“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” Those words were spoken by William Jennings Bryan.
“I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be,” Leo F. Buscaglia says.
“You can also stop and say, No, I won’t do it, I won’t behave his way anymore. I’m lonely and I need people around me, maybe I have to change my methods of behaving and then you do it.”
To become a president is pre-destined. And if you are the president, everything you do and say is bound to be news. Damn if you and damn if you don’t.
You have people to rally for you because of what is in stake for them (like businesses, fame, and power). There are also those who are against you and they are called critics.
eorge W. Bush were widespread when he was still the head of the United States. Who hasn’t heard of former president Bill Clinton and the oral office? Ex-president Joseph Estrada was often the subject of Erap jokes.
If that is what the presidency is all about, better opt to become famous and successful in your own way. But the road to success is not offered on a silver platter. You have to do something to achieve it.
There are people who become a star overnight. But not everyone can have that kind of luck. More often than not, fame is swift and fleeting. The following another star may come into the picture. But success that is based on hard work is not too easy to take away from you.
Thomas Alva Edison knew this fact. “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” he said.
“Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.”
Do your own homework. Don’t rest on your laurels. Never settle for anything less.
But whatever you do, do your very best. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds: “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heavens and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”
Successful people are people who learned what failure is all about. Don’t give up and don’t give in.
Failures or rejections ran into the hundreds before a person achieve success. Conrad Hilton once said, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
Ever heard of one of America’s most outstanding failures? In 18931, he failed in business. In 1832, he was defeated for legislature. In 1833, he again failed in business. In 1834, he was elected to the Legislature but was defeated for Speaker in 1838. In 1843, he was defeated for Congress but was elected to Congress in 1846.
He was defeated for Senate in 1855, for Vice-President in 1856, and for Senate again in 1858. But in 1860, he was elected to President of the United States. His name: Abraham Lincoln.
Donald Phillips commented, “Everything – failures as well as successes – became stepping stones to the presidency. In this sense, Lincoln’s entire life prepared him for his future executive leadership role.”
Being handicap is not hindrance to become successful in life. Winston Churchill, famous for his eloquence, had a speech impediment as a boy.
Theodore Roosevelt spoke with difficulty. Mahatma Gandhi was so fearful of public speaking that in his first attempt to represent a client as her lawyer he became tongue-tied when it was time for him to speak in court.
Clarence Chamberlain, the aviator who flew the Atlantic, could never pass the standard test for depth perception, but they closed an eye and gave him a license anyway, and he became one of the safest of fliers.
Glenn Cunningham, who hung up new records for the mile in running, had both legs so badly burned that he was expected never to be able to walk again.
Now, you’re rich and famous. You can have everything you want in life. But hope the story of a genie in the bottle will remind you of something. A little boy found a corked bottle at the foot of a tree.
There was a curious buzzing sound inside and so he pulled out the cork to see what it was. Out came a cloud which formed into genie and then expanded as big as a house. The genie then threatened to kill the boy.
With great presence of mind, the boy wondered out loud how such a big object could fit to such a small bottle. So he asked the big genie to show. Foolishly, it did. Then he capped down the cork again.
The genie kept cursing and threatening and shouting. But the corked stayed on. Then the captive took a new tack and promised not to hurt the boy if he left him out again.
The boy thought about this for a long time and was skeptical and did not want to get tricked. Finally, he agreed that he would let the genie out only if he became his servant. He agreed.
Success is like a genie. It will become bigger and bigger and before you know it, it will rule over your life – and even destroy you. But like the little boy, you have to make your success your servant instead of your master.
Charles Reade reminds: “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”
