How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.
Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success is often hindered not by external factors, but by a lack of focus and organization towards one's goals.
Elbert Hubbard's quote highlights the importance of setting clear goals and organizing one's efforts to achieve them. Many individuals possess the necessary skills and courage to succeed but may fail to reach their potential simply because they do not direct their energy towards a specific aim. Without a defined goal, efforts become scattered, leading to missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech, one might say, 'Remember, many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains but because they have never organized their energies around a goal.'
More from Elbert Hubbard
All quotes βThe mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is love, laughter, and work.
He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.
Our finest flowers are often weeds transplanted.
Truth, in its struggles for recognition, passes through four distinct stages. First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly, and will surely disrupt society. Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic and contrary to the Bible. Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance either one way or the other. Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it.
When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that...the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat.
Similar quotes
You should not allow yourself the luxuries of discouragement of despair. Bounce back immediately, and welcome the adversity because it produces harder thinking and harder drive to get to the objective.
It's my responsibility to walk around the hotel with a big smile on my face and not worry about what's happened in the last game.
So long as one's just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon as one starts doing it one gets worn out and tired.
There are no shortcuts. I approached practices the same way I approached games. You can't turn it on and off like a faucet. I couldn't dog it during practice and then, when I needed that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there. Very few people get anywhere by taking shortcuts.
Don't get discouraged if you're hammering away at a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter, and it keeps coming out wrong. You're allowed to get it wrong, as many times as you need to; you only need to get it right once.
My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.