One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we're truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it's bad enough not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along."
"What will make you successful is your stories, nothing else. Make them strong and you can do anything." [full quote]
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Emerson
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." Emerson
"It is not the length of life, but the depth." Emerson
You can be anything you want to be. That's a good starting place. Anything else and you sell yourself short and compromise your dreams. Your dreams have wings but no feet, no ground, until you put yourself in them and give them life.
You will never achieve anything you don't decide you want to try to reach. That's a reality.
You must decide to become who you want to be. Then you can make plans to become that person-- to learn the skills, meet the challenges, overcome the obstacles and focus the energy necessary to achieve your success. Rob Kall