He had no fears. He had no frustration. He had no regrets about anything or anyone. He had no grandiose ideas of his own importance, but he did have humility of the heart, which made him TRULY GREAT!
Once I was speaking with him about the ten thousand times he failed in his experiments to perfect the incandescent lamp. I asked him "What would you have done if you had not finally uncovered the secret"?
With a merry twinkle in his eyes, he replied, "I would be in my laboratory working now, instead of wasting my time speaking with you."
Edison knew no such reality as "failure".
To satisfy my curiosity about how many failures the average person can survive without quitting and giving up in despair, I once conducted a survey to ascertain the staying power of men and women in the face of failure and defeat.
I observed two of the most important facts concerning men and women who are successful in their chosen fields and those who are not.
The successes SPEAK IN THE FUTURE TENSE OF YET UNATTAINED OBJECTIVES WHICH THEY INTEND TO ACHIEVE.
The failures SPEAK IN THE PAST TENSE OF THEIR DEFEATS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS.
I have never known this Rule to Fail.
There is another trait I have observed concerning successes and failures.
The successful person usually speaks in complimentary terms of others who are succeeding.
Envy and Revenge are ugly words. More ugly still is the character of the person who indulges in these emotions. They represent emotions against which the doors of your mind must be tightly closed if you are to enjoy peace of mind.
Close the doors of your mind to everything that causes you anxiety, fear,pain,envy, greed and the desire to get something for nothing.
The penalty for failure to close these doors will be the loss of the peace of mind which you are seeking.
Your mind is your own. You are the sole supervisor of it's reactions to every circumstance which affects your life.
Learn now to close the door of your mind and shut out negative reactions if you wish to find peace of mind and prosperity."
----Napoleon Hill, "Napoleon Hill's A Year of Growing Rich" 1993
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
No comments:
Post a Comment