Awesome Success Principles and Quotations

© 2014 JOHN PAUL CARINCI. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/04/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-2882-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-2881-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014913300

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Contents

Dedication

Chapter 1 A Positive Attitude

Chapter 2 The Magic of Believing

Chapter 3 The Hourglass of Time

Chapter 4 Uniqueness

Chapter 5 Faith

Chapter 6 Understanding Your Mind

Chapter 7 Affirmations for Success

Chapter 8 Enthusiasm

Chapter 9 Hope

Chapter 10 A Motivating Force

Chapter 11 Vision and Determination

Chapter 12 The Will to Succeed and Change

Chapter 13 Adversities Turned Into Great Successes

Suggested Reading

Dedication

To my wife and family, who motivate me toward greatness.

To all the great minds of the past that convince us that we, too, can excel.

And for those who have convinced us that: We are each a direct, reinvented reflection of all those great people who have preceded us and who so positively inspired us to be great.

I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered into this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my Shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny. I will persist until I succeed.

—Og Mandino, from the book, The Greatest Salesman in the World

Chapter One

A Positive Attitude

The last great freedom we have is the freedom to choose our attitude under any given set of circumstances.

—Viktor Frankl

Researchers over the years believe that people who routinely maintain a positive mental attitude may enjoy many benefits such as:

• Increased life span

• Lower rates of depression

• Lower levels of distress

• Greater resistance to the common cold

• Better psychological and physical well-being

• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease

• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

I have studied people for many years, and have come to the conclusion that some people have a positive attitude, while some others maintain an attitude of doom and gloom. I believe that we are all born to be great successes. We are each born daring and fearless. But somewhere in our upbringing some people change.

We each possess the ambition, aggressiveness, and mental attitudes to succeed. And even if we have turned off some of the elements needed, we can switch those elements back on, but it will take much practice and work to get in the groove. Some people would rather go with flow, and follow the follower than go the extra mile to achieve greatness.

There are those whom I enjoy being around, because of their positive outlook on life and many of its problems, and those whom I merely tolerate. Those who practice an attitude of doom and gloom about life are unfortunately stuck in a rut. The habit they have developed is hard to break and turn around. And even if they become ecstatic about a sudden turn of good fortune, it will be short lived at best. They can, though, change their attitude, if they practice working on a newfound positive attitude for 20 days. You see, it takes approximately 20 consecutive days to form a new habit.

Practice makes perfect, we all know that line. Reading and practicing positive self help is a great way to begin to change. When I say change, I mean separate yourself from the average person that is doing fine with job and life. But they are not in the top of their field, and not earning the top of their earning potential.

Faith And Drive To Become A Doctor

What a great accomplishment it is to become a doctor after so many years of work. The drive and perseverance it takes in sticking with the long hours of studying and schooling in order to make a career of helping others is amazing.

It takes the following commitment:

• First there is the 4 years for a bachelor’s degree

• Then there is 4 years of medical school

• Followed by 3-7 years of residency (the first year is called internship)

• And then maybe 1-4 years of fellowship (which is optional)

So that adds up to a staggering 11-19 years total training time to be a doctor. Talk about vision and working hard toward a fulfilling a dream career.

"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must—but don’t you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow—

You might succeed with another blow… .

Success is failure turned inside out—

the silver tint of the clouds of doubt—

And you can never tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit—

It’s when things get worse that you mustn’t quit!"

—Edgar A. Guest

I heard a major league baseball player interviewed recently, right before spring training was about to begin. He stated, I have not been playing at my maximum playing potential; I will be trying to play at my potential this year. I was amazed to hear someone admit that they are not at their potential. I know I am not, and most people can improve dramatically, but only if they want to improve badly enough. I am not satisfied at my accomplishments thus far; I know I can do and be much better.

Life is almost like the game of golf. I observe golfers all the time. It’s a sport that seems like most players never master it. They must constantly work at many aspects of the game, their stance, swing, attitude, etc. I have played golf only two times, and played terrible. It is a game that you continually work at to improve at the game.

The Army has a slogan: Be All You Can Be. I believe that concept, and will try to reach my maximum success potential. I hope you try to reach your success potential too.

Ahead of His Time

Elon Musk was born in 1971. He is a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, investor and inventor. He is currently the CEO & CTO of SpaceX and CEO & Chief Product Architect of Tesla Motors. Musk is the founder of multiple companies, most notably SpaceX, PayPal, and Tesla Motors. He made a fortune with his PayPal company. He invested heavily in his other companies, and was almost penniless before his hard work paid off.

He is an innovator who will go down in history one day for changing the way we drive cars and travel in space.

No one before has perfected an inexpensive way to power electric powered cars, but he is on the verge of manufacturing the lithium batteries like never before.

His current company, Space X, a rocket manufacturing company, recently received a tremendous contract from NASA. His other company, Tesla Motor Inc. is a company that designs, manufactures and sells electric cars and electric powertrain components. Finally in the first quarter of 2013, Tesla posted profits for the first time in its ten year history.

Tesla Motors received tremendous attention after producing the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car. The company’s second vehicle was the Model S, a fully electric luxury sedan. The sedan can go 250 miles on one full charge. It can reach 60 MPH in 5.4 seconds and has no tailpipe emissions. The car has no transmission.

Once again we see that some truly successful innovators almost fail completely before succeeding greatly, and changing our world forever. Most average people would give up way before they reach that all important goal, especially when they were almost bankrupt after many failed attempts to achieve such impossible odds at such monumental tasks.

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

—Benjamin Franklin

Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain.

—William Jennings Bryan

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

—James Allen

It Takes A Positive Attitude To Forge Ahead Despite Numerous Failures

The world is full of success stories from the beginning of time. But we admire the truly successful people who fight back from failure and become successful, setting positive examples that inspire us to work through the many setbacks we all will surely face.

Here are some of the successful achievers who have persevered through it all:

J.K. Rowling: the Harry Potter author’s first book was originally turned down by 12 publishers, including major houses like Penguin and HarperCollins. Bloomsbury, a small publisher, accepted the novel after the CEO’s eight-year old daughter convinced him of its value.

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was not an immediate success. He was turned down by a dozen publishers and many literary agents. His career has now produced many novels and he is very wealthy from his writing efforts.

Walt Disney’s first animation company went bankrupt, and he was fired by a news editor because he lacked imagination. It is also believed that Disney was turned down 302 times before he finally received financing for creating Disney World.

Colonel Harland David Sanders, the founder of KFC Chicken franchise, was barely getting by before taking his new idea for fried chicken to the public at the advanced business age of 65.

R. H. Macy had a history failing businesses, including the store Macy’s in NYC, but he persevered and he soon had the biggest and most successful store in the world.

Fred Astaire: Early on in his career was passed up for parts. It was said by film management: Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little. Fred Astaire became one of the finest actors, dancers, and singers of the time. He never forgot how he was passed up for parts in the early part of his career.

Henry Ford was not successful at first. He failed many times in his goal of making the Model T car and assembly line, where he could assemble cars faster and cheaper than anyone at the time. By May 26, 1927, Ford witnessed the 15 millionth Model T Ford come off his assembly line.

Stephen King, the great author, has penned more than 50 books and sold in excess of 350 million copies. It is said that he encountered failure, and actually threw his first novel in the garbage. It was his wife that picked it out of the garbage and convinced him to send the book, Carrie, out to new publishing houses.

Mark Cuban, is now the billionaire and owner of the Mavericks NBA team. But he too, had failed over and over again early in his career. It’s almost like the very successful keep reinventing their efforts until they find the magic potion for tremendous success. Cubin has said: I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how many times you failed, you only have to be right once.

There was the now famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh, early on he couldn’t sell his paintings, but he kept painting and accumulated more than 800 pieces. Today his paintings are worth a fortune. The highest amount paid was over 140 million dollars.

The Beatles were turned down for a record deal early in their music career, most notably by Decca Records. It was said of them: The Beatles have no future in show business. The rest is history.

Even the greatest basketball player I ever saw, Michael Jordan, failed at basketball early in his playing days. But he kept perfecting his game, and his style has changed the way players play the game today. Jordan once said: I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Charles Swindoll summarized a positive attitude the best:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

It will make or break a company, a church, a home."

—Charles Swindoll

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.

We cannot change the inevitable."

—Charles Swindoll

"The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.

And so it is with you—we are in charge of our Attitudes."

—Charles Swindoll

Happiness Is A State Of Mind

It is said that happiness is a state of mind. I believe it goes deeper than that explanation. Happiness,