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| 1 | Introduction We desire success almost as much as we need to breathe. From the moment we are born we want to do more, get more, be more. While we may have a mental picture of success as striving hard toward perfection, in truth it is more natural. Success can be described as the courage to let out the potent dreams and potentialities already in us, simply to give them air. Most people don't do this because it seems dangerous, it is not routine. |
| 2 | Yet those who have gone this way do see it simply as the normal path of life. It feels more like home, a place that should be everyone's experience. Sometimes the urge for more is drummed out of us by upbringing or culture, so you may have felt compelled to lower your expectations and settle for a less extraordinary life. If, however, you have recently resurrected your desire to succeed, this book is for you. |
| 3 | Authentic achievement My previous book, 50 Self-Help Classics, was concerned with the search for authentic happiness and a sense of purpose. 50 Success Classics is about authentic or meaningful achievement. Only you will know whether you have achieved your aims in life. Some people spend their life climbing up a ladder, to paraphrase Joseph Campbell (see 50 Self-Help Classics), only to find it was up against the wrong wall. |
| 4 | This is why the term authentic is used: doing something or becoming something that expresses your full personality and abilities in the most noble way. Success is not an event or a result in isolation, but an expression of the best that is within you. The world provides endless possibilities for making it more efficient, more humane, more beautiful. It is up to you to find your niche. Real achievement is not concerned with winning for the sake of it. |
| 5 | As Timothy Gallwey puts it: "Winning is overcoming obstacles to reach a goal, but the value in winning is only as great as the value of the goal reached." You need to make a distinction between a compulsion to succeed for the sake of winning, and the desire for enduring achievements that will enrich your life and the lives of others. Authentic and lasting success utilizes the resources of the world to the greatest effect and with the minimum of waste. |
| 6 | Characteristics of successful people What makes a person successful? What makes them motivated, prosperous, a great leader? These questions fired the writing of each book covered in this selection, and it is possible to draw out some common threads as answers. The following is only a brief and partial list, but it may whet your appetite to discover for yourself some of the principles of success. Optimism Optimism is power. |
| 7 | This is a secret discovered by all who succeed against great odds. Nelson Mandela, Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt—all admitted that what got them through tough times was an ability to focus on the positive. They understood what Claude Bristol called "the magic of believing." Yet great leaders also have an unusual ability to face up to stark reality, so creating a single powerful attribute: tough-minded optimism. |
| 8 | Optimistic people tend to succeed not simply because they believe that everything will turn out right, but because the expectation of success makes them work harder. If you expect little, you will not be motivated even to try. A definite aim, purpose, or vision Success requires a concentration of effort. Most people disperse their energies over too many things and so fail to be outstanding in anything. |
| 9 | In the words of Orison Swett Marden: "The world does not demand that you be a lawyer, minister, doctor, farmer, scientist, or merchant; it does not dictate what you shall do, but it does require that you be a master in whatever you undertake." So to be successful, you must have higher aims and goals and doggedly pursue their realization. Willingness to work Successful people are willing to engage in drudgery in the cause of something marvelous. |
| 10 | The greater part of genius is the years of effort invested to solve a problem or find the perfect expression of an idea. With hard work you acquire knowledge about yourself that idleness never reveals. A law of success is that, once first achieved, it can create a momentum that makes it easier to sustain. As the saying goes, "Nothing succeeds like success." Discipline Enduring success is built on discipline, an appreciation that you must give yourself orders and obey them. |
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