded images and edit config/config.inc.php
$cfg['ilibs'] = array (
array (
‘value’ => ‘/path/from/webroot/images/’,
‘text’ => ‘Images’,
),
array (
‘value’ => ‘/path/from/webroot/gallery/’,
‘text’ => ‘Gallery’,
),
);
- Ensure that ibrowser/scripts/phpThumb/cache, ibrowser/temp, and your image directories have write privilages (i.e. 755).
- Copy the file ibrowser/interface/tinyMCE.editor_plugin.js with your corresponding version number to ibrowser directory. If your version number is not there, use generic javascript file without the version number.
- When you include TinyMCE in a page with javascript (tinyMCE.init), make sure that the following options are included.
tinyMCE.init({
...
plugins : "ibrowser",
...
theme : "advanced",
theme_advanced_buttons3_add : "ibrowser",
});
- If you included everything correctly, you should see a new icon in your editor. If you don’t, you are either using an incompatible versions of TinyMCE/iBrowser or your paths are wrong. Try the other TinyMCE Javascripts and double check where the iBrowser directory is located. It should be in the plugins directory of TinyMCE. If that doesn’t work, download a version of TinyMCE that is compatible with iBrowser (see interface directory).
- If you do see the new icon but nothing happens when it is clicked then you must add a line to the begining of the javascript file you are using.
var ib = null;
- If you open iBrowser, click Insert, then click Upload and you do not see a green icon with a white arrow to the right of the Browse button then you must modify ibrowser.php to have a smaller input box, say 40 instead of the default 53. This uncovers the upload button.
<input name=”nfile[]” type=”file” class=”fldlg” id=”nfile[]” size=”40″
- That should be all you need to enjoy the benefits of uploading images to web pages with iBrowser. Let me know if anyone else finds any other problems that I didn’t address. Enjoy!
Oil Prices and Energy Conservation – The problems with America
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Photo by Ianz
This 4th of July got me thinking…
Don’t get me wrong, I love the United States. I love BBQ, free refills, and I prefer ice in my drinks. However, I feel the US could take a page out of the books of other countries and regions when it comes to conservation.
To conserve energy, Japan has sensors that turn on escalators as people approach.
Using native or local plants for landscaping. For instance, using cactus to landscape your desert home or using palm trees to decorate your tropical home. Although this is beginning to gain popularity, it is not yet the social norm.
Satellite sprinklers are currently gaining popularity even though the technology has been around for many years. These satellites link to a receiver in your yard to communicate local weather reports to your sprinkler system. If it is going to rain, your sprinklers say off.
Public transportation and bullet trains are probably the most cost and energy efficient methods of transportation. How come it has taken us so long to start considering this when Europe has had an extensive rail system for years.
The list goes on…
If I were a political leader, I would visit these countries, write down all of their great ideas, and bring them to the United States to be implemented and offer grants for those willing to research and develop the technologies.
Although, I am suffering too, in a weird way, I am glad gas prices have sky rocketed. Every-time oil increases in cost, the topic gets 10 more seconds on the evening news and gets 80,000 more people thinking of ways to lessen our dependence on oil.
Update
Shortly after posting this, I received an email from a friend with a link to an article entitled “10 Things you Can Like about $4 Gas.” The article re-emphasizes my point that although we are suffering at the pump, pain is the fastest innovator because it causes necessity and people begin thinking and acting differently.
From the article
But it’s also true that Americans are finding options where there seemed to be none. They’re ready to change — and waiting for their infrastructure to catch up. They are driving to commuter-rail lines only to find there are no parking spots left. They are running fewer errands and dumping their SUVs. Public-transit use is at a 50-year high. Gas purchases are down 2% to 3%. And all those changes bring secondary, hard-earned benefits.
…
“Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there’s also no faster mechanism to change behavior.” The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption.
Engagement Photos
No commentsSo we got our engagement photos done last weekend and got to view the online proofs pretty quickly after that. I was expecting maybe 10 poses or so, but it ended up being a 3 hour ordeal. I’m not complaining, because I feel we definitely got our money’s worth but it was pretty exhausting. I’ll never say modeling isn’t difficult again. Anyhow, below is a couple of my favorite photos from the shoot. If you are looking for a great photographer and do not want to spend a fortune, check out Bryant’s Photography.
New Site, Fresh Start
No commentsSo I finally decided to switch my website over to Wordpress, a content management system specifically built for blogging. Until now I had been updating and editing my website with text editors and uploading files manually, which took too long, so I rarely did it. In order to rank well with search engines, websites must provide useful information and content must be added often. This was difficult with the old method and it seems that Wordpress is the new normal CMS for both personal and many business for both John Doe down the street and sites like About.com and the New York Times.
New Site
No commentsI am in the process of updating my new site with some of my old content…Please check back soon.
Eliot Dill’s Employee Review 2003
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Lifeguard Employee Review 2003