Achievement / success............Talent Development Resources --..home page...site map

"Never fear rejection." Farrah Gray grew up near the East Chicago housing projects.. “Selling drugs is real easy, you benefit on the front end and pay like hell on the back end.  My attitude is I work hard on the front end so I can benefit on the back end,” said Gray. “I realized very very very very early that the same knowledge it would take me to buy, wholesale, and sell I could take that same knowledge as opposed to selling drugs,” said Gray.  “I think selling drugs is a weak way out.” Gray has always had an insatiable drive to succeed, which stems from his life filled with struggle. “I wanted to improve my family situation.” He formed Urban Neighborhood Economic Enterprise Club, that encouraged youth to become entrepreneurs, at age eight. Before the age of 19, Gray had acquired Innercity Magazine and signed his ‘Reallionaire’ book deal. Now that Gray is a millionaire, he advises others through his book and presentations. “The biggest mistake I made was believing that someone was gonna do something for me.” He has also found that you should “never fear rejection. The wounded deer is the one who leaps the highest. “In life we don’t get what we want, we get in life what we are.  If we want more we have to be able to be more, in order to be more you have to face rejection.” [blackcollegeview.com February 17, 2005] photo from farrahgrayfoundation.org Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out - by Farrah Gray       ~ ~ ~ ~ grit and achievement Persistance is vital even for an indisputable genius. Mozart reported that an entire symphony appeared, supposedly intact, in his head... but in his diary he “talks about how he refined the work for months,” notes educational psychologist Jonathan Plucker. Angela Duckworth, who has conducted several key studies on grit with Martin E.P. Seligman of the Univ of Penn Positive Psychology Center, argues that intelligence accounts for only a fraction of success. “There were a fair number of people [in studies of high achievers in various fields] who were brilliant, ambitious and persevering,” Duckworth reports. “But there were also a lot who were not a genius in any way but were really tenacious.” [From “The Winning Edge” by Peter Doskoch, Psychology Today, Nov/Dec 2005] photo: Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus (1984) Angela Duckworth has conducted several key studies on tenacity and grit at the Univ of Penn Positive Psychology Center with Martin E.P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness : Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment ~ ~ ~ ~   image from animation on site page Where you are going and why? Yet, years later at the helm of my own enterprise, there were days where I was.. caught up by a frenetic pace, much like a hamster in a wheel, running as fast as I could, going who knows where. Burnout is one of the most common and serious threats to any entrepreneur and it takes many different forms and has many different side effects. So it makes sense to pause and ponder where you are going and what you are building. Perhaps even more important, why are you building it? from article Slow Down, You Move Too Fast - by W. Bradford Swift ~ ~ ~ ~ We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are. ... You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit... Income seldom exceeds personal development. What you become directly influences what you get. > from The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn - see his site ~ ~ ~ ~ Living a prosperous life is about finding and being true to the inner voice that says, "This is what I was born for!" It's also having the courage to live that life joyfully and with passion. The game of life is about balance. It's about discovering what you love to do and serving others by doing it. It's about loving others and yourself. It's about doing work that suits you and rewards you. It's about caring for those around you... Intuition will always guide you to a life of balance, peace and abundance. When you honor it and trust its wisdom your life becomes transformed.  It points the way to a path you can follow that allows you to get from where you are to where you want to go. But how can you be sure that you're following your intuition to your ideal life, and not just responding to wishful thinking? Easy. Accurate intuition makes you feel calm. It conveys information in a compassionate, loving, sure and certain manner. When you are being guided to make a change in your life from the deepest part of your soul, you'll know it. Lynn A. Robinson - in her Intuition Newsletter #79 December 2004 - quotes and photo from her site lynnrobinson.com > book: Real Prosperity : Using the Power of Intuition to Create Financial and Spiritual Abundance > Related pages: intuition / instinct....courage / confidence ~ ~ ~ ~ Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in the early grades when the teachers decided he could not do the work. Bob Dylan’s [photo] classmates booed him off the stage at a high school talent show. A famous Paramount Pictures screen test report on Fred Astaire read simply: “Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little.” > from article "Don’t Quit Your Day Job" : 3 Ways to Keep Criticism from Getting to You - By Valerie Young ~ ~ ~ ~ J.K. Rowling on the aftermath of her success Everyone wanted my emotions to be very simple. They wanted me to say, "I was poor and I was unhappy, and now I've got money and I'm really happy." And it's what we all want to see when the quiz winner wins the big prize, you know. You want to see some jumping up and down, for everything to be very uncomplicated. The fact is, I was living a very pure life. There was no press involvement, there was no pressure. Life was very pure and it became more complicated. > from Dateline NBC msnbc.msn.com interview by Katie Couric July 17, 2005 > "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is expected to be the fastest-selling book in history

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Jodie Foster on success Failure is my big problem. I don’t think anyone is as hard on me as I am on myself... I am relentless on making a film, and I feel that’s why I’m worth the extra two cents: because I worry a lot. I worry  for everyone. And I do wake up at three o’clock in the morning and say, Wait, I’ve got a better idea! ///

Sometimes one of the most inspiring things to make a successful person is to say, “Someday, I’ll show them.” It sounds pretty crass; it’s not a Mother Teresa reason for wanting to be successful. But a lot of wanting that movie to do well, and wanting to get up at five o’clock in the morning and do the hard work is to say, “I’ll show you.” > from HBO documentary Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters [June 2006], based on the book Boffo! : How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, by Peter Bart > photo from book: Great Women of Film

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To live your life in your own way, To reach the goals you've set for yourself, To be the person you want to be -- that is success. -Anonymous

Don't get me wrong: Being a millionaire is a great goal, and it has the wonderful advantage of being a very concrete, achievable number. I set that goal for myself, and attained it. But I found along the way it has nothing to do with the person I want to be and the life I want to live. ... As Eckhart Tolle puts it, all we need to do is get the inside right, and then the outside will take care of itself. I highly recommend reading or listening to [his book] The Power of Now. > Marc Allen - in his book book The Millionaire Course

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If you are an artist - as I was, and still am - the following words may be valuable: You'll have difficulty succeeding as an artist - however you define that success - if you ignore the world of business and refuse to be a "businessperson." Every great artist who has succeeded doing their art has been a success in business, either by taking the reins themselves and managing their own career or by working with someone else who takes those reins and takes responsibility for the success ot your work. ...

You don't have to sell your soul to succeed as an artist. In fact, your success only expands the impact of your soul, the vision of your art, into the world. Marc Allen - from his book The Millionaire Course: A Visionary Plan for Creating the Life of Your Dreams > photo at right: the poet and writer Christian [Ewan McGregor] in Moulin Rouge (2001) > photo of Marc Allen from marcallen.com

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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish The Whole Earth Catalog.. put out a final issue in the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." ...

I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Commencement address, Stanford, June 12, 2005, by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, > Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their garage, circa 1975 > book: Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company -- by Owen Linzmayer

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You have a powerful will, an offspring of a deathless soul, and it can find its way to any goal, regardless of the apparent obstacles. You have all you need within you. All resources are at your command -- all you have to do is ask for them. A great visionary teacher said it all, very simply and clearly: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Jesus, Matthew 7:7 > from the book The Millionaire Course - by Marc Allen

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You will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content In that poor word, "environment," But spirit scorns it, and is free. It masters time, it conquers space; It cows that boastful trickster, Chance, And bids the tyrant Circumstance Uncrown, and fill a servant's place. The human Will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless Soul, Can hew a way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene.

Be not impatient in delay, But wait as one who understands; When spirit rises and commands, The gods are ready to obey. > from free ebook As You Think by James Allen Originally titled As A Man Thinketh - it is a set of philosophical musings on the power of our thoughts.

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it is up to us - not our chart or anything else One of the greatest myths that is pervasive in our culture today is that we are entitled to a great life -- that somehow, somewhere, someone (certainly not us) is responsible for filling our lives... But the real truth -- and the one lesson this whole book is based upon -- is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is YOU. If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life.

This includes the level of your achievements, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships, the state of your health and physical fitness, your income, your debts, your feelings -- everything! This is not easy. In fact, most of us have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our friends, the media, our co-workers, our clients, our spouse, the weather, the economy, our astrological chart, our lack of money -- anyone or anything we can pin the blame on. We never want to look at where the real problem is -- our self. > from book: The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be -- by Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer

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Ruling classes have always believed in their own right to rule, but it once was understood... that their place in the social order was arbitrary, an accident of birth and breeding, rather than a matter of cosmic justice. ... At today's Harvard, much of that knowledge has been wiped away. The modern elite's rule is regarded not as arbitrary but as just and right and true, at least if one follows the logic of meritocracy to its unspoken conclusion.

For today's Harvard students... there is nothing accidental or random about their position in society. They belong exactly where they are -- the standardized tests and the college admissions officers have spoken, and their word is final. So it is that at Harvard, and at similar schools around the country, a privileged class of talented students sits atop the world, flush with pride in their own accomplishments, secure in the knowledge that they rule because they deserve to rule, because they are the best. > from book: Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class - by Ross Gregory Douthat

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"Brian [Grazer] is a seeker," says Viacom Co-President Tom Freston.. "He has this ADD persona, but that's just the way his mind works, bouncing from place to place. He has an incredible ability to sniff out something that's out on the edge just before it reaches the mainstream.. /// "I just want to become more evolved," Grazer explains, scanning the freeway traffic. "I'm a serious, deep, dark person. But I keep telling myself -- enjoy yourself. /// Grazer has been meeting with Deepak Chopra for years, seeing him just the other day to work on what Grazer calls his "addiction" to validation. /// For years, he's been setting up meetings with Important People, peppering them with questions... "I'm an autodidact. I can't really read, but I can ask interesting questions."

Grazer even has what he calls a "cultural attaché" on the payroll who reels in the great thinkers. Over the years, he's met with Jonas Salk, Edward Teller, physicist Sheldon Glashow and author Malcolm Gladwell. > from article: Grazer wants serious success.. By Patrick Goldstein, LATimes June 7, 2005 > producer Brian Grazer's many films include "8 Mile," "Apollo 13," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Cinderella Man" > related pages :...filmmaking....change / growth ADD / ADHD....nurturing talent

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Mary Catherine Bateson on composing a life Women have lived their lives experiencing multiple simultaneous demands from multiple directions. Increasingly men are also living that way. So thinking about how people manage this is becoming more and more important. One way to approach the situation is to think of how a painter composes a painting: by synchronously putting together things that occur in the same period, and finding a pattern in the way they fit together.

But of course "compose" has another meaning in music. Music is an art in which you create something that happens over time, that goes through various transitions over time. Looking at your life in this way, you have to look at the change that occurs within a lifetime -- discontinuities, transitions, and growth of various sorts -- and the artistic unity, like that of a symphony with very different movements, that can characterize a life. ... What I want to say is that you can play with, compose, multiple versions of a life. Mary Catherine Bateson - from her article Composing a Life Story > her new book Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery

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The Love of Greatness The desire for greatness is not the same as the love of it -- for such a want causes us to compare ourselves with what is great in others, and from the seed of this secret contest springs conflict. But love of greatness embraces the Goodness from which it springs -- and such a love is never conflicted for having found a light that burns brighter than itself, any more than a spark in a fire contests the flame from which it is thrown. Guy Finley - Life of Learning Foundation ..... > See his article Seven Simple Exercises to Invite the Extraordinary Life

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If you are an artist, people long for the depths of your expression; if you are a businessperson, they hope to be inspired by your vision and creativity. And no, the public doesn't want the canned version of a good idea; they want your good idea, the one that can only come from your own particular set of DNA. Suzanne Falter-Barns > her site : HowMuchJoy - "practical tools for creative dreamers"

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