quotes

1. “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” —Norman Vincent Peale


2. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” —Walt Disney

3. “Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.” —Pauline Kael


4. “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” —George Herbert


5. “Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.” —George Whitefield

Elon Musk biography

In this success story, we are going to share Elon Musk biography, the CEO and CTO of SpaceX CEO, chief product architect of Tesla Motors, chairman of SolarCity, and co-founder of PayPal. Musk is also involved in developing a high-speed transportation system known as Hyperloop. Elon Musk invests in the projects that can change our world. He is not only an entrepreneur but also an inventor, innovator, and engineer: Musk personally participates in designing of electric cars and spaceships.

Elon Musk was the second entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley (the first one was James H. Clark) who managed to create three companies with the market cap of more than $1 billion – PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. Elon Musk dedicates himself to space and alternative energy technologies. He plays by some different rules and does that quite successfully. The distinctive personality traits of Elon Musk are perseverance, critical thinking, accurate self-analysis and hard work (he works 80-100 hours per week).


To be continued....

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

"

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try." —

Positive Thinking

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply… I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Believe in Yourself

There may be days when you get up in the morning and things aren’t the way you had hoped they would be.

That’s when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. There are times when people disappoint you and let you down.

But those are the times when you must remind yourself to trust your own judgments and opinions, to keep your life focused on believing in yourself.

There will be challenges to face and changes to make in your life, and it is up to you to accept them.

Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you. It may not be easy at times, but in those times of struggle you will find a stronger sense of who you are.

So when the days come that are filled with frustration and unexpected responsibilities, remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be.

Because the challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.

Keep Believing in Yourself!

The important things in life

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.


He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining open areas of the jar.

He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party, or fix the disposal.”

“Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

Don’t Try to Be Better Than Someone Else; Try to Be the Very Best You Can Be

Coach John Wooden said one of the most important things his father taught him was this:

Never try to be better than someone else, but always be learning from others. Never cease trying to be the best you can be. One is under your control; the other isn’t

It was an idea that ultimately defined how he approached life and competition.

In his book Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court with Steve Jamison, Coach Wooden explained how he used this idea as a coach:

“Preparing UCLA for a basketball game with Louisville or Arizona or Duke or Michigan, I would tell my players, ‘We can’t control what those other fellows do to get ready. We can only control what we do to get ready. So let’s do our very best in that regard and hope that will be good enough, yes, to outscore them. But let’s not worry about that. Instead, let’s worry about our own preparation.’

“Let’s say I want to build a car—maybe a Ford or a Chevrolet or a Plymouth. I want to build it the best I can possibly build it. Will it be better than a Cadillac or a Mercedes? That’s irrelevant.

“If I’m building a Ford, I simply want to build the very best Ford I can build. That’s all I can do: to come close to my level of competency, not somebody else’s. I have nothing to do with theirs, only mine.

“To worry about whether what I’m building is going to be better than what somebody else is building elsewhere is to worry needlessly. I believe that if I’m worried about what’s going on outside, it will detract from my preparation inside.

“My concern, my focus, my total effort should be on building the very best Ford I can build. I did that in coaching high school teams and in coaching college teams. My focus was on making that team, that group of individuals, the best they were capable of becoming, whether it was a Ford or a Cadillac.

“Some years, I understood we were building a Ford. Other years, I felt we were building a Cadillac. The effort put forth in all years was the same: total.

“And I was just as proud of our well-built Fords as of our well-built Cadillacs.”

In Coach Wooden’s book The Essential Wooden with Steve Jamison, Dave Meyers, the captain of the 1975 UCLA team, summed it up this way:

“Coach Wooden never limited himself by thinking about what’s possible. He focused on the right now and was more involved with the better than the best. Let’s get better, not worried about if it makes us best. His whole deal was about improvement—getting better without talking about winning, or beating another team, or winning a national championship. ‘Let’s keep getting better and better’ could have been his motto.”

The Challenge To Be More Than Average

This sense of conformity is a lie which has been sold to the majority, the 9-5 life is not a truly fulfilling way of living, it is just a means of surviving, the majority of people are not living to their highest ideal, they are just working to pay their bills and get by in life. The challenge to be more than average is what should drive the majority, but it is just a way of living that a minority have the courage to pursue, a truly successful life is one in which you are living life in a way that is aligned to your values of who you are. Are you living life on your terms, the answer is most probably no, the majority of people did not plan their life so they just settle for the life that they have fell into, the famous quote states that ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’, you are most probably living a mediocre life as the majority do, but don’t be disheartened, you can create the life of your dreams one step at a time, one challenge at a time, one goal at a time, and one year at a time. Start today to create the life that you want to live, and one year from now you will be at a different place than most.

Life planning is not something which is taught in schools, it doesn’t seem to carry much importance, but it is vital that you plan out your life. Do you have a plan of what you want to do?

People make plans for what they want to do for their holidays, but they don’t seem to make plans for their life, is that not strange that the majority just ignore that fact that they don’t have any major plans for their life. Doesn’t it seem strange that we make plans for seven days, but don’t have any idea what we want to do for seventy years, it is strange. Make plans for your life or life will make plans for you, and those plans will not involve the pursuit of greatness or a meaningful life filled with accomplishment.

What areas do you need to make a plan for, your life work, your financial freedom, your time, your family life, your dreams, your goals, and your aspirations. Why do people just leave their future in the hands of others, why do people just let others decide how to live their life. Why do you not make your life a matter of importance. You must have a plan of what you want to do with your life, or it will just unfold in whatever way, make plans for all aspects of your life that will result in the betterment of your life and take it to greater heights.

Why do you not have a plan for your life, do you want to just be a failure. Make a plan of what you want from life and stick to it with persistence. People want to do more but they never start doing anything about it, before you build a house you make a plan, you have a blueprint, you have a design, you have a grandiose plan, what is your grandiose plan for your life, nothing right, just a life of mediocrity, a life of no meaning, you are here to be your best self, so do you just resign yourself to mediocrity. Each person has the capability to impact the world in a positive way. Don’t just confine yourself to where you are, aim for greater heights in life and dare to live the life of your dreams. You can do more, you can do more, believe me when I say this, you are more powerful than you know. You are the CEO of your life, so start living with a sense of purpose and drive, and focus on success so that you can live a life of greatness.

Hard Work lead to a successfull life

Successful people know what the meaning of hard work is, they don’t sit around acting like everyone else. Those who are dedicated to living life on their terms spend time every single day working on their goals, it’s not a maybe, it’s a must, you must allocate time to success.

Most people have a laid back approach to life, they say I will do something different tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next year. The question is why are you not doing it today, why is there such a lacklustre approach to life, people get comfortable in average, do you really think that this is you at your highest potential, just know that you can do more.

Success only comes from hard work, nothing will come to you without putting in the time and effort, move away from the way everyone else is living, you have to start acting differently, if you want to live differently, don’t act like everyone else. People make time for failure, but they haven’t got time for success.

The beginning is the hardest because you are building something out of nothing, you are laying down the foundation for your future, the foundation must be strong so that no matter what happens you persevere and continue building until you are where you want to be.

Don’t give up, the weak give up, stay consistent and make time for life-improvement every single day, allocate one to two hours of your day to success, if you don’t make success a priority how do you expect to become successful.

If you want to become an entrepreneur you must get in the game, start something today with what you have, nothing is perfect in the beginning, improvements come about from failure, how do you expect to know what works and what doesn’t if you don’t start something. Reading, learning and researching are great on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur, however taking action is the best thing that you can do.

The most progress you will make in terms of becoming an entrepreneur is to take action, that is what takes you from where you are, to where you want to be, get on the road of success.

Talk is truly cheap, people love to complain but when it comes to putting in the work they’re nowhere to be seen, people like to talk big, but they don’t get up and grind, people are deluded, they are living in a state of delusional insanity. Do you want to be like everyone else, make a choice today, average or great. If you want to see changes in your life, make some changes, if you do nothing, you get nothing. People who are serious get up and put in the work.The dreams that seem unattainable became attainable through hard work, hard work will take you anywhere you wish to go, believe in yourself you can do this. Nothing worth having comes easy in life, don’t ever give up on your dreams.

35 Inspirational Roy T. Bennett Quotes On Success

Roy T. Bennett  is a thought leader. He loves sharing positive thoughts and creative insight that has helped countless people to live a successful and fulfilling life. He realizes that he should spread these thoughts by writing and inspire you to believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. He hopes that his writing will help you become what you are capable of becoming. May his quotes inspire you to take action so that you may live your dreams.


1. “If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.” Roy T. Bennett

2. “Kindness is not a business. True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions.” Roy T. Bennett

3. “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” Roy T. Bennett

4. “Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you.” Roy T. Bennett

5. “You will never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Roy T. Bennett

6. “Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do.” Roy T. Bennett

7. “Some things cannot be taught; they must be experienced. You never learn the most valuable lessons in life until you go through your own journey.” Roy T. Bennett

8. “You are in charge of your own happiness; you don’t need to wait for other people’s permission to be happy.” Roy T. Bennett

9. “Always remember people who have helped you along the way, and don’t forget to lift someone up.” Roy T. Bennett

10. “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.” Roy T. Bennett

11. “Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be true.” Roy T. Bennett

12. “Let go of something old that no longer serves you in order to make room for something new.” Roy T. Bennett

13. “If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.” Roy T. Bennett

14. “Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses, and start making excuses.” Roy T. Bennett

15. “Each day brings new opportunities, allowing you to constantly live with love – be there for others – bring a little light into someone’s day. Be grateful and live each day to the fullest.” Roy T. Bennett

16. “I will spread the light in my heart and make a positive impact in the world.” Roy T. Bennett

17. “Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes.” Roy T. Bennett

18. “Difficulties and adversities viciously force all their might on us and cause us to fall apart but they are necessary elements of individual growth and reveal our true potential. We have got to endure and overcome them, and move forward. Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.” Roy T. Bennett

19. “If you do not make change, change will make you.” Roy T. Bennett

20. “Great leaders create more leaders, not more followers.” Roy T. Bennett

21. “Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice but because you are.” Roy T. Bennett

22. “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” Roy T. Bennett

23. “Make peace with yourself before you move forward. Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward.” Roy T. Bennett

24. “Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It’s your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you, do what makes you feel alive and happy.” Roy T. Bennett

25. “Start each day with a positive and grateful heart.” Roy T. Bennett

26. “A random act of kindness, no matter how small can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.” Roy T. Bennett

27. “You can change the people you choose to be around.” Roy T. Bennett

28. “You need to decide who you are for yourself.” Roy T. Bennett29. “Be brave and take risks. You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.” Roy T. Bennett

30. “You will never follow your own inner voice until you clear up the doubts in your mind.” Roy T. Bennett

31. “Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.” Roy T. Bennett

32. “Good things happen in your life when you surround yourself with positive people.” Roy T. Bennett

33. “It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” Roy T. Bennett

34. “Do not lie to yourself. We have to be honest about what we want and take risks rather than lie to ourselves and make excuses to stay in our comfort zone.” Roy T. Bennett

35. “Dreams don’t come true unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.” Roy T. Bennett

Bill Gates Success Story

Bill Gates is an American entrepreneur, programmer, investor and philanthropist. He and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft which is the #1 software company in the world. In 2015 their revenue was $93.6 billion. Bill Gates is the richest man on earth with a net worth of $76 billion. He was the CEO of Microsoft until January 2000, currently he is the Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella. He focuses a lot of his time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that is why he has taken a less demanding role at Microsoft so that he can focus more on philanthropy.

Early Life

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on the 28th of October 1955. His father is William H. Gates Sr and his mother is Mary Maxwell Gates. He has one older sister Kristi Gates and one younger sister Libby Gates. At the age of 13 he enrolled in Lakeside School a private preparatory school. While at that school he took an interest in programming the General Electric system in BASIC and was excused from classes to pursue his interest. He built his first computer program on the General Electric machine. Gates met Paul Allen at the school and they worked together to find bugs in the PDP-10 system belonging to Computer Center Corporation. Gates, Paul and two other students wrote a payroll program for Information Sciences in exchange for computer time and royalties. After that it lead on to his school becoming fully aware of his programming skills, he created a program to schedule students in classes.

At the age of 17 he and Paul started a venture called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on Intel 8008 processors. Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973 and was a National Merit Scholar, he scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT. He enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973 where he met Steve Ballmer. Gates did not have a study plan at Harvard but spent a lot of time using the computers. In 1974 he joined Paul Allen at Honeywell. In 1975 the MITS Altair 8800 based on Intel’s 8080 CPU was released. Bill and Paul saw this as an opportunity to start their own software company.

Microsoft Story

In 1975 Gates read an article in the January of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted MITS, the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. Gates and Allen did not have any written code, they wanted to gauge the interest of MITS. They met with the MITS president and had developed an Altair emulator within few weeks to demonstrate on a minicomputer and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration was a success which lead onto a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen in November 1975. They named their partnership Micro-Soft, a year later the hyphen was dropped, and on 26th of November 1976 the trade name Microsoft was registered.

IBM approached Microsoft to write a BASIC interpreter for the new IBM PC, Gates referred them to Digital Research as they required an operating system, but the discussions did not go well. So IBM representatives spoke with Gates around the discussions and he proposed using 86-DOS owned by SCP, an operating system similar to hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC DOS in exchange for a one time fee of $50,000.

The sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry. Despite IBM’s name on the operating system on the operating system, the press quickly identified Microsoft as being very influential on the new computer. The computer was called by an expert in the industry as “Gates computer”. The company was restructured on the 25th of June 1981, Gates become the president and board chairman.

Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on 20th November 1985 and struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. IBM & Microsoft developed the first version of the new system successfully, but their partnership deteriorated due to creative differences.

Microsoft has been growing ever since. The software and hardware products have been expanding from Windows OS, Microsoft Office Suites, Office 365, Xbox, Bing, Hotmail, the list goes on. It all began with the first idea, and then they built upon that.

Since 1975 Microsoft has had a domination over the software market, Windows software is used in most companies. They have consistently kept up with the pace of change and that is why they remain the #1 software company in the world.

Philanthropy

Gates started his foundation the William H. Gates Foundation in 1994 by selling some of his shares in Microsoft, he was inspired by the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, in 2000 he and his wife merged the three family foundations to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, their foundation is the worlds wealthiest, with assets valued at more than $34.6 billion. As of 2007 Bill and Melinda Gates were the second most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity.

Reading

Bill Gates loves to read books, he is an avid reader, on his personal blog gatesnotes he has over 150 book recommendations. As a kid he loved to read and self-education is one of the traits of successful people.

If he can do it, so can you.

Gates did not build the first OS that IBM used, he bought the licensing rights from SCP and then continued to build upon that to create the company that Microsoft is today.

You don’t have to create something new, you can take a product and improve upon it so that it is excellent.

Do something that you are passionate about, Bill Gates loves computers. So find your passion and start a venture around that.

Believe in yourself.

Help others

I hope his story inspires you to reach for the stars, nothing is impossible to achieve. Do not look at Bill Gates as if he is super human, he is just a man who worked smart and worked extremely hard to get to where he is. He is an example of what one can achieve with the right mindset, team, tools, resourcefulness, vision and entrepreneurial spirit. May you have the courage to start your journey and persist until you get to where you want to be.

Inspirational Sundar Pichai Quotes On Success

Sundar Pichai is an Indian-American business executive. Pichai is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Google Inc. Formerly the Product Chief of Google, Pichai’s current role was announced on 10 August 2015, as part of the restructuring process that made Alphabet Inc. into Google’s parent company, and he assumed the position on 2 October 2015. May his quotes inspire you to believe in yourself and chase your dreams.

“I do think it’s important to follow your dreams and do something which you are excited by. If you follow your heart and do what you like, you will always do much better. It doesn’t matter what your educational qualification is.” Sundar Pichai

“Wear your failure as a badge of honor.” Sundar Pichai

“A person who is happy is not because everything is right in his life, he is happy because his attitude towards everything in his life is right.” Sundar Pichai

“My dad and mom did what a lot of parents did at the time. They sacrificed a lot of their life and used a lot of their disposable income to make sure their children were educated.” Sundar Pichai

“What strikes me every single time is that the aspirations of Indians are unique and unparalleled. They’re very demanding, regardless of background.” Sundar Pichai

At Google, we have an ambitious approach to things we do, we call it Moon shots.” Sundar Pichai

“We try to work on things which billions of people will use every day.” Sundar Pichai

Best Inspirational Short Stories

The Best  Inspirational Short Stories About Life

When life has got you in a slump, turn to these motivational short stories. Not only is reading them like getting an internet hug for the soul, but they just may spark an idea or a change in you for the better. Read on and get ready to smile.


1. Everyone Has a Story in Life

A 24-year-old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…
“Dad, look the trees are going behind!”

Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old’s childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…
“Dad, look the clouds are running with us!”
The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…
“Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?” The old man smiled and said…“I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.”
Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

2. Shake off Your Problems

A man’s favorite donkey falls into a deep precipice. He can’t pull it out no matter how hard he tries. He, therefore, decides to bury it alive.

Soil is poured onto the donkey from above. The donkey feels the load, shakes it off, and steps on it. More soil is poured.

It shakes it off and steps up. The more the load was poured, the higher it rose. By noon, the donkey was grazing in green pastures.

After much shaking off (of problems) And stepping up (learning from them), One will graze in GREEN PASTURES.

3. The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

4. Potatoes, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Moral:In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?

INSPIRING STORY OF JEFF BEZOS

Who is Jeff Bezos?

Born on the 12th of 1964, Jeff Bezos is the Founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com, the online merchant of everything that has played a significant role in the upliftment of eCommerce as well.

Today, with an estimated net worth of $66.7 Bn, Jeff is listed as the 3rdwealthiest person in the world (August 2016). Under his guidance, Amazon.com has also risen up to a market cap of $292.6 Billion and has become the world’s largest online retailer and a model for Internet sales.

Other than Amazon, Jeff is also the proud owner of privately-funded aerospace developer and manufacturer “Blue Origin” and had also purchased “The Washington Post” newspaper as well.

“Blue Origin” is a human spaceflight start-up company that was founded in 2000! This was due to his love for space travel. Their idea was to commercialise space travel. The company was kept secret for a few years, and only came to be known publicly in 2006 when it purchased a large piece of land in west Texas for the launch and test facility.

In 2013, Jeff also discussed commercial spaceflight opportunities and strategies with multibillionaire founder of Virgin Group and Chairman of Virgin Galactic – Richard Branson.

But in November 2015, Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle successfully flew to space and also reached its planned test altitude before executing an historic vertical landing back at the launch site in West Texas.

Going ahead – Blue Origin in an extensive flight test program of New Shepard expects to begin carrying “test passengers” in 2017 and initiate commercial flights in 2018. Currently, they are building six vehicles that will support all phases of testing and operations,

The Washington Post

In October 2013, Jeff had purchased The Washington Post newspaper for $250 million in cash, under the name Nash Holdings LLC. This also led to the exit of the longtime owners the Graham family who owned the paper for about 140 years straight.

In March 2014, Bezos made his first significant change at the paper and lifted the online payment barrier for subscribers of some number of US local newspapers

Additionally, he has also made several other business investments through his personal investment company – “Bezos Expeditions”. Some of these investments include: -

Airbnb (sharing economy), StackExchange (technology publishing), Twitter (social networking), Uber (sharing economy), Business Insider (publishing), Crowdrise (for-profit charitable giving platform), General Fusion (sustainable energy nuclear fusion), Aviary (software photo editing), D-Wave Systems (quantum computing), Glassybaby (supports cancer patients), Juno Therapeutics (cancer biopharmaceuticals), Lookout (technology mobile security), MakerBot Industries(3D printers), MFG.com (manufacturer direct marketplace), Nextdoor (localized social networking), Rethink Robotics(manufacturing robots), and many more…

In 1998, Jeff also invested in Google.comand became an early investor. He invested $250,000 in against of roughly 3.3 million shares. These shares today are worth roughly about $2.2 billion today.

Other than that, being a well known philanthropist, Jeff has also made several not-for-profit contributions as well.

Talking about his accomplishments, Jeff has a list accolades attached to his name, some of these include: -
Named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year (1999)
Selected as one of America’s best leaders by U.S. News & World Report (2008)
Named as Businessperson of the Year by Fortune (2012)
Awarded with the Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization (2016)! The prize money of $250,000 was donated to the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space by Bezos

Talking about his personality and personal life – Jeff is known to be highly secretive! His biographer had to literally dig inside a trash can to discover that a company called – Blue Origin existed. All, most people know is, he is married to MacKenzie and have four children! Other than that, very little is known about what he does outside of Amazon and running his venture capital firm.

beginning of his life journey

Jeff had founded Amazon.com in 1994

He first got the idea to start an Internet enterprise in 1994. He was surfing the Internet in search of new ventures for D.E. Shaw & Co. to invest in. That is when he stumbled upon a statistic stating that World Wide Web usage was growing by 2,300% a month.

This coincided with a then-new US Supreme Court ruling holding that mail order catalogs were not required to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence.

Bezos immediately recognized the expansive possibilities of selling online and began exploring the possibilities of developing an Internet business around it.

He jotted down a list of 20 potential products that held the potential to sell through the Internet. After reviewing the list, books turned out to become the obvious choice! Primarily because of the ­­­­­­number of titles that existed. Jeff noticed that even the largest superstores could stock only a mere fraction of what the available books, and a “virtual” bookstore could offer millions of titles.

And it was decided! Jeff passed up a fat bonus, packed his wife, and their dog and headed for a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle. MacKenzie drove during the trip, while Jeff jotted down the business plan and started calling prospective investors.

And just like that – Amazon.com was formed!

Initial years

The company was started with an initial seed investment of $1 Million from family and friends, in the garage of a house that they rented!

He chose Seattle as the ideal city for his new venture because, not only was it home to a tremendous pool of high-tech talent, but it was also in close proximity to Ingram Book Group’s Oregon warehouse.

For the next one year, Jeff along with his initial team of five employees worked on learning how to source books and setting up a computer system that would make Amazon.com easy to navigate.

And finally in July 1995, with an option of more than 1 million titles, Amazon.com opened its virtual doors and called itself “Earth’s Biggest Book Store”.

With just word of mouth and emails, Amazon became an instant success. The orders had started to pour in.

In the next three years, Amazon.com grew on to become from a company with 100 employees that drew sales of more than $15.7 million, to a company , to a company of more than 3,000 employees and more than $610 million in sales, in just 3 years.

The growing years

What was interesting to note was that, even though their sales were growing at a rate of 3000% annually and by now, they had become country’s third-largest bookseller: but they were yet to make money. In fact, the company lost about $30 million in 1997, followed by another $1.25 million in 1998.

But Jeff belonged to a very different mindset, and all of these things didn’t affect him. He wanted to make Amazon the most customer-centric company in the world.

Keeping that in mind – running behind profitability or becoming profitable at that point would have been a bad decision, according to Jeff! This was being done in favour of establishing brand-name recognition, and to achieve that, most of Amazon’s revenues were being poured into marketing and promotion.

Soon, Amazon was seen to be expanding itself into other markets including: music, gifts and pharmacy sections. To cash in on the growing popularity of online auctions such as eBay and uBID, Amazon also joined Sotheby’s Holdings Inc in June 1999 to launch the online auction site sothebys.amazon.com, as well.

This strategy of the company worked well in their favour! Although, this irked a few investors, but the strategy helped the company survive the dot-com bubble burst. And albeit the bubble burst costed them 1500 of their employees; unlike their competitors who got wiped off, Amazon managed to stay afloat.

In fact, the company announced their first ever profit of $5 million on revenues of more than $1 billion, or one penny per share, in the 4th quarter of 2001.

The re-valuation of Amazon also led Jeff to look for ways to diversify Amazon’s business model, which eventually led to Amazon Marketplace, which let Amazon customers to sell their used books, and other products alongside Amazon’s own offerings. Till date, Amazon’s used-items marketplace remains undefeated and is still the largest in the world.
The decade…!

By 2004, roughly 60% (and growing) of US households had Internet access, and Amazon was he #1 sensation on the internet. From books and CDs to clothing, electronics, to almost everything, Amazon was uniquely positioned to take advantage of the growing number of Americans who were shopping online. They were now drawing revenues worth $6.9 billion, which further increased to $8.5 billion in 2005 as well.

Ten years back, when Amazon had just begun, New York Times doubted that 20 million people used the Internet on a regular basis, and that their business model held any potential. But there is no doubt that, any such doubts existed in its head.

Amazon further went on to add Amazon Prime program and free two-day shipping within the continental United States for a $79 annual fee. In 2007, they also introduced Amazon Kindle – a lightweight device for reading electronic books. This move largely became responsible for the creation of the eBook market in the U.S. and abroad.

Later, Amazon also entered the tablet market with the Kindle Fire, their low-cost alternative to the iPad, as well
By 2014, the company had further grown its revenues to ₹88.8 billion, which has now further grown on to Revenue Increase $107 billion in 2016. They now hold a market cap of $292 Billion as well.
Jeff becomes the third richest person in the world…!

It was recently reported in July 2016 that Jeff ($65.3 billion) has surpassed Warren Buffett ($64.9 billion) to become the third wealthiest person in the world.
But how did that happen?

Well, Jeff owns close to 18% of Amazon. Now, with the drastic growth in business, their stock price too had risen by 50% since February. To add to that – after Amazon reported better-than-expected results of around $850 million in profit for the second quarter and their share price rose further in after-hours trading as well.
On the other end, Warren Buffett who also owns close to 18% of Berkshire, had made a donation of $2.86 billion of Berkshire stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. This affected their stock price greatly.

Furthermore – there has been a Wells Fargo bank’s fake account scandal, which has led the bank to be fined with a combined $190 million by the California and federal regulators as it was alleged of illegally opening millions of unauthorized accounts to meet their aggressive internal sales goals.

This further resulted in a 3% drop in company shares and Warren Buffett, who owns 2 million shares of Wells Fargo, lost $1.3 Billion. To worsen things more – Berkshire Hathaway also owned 10% of the bank.

The only two billionaires richer than Jeff Bezos remain Bill Gates ($78 billion) and founder of Zara – Amancio Ortega ($73.1 billion).
This is what led to Jeff’s rise, and Warren Buffett’s fall drop!

ELON MUSK

INSPIRING STORY OF ELON MUSK

Ranked 34th Richest in America and 38th most Powerful in the world –– Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, chief product architect of Tesla Motors, chairman of SolarCity, and co-founder of PayPal, and overall – an entrepreneur, business magnate, investor, engineer and inventor.

As of June 2016, he has an estimated t be of net worth of $11.5 Billion, making him the 83rd wealthiest person in the world.

He is known to be the second entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley (first: James Clark) who has managed to create three companies that have a market capitalization of more than $1 billion – PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors.

He is one of the few people that believes in investing in projects that hold the potential of change our world. As a matter of fact, Elon personally participates in the designing of electric cars and spaceships at his companies.

Elon has also designed the goals of SolarCity, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX that revolve around his vision to change the world and humanity. His goals include reducing global warming by use of sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the risk of human extinction by making life multi-planetary, by setting up a human colony on Mars.

Talking about philanthropy –– he runs an organization called Musk Foundation, to fulfil his philanthropic efforts on providing solar-power energy systems in disaster areas.
It collaborated with SolarCity to donate a 25-kW solar power system to the South Bay Community Alliance’s (SBCA) hurricane response centre in Coden (Alabama) (2010).
Donated $250,000 towards a solar power project in Sōma (Japan) that had been recently devastated by tsunami (July 2011).
Donated $1 million towards the construction of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe and also pledged to build a Tesla Supercharger in the museum car park, to cartoonist Matthew Inman and the great-nephew of Nikola Tesla – William Terbo (July 2014).
Donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute to run a global research program aimed at keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity (January 2015).
Trustee of the X Prize Foundation and a signatory of The Giving Pledge (2015)

His family includes his parents, Maye (mother), Errol (father), Tosca (sister), and Kimbal Musk (brother). He has been married twice, and has two wives and six children.

GROWTH OF ELON MUSK

Every biography of famous people usually contains key episodes from their lives that lead them to an overwhelming success. Elon has his share of stories as well!

Elon was born on the 28th of June 1971 in South Africa, to a model and dietician mother and an electromechanical engineer father.

After his parents divorced in 1980, Elon lived mostly with his father. During that phase, he developed an interest in computing with the Commodore VIC-20.

He self learned computer programming and used to sell the code for a video game he had created called Blastar for $500, to a magazine called PC and Office Technology.

Throughout his childhood, Elon was severely bullied and was even hospitalized when was thrown down a flight of stairs and then beaten until he blacked out.

After graduating from a secondary school in Pretoria, Elon left his home, and migrated to the United States. Without the support of his parents! Although, he didn’t get into the United States right away!

He first moved to Canada to the relatives of his mother in 1989 and attained a Canadian citizenship and moved to Montreal. He began with low paid jobs and somehow survived at the brink of poverty. At the age of 19, he moved to Queens University (Ontario).

Elon Musk studied for two years in Ontario and then, finally, got the opportunity to relocate to the United States in 1992. He had received a scholarship from The University of Pennsylvania: Penn.

He went on to complete his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and then also went on to achieve a degree in Economics from The Wharton School.

In 1995, Elon finally moved to Stanford University in California to attain a PhD in applied physics and materials science but left the program after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations in the areas of the Internet, renewable energy and outer space.

And that’s where it all began!

After dropping out of Stanford, Elon and his brother Kimbal borrowed $28,000 from their father and launched a software company called Zip2 in 1995.

The Internet was beginning to expand by manifolds, and newspapers were trying to figure out how they could make the best use of the new medium.

That is when the Musks decided to help the newspaper publishers and developed an online city guide for them. Soon, the company also won contracts from major players in the industry, including The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and even persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch.

Eventually, in February 1999 the Musks sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. Elon received $22 million for his 7% stake from the sale.

Soon after the sale, using $10 million from the sale of Zip2, Elon co-founded another venture called X.com!

X.com was an online financial services and e-mail payment company, which got merged in about a year with Confinity – that had a money transfer service called PayPal.

The merged company mainly focused on the PayPal service. Its early growth was driven mainly by a viral marketing campaign where new customers were recruited when they received money through the service.

In October 2000, Elon was overthrown from his role as CEO (although he remained on the board). This was due to the disagreements with other company leadership over his desire to move PayPal’s Unix-based infrastructure to Microsoft Windows.

All of this happened in the late 2000, when Elon took his first vacation in a long time. While he was on the flight, which was still in the air en route to Australia, is when the PayPal’s board fired him and made Peter Thiel the new CEO.

The merged entity was eventually renamed to PayPal in 2001 as well!

And then in October 2002, PayPal was sold to eBay for $1.5 Billion in stock, of which Elon, who was the largest shareholder, received US$165 million for his 11.7% stake.

But Pay Pal was not the end of the road for Musk; on the contrary, it was merely the beginning of far more ambitious projects. One being – Space exploration! Elon always wanted to make, sending people to different planets, possible.

And, in 2001, he decided to fulfil it as well. Elon began by conceptualizing a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, that would contain food crops growing on Martian regolith called –– “Mars Oasis”.

He even travelled to Moscow along with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college), to buy refurbished ICBMs (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) that could send the envisioned payloads into space in 2001, and also met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras, too.

But, to their luck – Elon was seen as a novice and was denied of the requirement, and the group returned empty-handed.

Not ready to give up, the group returned back to Russia bringing along Mike Griffin in February 2002. Mike had worked for the CIA’s venture capital arm – In-Q-Tel; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and was just leaving Orbital Sciences (a maker of satellites and spacecraft).

This time they went on a hunt for three ICBMs and even met with Kosmotras, but since they were offered a very expensive price of $8 Million, Elon stormed out of the meeting and returned back.

While on his flight back, Elon realised that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed. Upon calculation, he noticed that the raw materials for building a rocket actually costed for only 3% of the sales price of a rocket at the time.

And by applying vertical integration and the modular approach from software engineering, they could cut the launch price to one-tenth of its original value and still enjoy a 70% gross margin.

Ultimately, with $100 million from his early fortune, in June 2002, Elon ended up founding Space Exploration Technologies,or SpaceX.

He was the CEO and CTO of the California-based company, which aimed to develop and manufacture space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology.

Since its initiation, the company has gone on to create a lot of news, for several of its accomplishments. Their first two launch vehicles (Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets), and their first spacecraft (Dragon), became the 1st two privately funded liquid-fuelled vehicles to put a satellite into Earth orbit.

In seven years, SpaceX has also gone on to design a family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft, which has also berthed with the ISS (International Space Station).

Furthermore, in 2006, SpaceX also received a contract from NASA to continue with the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station.

This was followed by a $1.6 Billion NASA Commercial Resupply Services program contract for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station that would replace the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011.

Over the period of time – SpaceX has grown on to become the, both the largest private producer of rocket motors in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for any known rocket motor.

Presently, Elon is now working on the first unmanned flight of the larger Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) spacecraft that is aimed for departure to the red planet in 2022. This will be followed by the first manned MCT Mars flight in 2024. He wants to colonize Mars!

Moving on!

In 2003, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning had incorporated Tesla Motors, and had started with their own funds until the Series-A round of funding.

Both men played active roles in the company’s early development. In February 2004, their raised their Series-A round of funding from Elon Musk, which led to the integrating of Elon on Tesla’s board as its chairman.

Although, Elon wasn’t involved in the day-to-day business operations of the company, he still had an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level.

It was only in 2008, after the financial crisis that he assumed the position of the CEO and product architect, under whom, Tesla Motors built an electric sports car – the Tesla Roadster in 2008, which accounted for sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries.

In 2010, Tesla Motors became the second car-manufacturing company (after Ford) in the US history to launch their initial public offering (IPO). Despite being unprofitable for 10 years, Tesla got listed on NASDAQ with $17 per stock and attracted more than $225 million of investments as well.

Since then, the company has gone on to develop several models, including – their four-door Model S sedan, the Model X, the Model X, electric powertrain systems for Daimler for the Smart EV, Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for the RAV4 EV.

As of January 29, 2016, Musk owns about 28.9 million Tesla shares (about 22% of the company), and takes home an annual salary of $1, and similar to Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, the remainder of his compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses.



OTHER VENTURES

Other than these – Elon also owns or has invested in several other ventures as well.

To begin with – given that he wanted to help combat global warming, Elon had invested in SolarCity, which was co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. Today, he is the largest shareholder of SolarCity that has also become the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.

In 2013, Elon had unveiled a concept for a high-speed transportation system, called – Hyperloop. It would integrate reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. Basically, transporting people from one place to another in high-speed compact capsules!

The conceptual foundations and designs for the transportation system has already been made and approved by a dozen of engineers from Tesla Motors and SpaceX. And an early design for the system has also been published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs as well. The total cost of Los Angeles-to-San Francisco Hyperloop system is being estimated at $6 Billion.

Recently, in December 2015, Elon Musk has also announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. It aims to develop artificial general intelligence that is safe and beneficial to humanity.

It wants to make AI available to everyone, and reduce the power from the corporations who own super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress the people.

Overall – since the beginning, Elon has made a total of 20 investments that include – NeuroVigil, Vicarious, SolarCity, Stripe, Tesla Motors, OneRiot, Mahalo, SpaceX, Game Trust, Everdream, and PayPal.

And lastly, during his journey – the most important and valuable lesson that he has learnt and still follows is that….

“The most difficult thing in life will be to come up with the right questions!”

9 Famous People Who Will Inspire You to Never Give Up

“Never give up.” It’s probably one of the most cliché phrases you’ll hear as you’re building your career. But there’s a reason these sayings are clichés—you never know when success really does lie around the next corner.

We know believing that is easier said than done, so we collected the following stories of famous celebrities who definitely never gave up, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling, for starters.

All these folks are now household names, but they didn’t become one easily. Some lived in their car, others suffered family abuse, and almost all encountered rejection after rejection professionally and personally—before finally landing a foot in the door. Read on and get inspired!


1. J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling had just gotten a divorce, was on government aid, and could barely afford to feed her baby in 1994, just three years before the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published. When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected dozens of times until finally Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight year-old daughter fell in love with it.



2. Stephen King



King was broke and struggling when he was first trying to write. He lived in a trailer with his wife—also a writer—and they both worked multiple jobs to support their family while pursuing their craft. They were so poor they had to borrow clothes for their wedding and had gotten rid of the telephone because it was too expensive.

King received so many rejection letters for his works that he developed a system for collecting them. In his book On Writing, he recalls: “By the time I was 14...the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.” He received 60 rejections before selling his first short story, "The Glass Floor," for $35. Even his now best-selling book, Carrie, wasn’t a hit at first. After dozens of rejections, he finally sold it for a meager advance to Doubleday Publishing, where the hardback sold only 13,000 copies—not great. Soon after, though, Signet Books signed on for the paperback rights for $400,000, $200,000 of which went to King. Success achieved!


3. Jim Carrey


When Carrey was 14 years old, his father lost his job, and his family hit rough times. They moved into a VW van on a relative’s lawn, and the young aspiring comedian—who was so dedicated to his craft that he mailed his resume to The Carroll Burnett Show just a few years earlier, at age 10—took an eight-hours-per-day factory job after school to help make ends meet.

At age 15, Carrey performed his comedy routine onstage for the first time—in a suit his mom made him—and totally bombed, but he was undeterred. The next year, at 16, he quit school to focus on comedy full time. He moved to LA shortly after, where he would park on Mulholland Drive every night and visualize his success. One of these nights he wrote himself a check for $10,000,000 for “Acting Services Rendered,” which he dated for Thanksgiving 1995. Just before that date, he hit his payday with Dumb and Dumber. He put the deteriorated check, which he’d kept in his wallet the whole time, in his father’s casket.


4. Tyler Perry


Perry had a rough childhood. He was physically and sexually abused growing up, got kicked out of high school, and tried to commit suicide twice—once as a preteen and again at 22. At 23 he moved to Atlanta and took up odd jobs as he started working on his stage career.

In 1992 he wrote, produced, and starred in his first theater production, I Know I’ve Been Changed, somewhat informed by his difficult upbringing. Perry put all his savings into the show and it failed miserably; the run lasted just one weekend and only 30 people came to watch. He kept up with the production, working more odd jobs and often slept in his car to get by. Six years later, Perry finally broke through when, on its seventh run, the show became a success. He’s since gone on to have an extremely successful career as a director, writer, and actor. In fact, Perry was named Forbes’ highest paid man in entertainment in 2011.


5. Sarah Jessica Parker


Parker was born in a poor coal-mining town in rural Ohio, the youngest of four children. Her parents divorced when she was two, and her mother remarried shortly thereafter and had an additional four children. Parker’s stepfather, a truck driver, was often out of work, so the future starlet took up singing and dancing at a very young age to help supplement her mom’s teaching income and feed their 10-person family.

Despite hard times and occasionally being on welfare, Parker’s mom continued to encourage her children’s interest in the arts. The family moved to Cincinnati, where Parker was enrolled in a ballet, music, and theater school on scholarship. When she was 11 years old, the family took a trip to New York City so Parker could audition for a Broadway play. The trip was a success—she and her brother were both cast, and the family relocated to New York. Parker continued to work hard and land roles, eventually becoming the title character of TV juggernaut Sex and the City.


6. Colonel (Harland) Sanders


Colonel Harland Sanders was fired from a variety of jobs throughout his career before he first started cooking chicken in his roadside Shell Service Station in 1930, when he was 40 years old, during the Great Depression. His gas station didn’t actually have a restaurant, so he served diners in his attached personal living quarters.

Over the next 10 years, he perfected his “Secret Recipe” and pressure fryer cooking method for his famous fried chicken and moved onto bigger locations. His chicken was even praised in the media by food critic Duncan Hines (yes, that Duncan Hines). However, as the interstate came through the Kentucky town where the Colonel’s restaurant was located in the 1950s, it took away important road traffic, and the Colonel was forced to close his business and retire, essentially broke. Worried about how he was going to survive off his meager $105 monthly pension check, he set out to find restaurants who would franchise his secret recipe—he wanted a nickel for each piece of chicken sold. He drove around, sleeping in his car, and was rejected more than 1,000 times before finally finding his first partner.


7. Shania Twain


Twain’s career actually began more out of necessity than raw ambition. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she rarely saw her father. Her mom and stepfather, to whom she grew close, often couldn’t make enough to get by, so Twain started singing in bars to make extra money when she was just eight years old.

She recalls her mother waking her up at all hours to get up and perform. Sadly, when she was 21, her mother and stepfather were killed in a head-on car accident with a logging truck on the highway. Twain put her career on hold to step in and take care of her three younger siblings (who were in their teens at the time). She sang in resorts and put off going after big-time stardom until her sister and brothers were old enough to care for themselves. Only once her youngest brother graduated high school did she feel OK heading down to Nashville to pursue her career.


8. Emily Blunt


Before Blunt was getting nominated for Golden Globes and landing leading roles on the stage and big screen, she could barely carry a conversation with her classmates: Between ages seven and 14, Emily had a major stutter. As she told W magazine, "I was a smart kid, and had a lot to say, but I just couldn't say it. It would just haunt me. I never thought I'd be able to sit and talk to someone like I'm talking to you right now."

But that all changed when one of her junior high teachers encouraged her to try out for the school play—a totally unappealing feat given the fact that she had such a hard time communicating. But the teacher kept gently pressing and suggested she try accents and character voices to help get the words out—and it worked. By the end of her teens, Blunt had overcome her stutter and went on to achieve the successful career she has now.


9. Oprah Winfrey

Oprah’s dealt with a lot throughout her public life—criticism about her weight, racism, intrusive questions about her sexuality, just to name a few—but she never let it get in the way of her ambition and drive. When you look at her childhood, her personal triumphs are cast in an even more remarkable light.

Growing up, Oprah was reportedly a victim of sexual abuse and was repeatedly molested by her cousin, an uncle, and a family friend. Later, she became pregnant and gave birth to a child at age 14, who passed away just two weeks later. But Oprah persevered, going on to finish high school as an honors student, earning a full scholarship to college, and working her way up through the ranks of television, from a local network anchor in Nashville to an international superstar and creator of her OWN network (we couldn’t help ourselves).

A Step by Step Process That Will Help You Make the Impossible, Possible

A Step by Step Process That Will Help You Make the Impossible, Possible

1. The Invisible

This is the area we know nothing about since it’s is not even on our radar. We don’t know that it exists, only when we discover (by accident) or someone else tells us that, do we move the needle from the Invisible to Impossible.

Let me give you some examples of The Invisible.

Ibrahim Hamato – A table tennis player with no hands. He plays using his mouth and neck, but the biggest surprise is how he serves.

Building a 15 story hotel in 6 days in China is an every day activity.

Charlie Munger reads 500 pages per day. Considering that the average book is around 250 pages, that means he reads 2 books a day or 650-700 books a year. An average American reads less than 4 a year.

The Invisible now becomes visible. You know that it’s happening somewhere out there but not here, not where you are, not in your life. So that’s why the Invisible becomes the Impossible. “Oh wow, that’s amazing. But it’s impossible for me.” So welcome to the second stage.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

2. The Impossible

This is the area of get-rich-quick schemes. This is where the hagglers mostly operate, promising to give you something that would move you from the Impossible area to the Actual area, but it doesn’t work like that in real life. You are not accustomed to that kind of lifestyle and you can’t handle the jump.

If you need a proof of that, just look at what happens to the lottery winners who go from rags to riches. The suicide and depression rate within that group is one of the largest in the country, and the paradox is that they were happier with their lives before they won the lottery.

All of the steps need to be taken in order and you can’t jump through them. You need to feel each and every single one of them and figure out how to get from one to another. From the area of the Impossible, you start questioning how. How do I get there? How do I move ahead? This asking leads you to the mindset shift (from fixed to growth mindset) needed to make something impossible, possible.

3. The Possible

When you shift your mindset from a fixed to a growth mindset, that’s when you reach the Possible area. You start believing that it is possible FOR YOU to achieve that. It is no longer something which exists out there for someone else and it’s no longer for the people you think are made from a different cloth.

You start believing (and proving to yourself) that there is no “made from a different cloth.” You realize that there is just hard work, perseverance, and belief. Now, the biggest hurdle has been jumped and it’s time to give your mindset shift complementaries. The complementaries are based in knowledge and skills. When you start working in the area of the Possible, that’s when you step into the next area of the Probable.

4. The Probable
This is where you mix your mindset shift and the belief that you can do it, with the necessary knowledge and skills to do it. This is where your Why and How gets its What.

In the area of the Probable, you learn the What of the craft. You learn how to make your dream and your vision a reality. This is the part where habits and every day (compound) actions take place. This is one of the longest periods because most skills take so much time to become second nature.

If you want to achieve your vision and dream, you need to attain mastery in the field  which would bring you there. Mastery simply takes time, but don’t be discouraged, you are now on the right path and success is inevitable. Just keep on pushing, keep on working, keep on grinding and believe it will happen. When it happens, you will begin to enter the last phase.


“No one gets very far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.” – Elbert Hubbard

5. The Actual

This is where your vision and your dream becomes a reality. This is the end goal you will feel, touch, smell, and live through. But only if you believe, work for it and achieve mastery. This is the place where dreams come true but it isn’t a magical place that fell from nothing. It is a product of your beliefs and hard work you put in for years until you saw the desired results.

At that moment, the hard work and perseverance finally pay off in the best feeling in the world, the feeling of accomplishment. The moment when you conquered not the people around you or the environment, but the moment when you conquered yourself.

And because of that, you are now living your dream in the reality.

35 Inspirational Quotes On Humanity That Will Make You A Better Person

Humanity is defined as; compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition: the quality or state of being humane; the quality or state of being human. May these quotes inspire you to be a more humane individual so that you may make the world a better place.
Here are some of the most inspiring quotes ever:

1. “People have become educated but have not become human.” – Abdul Sattar Edhi

2. “Be a good human being, a warm hearted, affectionate person. That is my fundamental belief.” – Dalai Lama

3. “Being human is given. But keeping our humanity is a choice.” – Anonymous

4. “Be kind to all creatures.” – Buddha

5. “Politeness is the flower of humanity.” – Joseph Joubert

6. “You must not lose faith in humanity.” – Mahatma Gandhi


7. “Be the reason someone smiles today.” – Anonymous

8. “I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ – the human race – and that we are all members of it.” – Margaret Atwood

9. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” – Dalai Lama

10. “Who are we as human beings if we ignore the suffering of others?” – Anonymous

11. “Those who teach the most about humanity, aren’t always humans.” – Donald L. Hicks

12. “How many disasters do we need to unite humanity.” – Loesje

13. “If you cannot find faith in humanity, be the faith in humanity.” – Anonymous

14. “Humanity, take a good look at yourself, inside. You’re a world – everything is hidden in you.” – Hildegard of Bingen

15. “I love humanity.” – Albert Einstein

16. “We are all cells in the same body of humanity.” – Anonymous

17. “Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity.” – Confucius

18. “Let’s not lose hope in humanity, instead live to help others. We can make a difference.” – Anonymous

19. “Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.” – Rumi

20. “Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life.” – Anonymous

21. “Who so lives for humanity must be content to lose himself.” – Octavius Brooks Frothingham

22. “By serving humanity, I automatically serve myself.” – Vironika Tugaleva

23. “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” – Martin Luther King

24. “We are all connected. When one arm or foot is poisoned, the whole body becomes infected.” – Suzy Kassem

25. “Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.” – Nelson Mandela


26. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” – Desmond Tutu

27. “In a gentle way you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

28. “Love humanity? Start with one person.” – Gabriel Laub

29. “Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, and religion.” – John Arnos Comenius

30. “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.” – Charles Chaplin

31. “Here I am. I claim my humanity with no fear and no limits. Here I am.” – Oprah Winfrey

32. “Humanity’s next state is rising above ourselves for the sake of our common unity.” – Anonymous

33. “My work is about helping humanity.” – Agnes Denes

34. “Moral courage is the highest expression of humanity.” – Ralph Nader

35. “Selfless service alone gives the needed strength and courage to awaken the sleeping humanity in one’s heart.” – Sai Baba

Motivational Advice You Never Hear From Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the hottest entrepreneur on the planet right now. From launching an electric car into space, selling flamethrowers on Twitter, and tunneling holes throughout the country, his unconventional ventures are inspiring millions.

It should come as no surprise that his motivational advice is unconventional, as well. Motivational content can become cliche and overused. Every now and then, you need to hear an opposing idea to challenge your way of thinking.
Here are 3 things from Elon Musk you never hear from motivational blogs that will shake you up and make you reconsider your approach:

Quote #1: “If you need inspiring words, don’t do it.”
Entrepreneurs don’t read motivational blog posts all day. They have real life problems that they need to find real life solutions to. If they have a hiring need, they contact recruitment agencies, compare costs for different vendors, implement solutions, test results, and learn from their experiences. Inspiring words are a shot of espresso to boost their performance, not the food pyramid that nourishes their body to keep going throughout the day.

A motivational quote or video might inspire them for a moment, but they certainly are not spending hours pouring through the self-help section at Barnes and Nobles. If that is you, reconsider whether you are addicted to being motivated or you are addicted to whatever it is you want to do. If you’re an aspiring writer, are you spending more time reading how to write, or are you spending more time actually writing? Audit your behavior and be honest with yourself.

If you are relying on external motivation to keep you going on a project, then once that external motivation is gone, you slow down. You must find something deeper within yourself to keep pushing through the hard times. Doubt is inevitable but failure is necessary.

Quote #2: “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”

People tell you to play it safe, find a mentor, research your market, make sure there is demand. All of this is conventional wisdom. It’s not bad advice, but it’s what everyone is told and it’s what everyone is doing. If Elon Musk listened to this advice he would not be Elon Musk.

Elon Musk revolutionized two industries that people never would have thought to enter. Tesla became the first American car company to go public since Ford Motor Company in 1956. When starting SpaceX, one of his friends collected several clips of rockets blowing up and made him watch a video. Elon proves if you want to make it big, you have to take a big risk.

Most importantly, if you want to succeed, you have to do something you are passionate about. Elon Musk could have made it rich in any other industry doing something far less complicated. Instead, he chose to pursue his passion for making the world a better place by providing alternative energy transportation and creating a new movement of space travel to save humanity.

He gave himself a 10% chance of success rate with both companies when he started. He chose to start them anyway. If you have nothing to risk, you have nothing to gain. The reward is proportional to the risk. If something is important to you, you will pursue it in spite of any amount of risk you might face.

Quote #3: “You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”

Most people avoid criticism. Criticism shows us we might be something wrong. We were raised to avoid being wrong but Elon Musk actively seeks it. Criticism shows you how you can improve and learn.

You learn nothing when someone tells you what you’re doing right. It might feel good, but like it is said in the movie Whiplash, “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.” Feeling good breeds contentment and leads you to a place of complacency.

Of course, most of us are not Elon Musk and do not operate at his level of intensity. You might decide relentless improvement is not something you value or want in your life. Nothing is wrong with being content and happy with where you are in life. A continual desire for improvement does not mean you need to be discontent with everything. You can choose how far you want to go on your journey of self-improvement and success.

In a world where companies try to pretend like everything is going right, Elon Musk takes the opposite approach. He pretends like everything is going wrong, and he wants to make things less wrong. His approach opens the door for failure and welcomes the opportunity for improvement. Are you allowing yourself to fail? Are you acknowledging your flaws?

We all want to be like Elon Musk. Not all of us want to work 100+ hours a week. There is a middle ground somewhere where we can all learn from. Find your ‘why’ and let that inspire you. Don’t rely on motivational words to keep you going, use it as a supplement, not a meal. Lastly, when everyone is asking themself what is going well, ask yourself what is going wrong.

22 Genius Stephen Hawking Quotes To Remember Him

He tragically passed away on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76, leaving behind a great and unique legacy. British physicist Stephen Hawking was without a doubt one of the most motivating and life-changing people of the last century. He is not only an absolute intellectual giant, but also an example of incredible endurance and willpower in the face of debilitating disability. We have collected 22 of the most brilliant Stephen Hawking quotes to inspire you and to commemorate his passing.

Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neuron disease, at age 21, doctors gave him 2 years to live. He overcame crippling illness to create some of the most groundbreaking scientific theories in the last few centuries. Hawking’s goal was incredibly ambitious – to understand the deepest workings of the universe. For that goal, he devoted everything to finding a “theory of everything”.

With all his awe-inspiring achievements, we tend to forget we has also a loving father of three. It was his first wide, Jane Wilde, who helped him more than anyone when he was gradually losing control over his own body.

He gained wide recognition for his groundbreaking work on black holes and relativity, changing humanity’s understanding of the Universe. Apart from his research, he wrote several popular science books including A Brief History of Time, selling more than 10 million copies.

The Theory of Everything is the 2014 Oscar-winning depiction of his life. The movie showed that Stephen Hawking might be disabled in body, but certainly not in his ambitions.

He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will inspire generations to come.

His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world.

How will you remember him? This list of the most brilliant Stephen Hawking quotes will show you anything is possible.

22 Genius Stephen Hawking Quotes To Remember Him

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matter that you don’t just give up.” – Stephen Hawking
“Without imperfection, you or I would not exist.” – Stephen Hawking
“The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.” –Stephen Hawking
“It will take about a thousand million million million million years for the Earth to run into the sun, so there’s no immediate cause for worry!” – Stephen Hawking
“Quiet people have the loudest minds.” – Stephen Hawking
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” –Stephen Hawking
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Stephen Hawking Quotes
“If we find the answer to why the universe exists, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God.” – Stephen Hawking
“If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future?” – Stephen Hawking

“It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.” – Stephen Hawking
“We are all different, but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it’s human nature that we adapt and survive.” – Stephen Hawking
“The idea of 10 dimensions might sound exciting, but they would cause real problems if you forget where you parked your car.” – Stephen Hawking
“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically.” – Stephen Hawking
“Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.” – Stephen Hawking
“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.” – Stephen Hawking Quotes
“The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away.” – Stephen Hawking
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” –Stephen Hawking
“Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious, and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.” – Stephen Hawking
“People who boast about their IQ are losers.” – Stephen Hawking

“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.” – Stephen Hawking
“He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love” – Stephen Hawking
“Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.” – Stephen Hawking

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