July 7, 2009

The past actually happned but history is only what someone wrote down
-A. W. Brown

We are punished by our sins, not for them.
-Elbert Hubbard

Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
-Jim Rohn

You could have knocked me over with a feather...

Early in my career, I was the vice president of sales for a food company, and I was in Detroit hiring a sales person for the market. We had lined up eight appointments for the day, and the morning had been a bust.

I looked up and my 1 o'clock appointment was standing at the door. He was a tall, good-looking guy, and I remember thinking, "This could be the one." We talked for about fifteen minutes, and I asked a question I always ask, "What will you be doing five years from now?" I'll never forget his answer. He said, "Mr. Anderson, the way these interviews have been going, I might still be interviewing!" Well, that wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. We talked for a few more minutes and I excused him.

Then I looked up and my 2 o'clock was there. He walked over and gave me a confident handshake, and a few minutes later I asked him the same question, "Sam, what are you going to be doing five years from now?" He looked me right in the eye and said, "Mr. Anderson, I'm going to be working for you. This job fills my skills and my needs to a tee. I don't just think, I know I can sell your product in this market. And furthermore, if you don't like my performance after thirty days, you don't owe me a cent!"

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! Sam had just made me an offer I couldn't refuse. But the offer had nothing to do with the money I might save; it had everything to do with his unwavering passion and belief that he could do it. And, within a year, Sam was the number one sales person in the company.

You see, whether you think you can, or think you can't...you're right!

Never underestimate the power of belief when it comes to fulfilling your dreams. I can say with no hesitation that every person I've ever met who has achieved any degree of success has had one thing in common: they believed with all their heart they could do it.

Mac Anderson
Founder, Simple Truths

What does trusting someone signify?

Trust, in a practical sense, means that you place confidence in someone to be honest with you, faithful to you, keep promises, vows and confidences and not abandon you. Here are some factors to consider about trust. Trusting another person requires a realistic perspective about people and an expectation of failure. Trust needs to be combined with a willingness to forgive and grows best in an environment of acceptance and love.

Daily Thought Quotes

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.
— Elizabeth Gaskell

To undertake is to achieve.
— Emily Dickinson

There’s always room for improvement, you know—it’s the biggest room in the house.
— Louise Heath Leber

Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt.
— Sir William Van Horne

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

What one relishes, nourishes.
— Benjamin Franklin

Giving presents is a talent; to know what a person wants…to give it lovingly and well.
— Pamela Glenconner

She gives most who gives with joy.
— Mother Teresa

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
— Pierre Corneille

There are no miracles for those that have no faith in them.
— French proverb

Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
— An Wang

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
— Mohandas Gandhi

Money’s a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.
— Henry James

A gift-giving virtue is the highest virtue.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the year.
— Spanish proverb

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
— Babe Ruth

Great necessities call out great virtues.
— Abigail Adams

A little neglect may breed mischief.
— Benjamin Franklin

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
— Nelson Mandela

The right road lies under your tongue. Just ask.
— Chinese proverb

For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.
— Anonymous

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty—they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.
— Martin Buxbaum

Victory is won not in miles, but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.
— Louis L’Amour

You play the hand you’re dealt. I think the game’s worthwhile.
— CS Lewis

When you tug at a single thing in nature, you find it attached to the rest of the world.
— John Muir

The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.
— Jill Churchill

Whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free . . . your true self comes out.
— Tina Turner

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
— Victor Hugo

If you do not even understand what words say, how can you expect to pass judgement on what words conceal?
— Hilda Doolittle

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
— Danny Kaye

Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world.
— George Bernard Shaw

Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.
— Jean Cocteau

You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.
— George Burns

If necessity is the mother of invention, then resourcefulness is the father.
— Beulah Louise Henry

When the sky is clear, carry an umbrella; though your stomach is full, carry provisions.
— Chinese proverb

Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.
— George Scialabba

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
— Aaron Rose

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
— Jean Jacques Rousseau

Perfection is attained by slow degrees, it requires the hand of time.
— Voltaire

Don’t worry about mistakes. Making things out of mistakes, that’s creativity.
— Peter Max

There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent you just touch it up once in a while.
— Pearl Bailey

It is the ability to choose which makes us human.
— Madeleine L’Engle

The go-between wears out a thousand sandals.
— Japanese proverb

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight...The truly wise person is color-blind.—Albert Schweitzer

Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them. ―Christian Nestell Bovee

Life can only be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards. — Søren Kierkegaard T

he brook would lose its song if we removed the rocks.—Wallace Stegner

Style is the perfection of a point of view.
—Richard Eberhart

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds on in its net of wonder forever.
—Jacques Yves Cousteau

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
—attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
—Leo Buscaglia

Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment.
—Heywood Hale Broun

It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you.
—Nigel Slater

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
—Juvenal

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life and...the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
—Samuel Johnson

Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
—Clare Boothe Luce

Cheat me in the price, but not in the goods.
—English proverb

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
―William Hazlitt

You cannot catch a child's spirit by running after it. You must stand still and for love it will soon itself return.
―Arthur Miller

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.
―Henry Kissinger

Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.
―H. Jackson Browne

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
—Mahatma Gandhi

There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich.
—Marlene Dietrich

"There is joy in all."
– Anne Sexton

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
—Carl Jung

"Most people rush after pleasure so fast that they rush right past it."
– Soren Kierkegaard

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
―Joseph Campbell

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
―A.A. Milne

It’s not the tragedies that kill us, it’s the messes.
―Dorothy Parker

To be happy, it first takes being comfortable in your own shoes. The rest can work up from there.
―Sophia Bush

Attitude…

It is the ‘advance man’ of our true selves.
Its roots are inward but its fruit is outward.
It is our best friend or our worst enemy.
It is more honest and more consistent than our words.
It is an outward look based on past experiences.
It is a thing which draws people or repels them.
It is never content until it is expressed.
It is the librarian of our past.
It is the speaker of our present.
It is the prophet of our future.

Greed

“Be on your guard against every form of greed” (Luke 12:15)

Appreciation And Encouragement

Bob Danzig, has an amazing story. Simple words of appreciation and encouragement changed his life. Bob was in five foster homes during his youth, and said he spent his childhood trying to find someone to love and appreciate him.

When he was nine years old, he had a new social worker. He said after she had done all the paperwork to move him to yet another foster home, she sat him down, looked him directly in the eyes, and said, "Bobby, I want you to always remember these words: YOU ARE WORTHWHILE!"

Bob says that no one had ever said anything like that to him, and each time they met, she repeated those words. They became an affirmation of appreciation that he heard over and over again in his head.

Bob graduated at sixteen, not because he was smart, he says, but because he got mixed up in the system!

He soon took a job at the Albany New York Times as a copy boy, and his very first boss was a woman named Margaret. After he had worked there about six months, Margaret called him into her office one day and asked him to sit down. He thought for sure he was going to be fired! She looked him right in the eyes and said to him, "I have been the office manager for 15 years - I have been observing you - and I believe YOU ARE FULL OF PROMISE." Those words, on that day, gave him permission to aspire.

Those two positive messages of appreciation played over and over again in his head and ultimately gave him the courage to be the very best he could be. Sixteen years later he became the Publisher of the Albany New York Times, and seven years after that, he became CEO of Hearst Newspapers, one of the largest newspaper companies in the world; and he credits it all to those simple words of appreciation and love. What a wonderful example of how little gifts of appreciation can make such a difference in a life!