There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.
Madam C. J. WalkerRead
Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.
Interpretation
Take initiative and create your own opportunities instead of waiting for them.
This quote emphasizes the importance of proactive behavior and self-initiative in achieving success. Madam C. J. Walker encourages individuals to actively seek and create opportunities rather than passively waiting for circumstances to change in their favor, suggesting that success is often a result of one's own efforts and determination.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a group of entrepreneurs.
There is no royal flower strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights.
I am not satisfied in making money for myself. I endeavor to provide employment for hundreds of the women of my race.
I have made it possible for many colored women to abandon the washtub for a more pleasant and profitable occupation.
Don't think that because you have to go down in the wash-tub that you are any less a lady!
The girls and women of our race must not be afraid to take hold of business endeavor and, by patient industry, close economy, determined effort and close application to business, wring success out of a number of business opportunities that lie at their very doors.
As I bent over the washboard and looked at my arms buried in soapsuds, I said to myself, 'What are you going to do when you grow old and your back gets stiff?' This set me to thinking, but with all my thinking I couldn't see how a poor washerwoman was going to better my condition.
Stop telling people how far they have left to go. Instead tell them how far theyβve come.
The first step to becoming is to will it.
I'm going to keep going until I succeed β or die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years.
The two things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavor is taking the first step, making the first decision.
If you want to play something that you can't, you need to see and hear yourself doing it in your minds eye. It will start to happen
I think at the beginning of a project, you decide if you're in love with the idea and what it's about, or what you think it's about at that time at least. Then you commit to it, and once you've commit to it no matter what, no matter how many self doubts you have, you're in it. The ship's sailed, you can't turn around.
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