The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.
Interpretation
Success comes from focusing on one's own journey rather than feeling envious of others' achievements.
This quote by Herodotus suggests that the true key to success is not merely avoiding failures, but rather maintaining a mindset free from envy. It emphasizes the importance of being content with one's own progress and achievements, rather than comparing oneself to others, which can distract and detract from personal growth and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage students before their exams.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Business is fun. Controlling your own destiny is fun. Creating an idea and turning it into a movie; finding an artist and guiding their career and bringing them to some type of status - there's joy in that.
Touchdowns to me means that you're scoring points and helping your team win games. You can have a lot of yards and not have points and not win games. So, this only means something because it has helped our teams win games and we won the division today in a competitive AFC West, that's a good thing.
The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.
The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good.
My career was exploding at the same time that social media itself was expanding. But when my online videos were taking off, I didn't think, 'Oh, great! I'm going to be able to parlay this into a career!' I just wanted to be a comedian. I just wanted to perform live.
It's good to test yourself and develop your talents and ambitions as fully as you can and achieve greater success; but I think success is the feeling you get from a job well done, and the key thing is to do the work.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.