Quotes- Failure leads to Success

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt

It's easy to criticize it takes 2 minutes and no risk. Many people find it easier to go about finding the fault in the pursuits of others because it hides their inaction. If you are failing then I'm better is their logic. Failing sucks. We've all done it and those that are successful have done it countless times.

Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and invested most of his money in a company called Pixar; he believed that graphic rendering computers had a market. They didn't. The company cost Jobs over 55 million in it's first six years; more than most people make in a lifetime. Many journalists and industry experts called Jobs a wash out. Disney decided to collaborate on a small film with the floundering company hoping to break even with the revenue. The film was Toy Story. It became one of the highest grossing pictures of all time. Fast forward to today and Pixar is the most successful film company in history.

In his book Delivering Happiness Tony Hsieh recalls losing a small fortune keeping the Company afloat. It just wasn't working; he lost everything. Then sales started trickling in. A revolutionary customer service department was generated. Shoes were shipped same day and people were amazed. Now Zappo's is one of the largest online retailers in the world. Great successes are more the result of great persistence through great failures than great ideas.

Success if often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.
- Coco Chanel

When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.
-George Bernard Shaw

Quotes- Life

Man must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and drink death like wine.
-G.K.Chesterton

What does it take to be happy; to find joy? I spent many years in my twenties trying to figure that out. There isn't a uniform answer. We are all different and special, have our own dreams and desires. Happiness is a commitment to an attitude and a preservation of an ideal. All happiness takes is a furious commitment to living your ideal life and not compromising. Love life it's special, it's beautiful, and you only get one shot.

Quotes- Winston Churchill

Churchill was a man that proved you could daily drink a gallon of scotch a day, smoke 20 cigars by evening, be abrasive and gallish, and still be one of the most beloved leaders, poets, and countryman of all time. He was a man among men and thoroughly entertaining.

You make a living by what you get: you make a life by what you give.
- Winston Churchill

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.
-Winston Churchill

Nancy Astor: Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.
Winston Churchill: If I were your husband I would take it.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
-Winston Churchill

Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
-Winston Churchill

If you are going to go through hell, keep going.
-Winston Churchill

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
-Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
-Winston Churchill

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
-Winston Churchill

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
-Winston Churchill

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
-Winston Churchill

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
-Winston Churchill

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.
-Winston Churchill

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
-Winston Churchill

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never never, never- in nothing, great or small, large or petty- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
-Winston Churchill

Quotes- Perspective

Charlie Kaufman: There was this time in high school. I was watching you out the library window. You were talking to Sarah Marsh.
Donald Kaufman: Oh, God. I was so in love with her.
Charlie Kaufman: I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was really sweet to you.
Donald Kaufman: I remember that.
Charlie Kaufman: Then, when you walked away, she started making fun of you with Kim Canetti. It was like they were making fun of *me*. You didn't know at all. You seemed so happy.
Donald Kaufman: I knew. I heard them.
Charlie Kaufman: How come you looked so happy?
Donald Kaufman: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.
Charlie Kaufman: She thought you were pathetic.
Donald Kaufman: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
-Adaptation, 2002

I watched this movie on suggestion from my friend Thomas Heard, who by the way has excellent cinematic taste, and instantly it became one of my favorites. Donald and Charlie are two identical twins (both played by Nick Cage). They are exactly the same and yet one has an amazing life while the other loathes and laments his existence. It reminds me that perspective is everything and this exchange perfectly captures that feeling.

Quotes- Just Do It

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.

-It couldn’t be Done; Edgar Guest

Quotes- How Lucky Are You?

…here is this barrel with 6.5 billion balls, everybody in the world, if you could put your ball back, and they took out a random 100 balls and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in? Now those 100 balls you are going to get out, roughly 5 of them will be American, 95/5. So if you want to be in this country, you will only have 5 balls, half of them will be women and half men--I will let you decide how you will vote on that one. Half of them will be below average in intelligence and half above average in intelligence. Do you want to put your ball in there? Most of you will not want to put your ball back to get 100. So what you are saying is: I am in the luckiest one percent of the world right now sitting in this room-- the top 1% of the world.
-Warren Buffett


I've commented on this before. Feel free to read it.

Quotes- Advice for 20 somethings

Wear Sunscreen
by Mary Schmich

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.