Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.
~ Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
perseverance
Hard Work
Working really hard is what successful people do, and the genius of the culture formed in the rice paddies is that hard work gave those in the fields a way to find meaning in the midst of great uncertainty and poverty. That lesson has served Asians well in many endeavors but rarely so perfectly as in the case of mathematics.
…[Erling] Boe’s point is that we could predict precisely the order in which every country would finish in the Math Olympics without asking a single math question. All we would have to do is give them some task measuring how hard they were willing to work. In fact, we wouldn’t even have to give them a task. We should be able to predict which countries are best at math simply by looking at which countries are best at math simply by looking at which national cultures place the highest emphasis on effort and hard work.
~ Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
Image by Tuan Hoang from Pixabay
Even if the odds are against you…
If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.
~ Elon Musk
Transforming Dreams into Reality
Doing the work to transform your dreams into reality is like walking across the earth. It can be that hard, and it can take that long. If you walk from the North Pole to the South Pole, at one point you will go through the desert. It is part of the journey.
~ Dragos Bratasanu, The Pursuit of Dreams: Claim Your Power, Follow Your Heart, and Fulfill Your Destiny
Remember to look up at the stars…
One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.
~ Stephen Hawking, Interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, June 2010
Courage
Your courage was a small coal
that you kept swallowing.
~ Anne Sexton, “Courage”
Keep on going
Keep on going, and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
~ Charles F. Kettering
We must believe that…
We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
~ Marie Curie
When everything seems to be going against you…
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
~ Henry Ford
The joy of strife
I’ve done my best, and I begin to understand what is meant by ‘the joy of strife’. Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
