It’s three interdependent, interconnected, and fluidly contingent disciplines: Perception, Action, and the Will.
The only real failure is abandoning your principles.
The performance artist Marina Abramovic puts it directly: “If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.
We must shun the false crown and continue working on what got us here.
The morning before the rest of the house wakes up. Or late in the evening after the world has gone to sleep. Grab these moments. Schedule them. Cultivate them.
While others are excited or afraid, we will remain calm and imperturbable. We will see things simply and straightforwardly, as they truly are – neither good nor bad. This will be an incredible advantage for us in the fight against obstacles.
We whine and complain and mope when things won’t go our way.
The only real failure is abandoning your principles. Killing what you love because you can’t bear to part from it is selfish and stupid.
Ultimately, nerve is a matter of defiance and control.
There are a few things to keep in mind when faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. We must try: To be objective To control emotions and keep an even keel To choose to see the good in a situation To steady our nerves To ignore what disturbs or limits others To place things in perspective To revert to the present moment To focus on what can be controlled.
Just because we’ve done it once, doesn’t mean the floor is clean forever. Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep.
Turn it around. Find some benefit. Use it as fuel.
A smart man or woman must regularly remind themselves of the limits of their power and reach.
We can see disaster rationally. Or rather, like Rockefeller, we can see opportunity in every disaster, and transform that negative situation into an education, a skill set, or a fortune. Seen properly, everything that happens – be it an economic crash or a personal tragedy – is a chance to move forward. Even if it is on a bearing that we did not anticipate.
The good thing about true perseverance is that it can’t be stopped by anything besides death.
Strength is the ability to maintain a hold of oneself. It’s being the person who never gets mad, who cannot be rattled, because they are in control of their passions – rather than controlled by their passions.
The world could use fewer martyrs.
To one person a situation may be negative. To another, that same situation may be positive.
Silence is a lesson learned from the many sufferings of life.” – SENECA, THYESTES, 309.
The founding of a company, making money in the market, or the formation of an idea is messy. Reducing it to a narrative retroactively creates a clarity that never was and never will be there. When.