This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
If there is any secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own.
Thomas Edison, fully Thomas Alva Edison
The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it.
Ability | Effort | Focus | Labor | People | Success | Thinking | Will |
Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.
Ability | Better | Confidence | Courage | Defeat | Endurance | Future | Opportunity | Struggle | Success | Obstacle |
Lazarus Long, fictional character created by Robert A. Heinlein
Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin; the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
Crime | Death | Education | Money | Pity | Sin | Stupidity | Victim |
Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so we must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
Brotherhood | Men | Mind | Need | Prejudice | Society | Understanding | Will | Society |
You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine.
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of other; it is in yourself alone.
Chance | Luck | Opportunity | Luck |
Ken Robinson, fully Sir Kenneth Robinson
Life is not linear; it's organic. We create our lives symbiotically as we explore our talents in relation to circumstances they help create for us.
Circumstances | Life | Life | Organic |
Ben Stein, fully Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein
We are not responsible for the operation of the universe, and what happens to us is not terribly important. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human being.
A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the unbearable.