Inspiring Quotations

“LIFE is a concatenation of unfinished business.  FINISHING the “catinations” with EXCELLENCE is the daily / moment-to-moment challenge.”

“I tend to over-compensate for my mere adequacies.  But the amazing results are more-than-adequate compensation.”

“Human beings are an inextricable part of the Animal Kingdom, but it doesn’t license us to act like animals.”

“Having ‘Social Capital’ is a priceless commodity … being not only wanted but needed for some intrinsic or extrinsic VALUE you can provide, including advanced skills, standards of excellence, unimpeachable principles, and vital connections to significant others. It’s called ‘AGENCY’, and it works wonders!”

“People Power [as in human creativity and ingenuity] is what business and industry value most; not so much ANIMAL KINGDOM power, other than in sports.”

“Creating value for others doubles our own value … as we’re inextricably part of the OTHERS, too.”

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.”

“Being WANTED and NEEDED are just as important in business and industry as in romance.  Cultivate both hard and soft skills that are most highly valued in the mainstream marketplace.”

“How many degrees of distance can you put between you and potential, eventual calamity?  What’s the highest you can Dream and the lowest you can accept as ‘acceptable’?  Let’s work on forging UPWARD and AHEADWARD!”

“Look for all the GOODNESS, GREATNESS, GRANDEUR and WONDER you can find in the
universe, and tirelessly strive to cultivate and apply your own best version of GOODNESS,
GREATNESS, GRANDEUR and WONDER wherever possible.”

“Do something today / NOW that you don’t WANT to do that will make you, your world and/or
the world-at-large better … or at least more manageable.”

“How do you guarantee a promotion? Do increasing amounts of your boss’s work.”

“Life is not all glamour, harmonics and dancing into the wee hours. Much of it is GRIT and
GRIND and SOBER, GUT-CHECK ENDEAVOR if we are to carve an auspicious and rewarding life out of nascent, ‘hard rock-entrenched’ beginnings.”

“If you didn’t get hurt or experience any pain, and it didn’t cost you anything, perhaps you didn’t work or play hard enough to prepare for what may be coming next!”

“Fighting one’s way up in the under-developed outback of life can be lonely. But it’s not abjectly so if you carry a big enough DREAM, such that, in the toughest times, your DREAM can carry YOU to wherever it is you’re going.”

“How do you know if you’re any good … if you ‘count’ … if you’re ‘good enough’? When other
people seek you out … for help, for expertise, for advice, or simply for camaraderie.”

“If you lose under conditions where it’s impossible to win, it’s not a sin or an abject failure … and it may not be anybody else’s fault … , in which case, it’s OK to ask for help.”

“If things are not ‘going right’, maybe we’re hanging on to too much baggage and haven’t given up enough … unrealistic expectations, unfounded assumptions, unwarranted entitlements, identity, perceived ‘needs’, and trivialized ‘ownership’.”

“How many things ‘below my pay grade’ can I do today to keep my sanity? And how many
things ‘above my pay grade’ can I do for sustainability?”

“Life unattended piles up! More disarmingly, both life’s unattended challenges and ignored
‘chores’ pile up … often silently and unobtrusively because they can almost always keep being pushed into the background – until they absolutely can’t. ‘Reckoning’ is such an under-rated eventuality.”

“In order to make REAL progress, you’re going to have to ‘fall out of love’ with the pleasure
center in your brain and start making tougher choices … accepting the mantle of ‘Executive
Function’. Learn to love OWNERSHIP of your own Destiny.”

“If you’re overly dependent on external influences (social media, YouTube, movies, videos,
video games, drugs, tribal associations, etc.) to “light up your life” and provide diversions from feelings of emptiness, helplessness, hopelessness, haplessness, etc. … you’re vastly shorting possibilities for ‘Soaring with the Eagles’. Immerse yourself and engage fully in the best prospects / highest order undertakings you can find or create.”

“If I knew then, what I know now, I would have done things differently.”

“How many seeds are you planting for harvest tomorrow … next week … next year … in a
lifetime?”

“If you haven’t yet found something worth pursuing with everything you’ve got, your DREAMS aren’t nearly BIG enough!”

“Being persistently ACCOUNTABLE to ourselves, to significant others and to civilization at large – against the dictates of our debauched, repugnant, deviant, defiant and rebellious selves – is the toughest haul in life. Slippage and sluffing are inextricably costly. But the rewards of positive accomplishment and the absence of regret are priceless accommodations.”

“Other people are going to make your life and work rewarding in proportion to the extent you
make their life and work rewarding.”

“How TOUGH are you, and how much GRIT have you got? Can you do onerous things without flinching? Can you WILL to do things you don’t WANT to do? Can you do what’s most RIGHT, even when it doesn’t FEEL GOOD … even when you don’t HAVE TO? Toughening up takes conditioning … doing both the small and seemingly inconsequential things when you don’t WANT to or HAVE to and the more consequential things before they become direly consequential.”

“I float my boat on STUFF DONE! Little stuff, BIG stuff, consequential stuff, necessary stuff, ‘unnecessary’ stuff that can be redeeming and/or regenerative, ‘hostage taking’ stuff … but not trivial or gratuitous stuff. The boat floats a lot higher in the water without all the ‘clinging on’ stuff.” 

“It’s just a matter of time until we realize – neversomuch too soon – we have been thrust into life ‘over our heads’ and could use some help.”

“There’s always somewhere interesting and enlifening to go.  Look UP and ASPIRE HIGHER!”

“We cannot ensure success, no matter how hard or smart we work.  But we can ensure failure, compounded by regret, by not applying the best effort we can muster.”

“It’s OK to break the rules … if you’re going to exceed expectations and make a positive difference. That’s called ‘Transcendence’!”

“Winning may not be everything; but being able and willing to carry a worthy battle forward with valor toward a noble end carries a more than ample reward.”

“I’m 65 years old, you know, and I’m still thinking, ‘Am I good enough?’”

“Grave disappointment awaits him whose dreams do not conscript the entirety of his efforts.” Quartermaster “There ain’t no rules around here! We’re trying to accomplish something!”

“There are certain things one should not do at certain times, and certain things one should not do altogether.”

“Some things require ‘doing’ whether we ‘feel like it’ or not, and whether we’re ‘ready’ or not.”

“He who depends on extra pay or praise to do his best job has not mastered himself and does not deserve either. He who does his own “nudging” and does his best unconditionally – without prodding or pampering … and even under adverse circumstances – deserves the extra pay and praise, yet generally requires neither. He is “paid” by the job well done and victory won [over mediocrity, indifference and eventual regret].”

“You will find relief from vain fancies if you do every act in life as though it were your last [or only].”

“Most people don’t want to do the hard; that’s why it’s so easy to be successful. There’s no competition! Remember, short-term pain will equal long term gain and vice versa. It’s the hard that makes you great. It’s the willingness to do the hard that separates you from your competition, because most of them are only willing to do the easy. Unfortunately, in the long run, the easy always turns out to be the hard.”

“He did everything we could have asked of him since day one.”