“The road to success is paved with failure” (ANON) An idiom in any language is a literary style that typically represents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase or expression, and often points out something of which someone should be aware. This is particularly true of the idiom above where the success road is…
“Your willingness to learn and adjust positively from mistakes and shortcomings will largely determine how far you will travel the road to success” (John Maxwell) Human beings really struggle to learn from mistakes. It is not because we don’t want to learn from our errors. It is infrequent that we don’t understand why we made…
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come” (Abraham Lincoln) It is not uncommon to come across a great little invention and think, I wish I had thought of that. But bringing even simple ideas to full fruition involves a process – one that is not always as easy as it may appear. Achieving…
“Success is never owned. It’s rented and rent is due every day” (Anon) In 1947, the transistor was invented by Bell Laboratories, the research arm of AT&T. Almost immediately, it could be seen that the transistor would replace the bulkier, more expensive and less reliable vacuum tubes that, at that time, were the key components…
“You can’t beat the smell of fresh ambition in the morning” (ANON) Some levels of ambition are needed for achievement – the desire or will to succeed at something or to realise a set goal. Channelled correctly, ambition can bring great results. Ambition often gets a bad reputation, however, where the very characteristic that encourages…
The fear of failure is enough to stop many people in their tracks and cause them to give up without even making any further attempts. Is it possible, however, that failure could be just the “force” that one needs to propel one to a place of fresh thinking, new levels of creativity and renewed energy…
“Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way” (Dr Seuss) Dreaming about a thing in order to do it properly constitutes wisdom; dreaming about a thing when you should be doing it is ineffective. Contemplating your vision and meditating on it, letting it become engrained in your mind, is helpful,…
“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance” (Bruce Barton) Lewis Pugh has pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other person in history. He swam across the icy waters of the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic…
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm” (Winston Churchill) Economist and Financial Times columnist, Tim Harford, in his book “Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure” noted: “Few of our own failures are fatal”. This may ring true, but we certainly don’t enjoy the pain and…
Over the past couple of decades, the acceleration of technology and other marketplace drivers have radically changed the very nature of change. Whereas change was once a contained transactional event (and far easier to control), it is now more fluid, open-ended, complex, personal and unceasing. “Transformation” is the latest change concept that has emerged and…
According to an old legend, vizier Sissa Ben Dahir presented an Indian King Sharim with a beautiful, hand-made chessboard. The king asked what he would like in return for his gift and the courtier surprised the king by asking for one grain of rice on the first square, two grains on the second, four grains…
The human being has all but lost the capability to manage the preponderance of choice – this has been called “decision fatigue” by some. There are just so many options, be it in grocery shopping varieties to choose from, career decisions or just knowing what to do, why to do it and when to do…
