Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter.
Interpretation
You must actively seek out opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to you.
This quote by B. C. Forbes emphasizes the proactive approach necessary for achieving success. It suggests that rather than being passive and hoping for chance encounters with opportunity, individuals should take initiative and pursue their goals with determination and enthusiasm to create their own chances in life.
In practice
During a motivational speech to inspire students to take charge of their futures.
How you start is important, very important, but in the end it is how you finish that counts. It is easier to be a self-starter than a self-finisher. The victor in the race is not the one who dashes off swiftest but the one who leads at the finish. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter in life's race. In America we breed many hares but not so many tortoises.
I have known not a few men who, after reaching the summits of business success, found themselves miserable on attaining retirement age. They were so exclusively engrossed in their day to day affairs that they had no time for friend making.
Jealousy is an inner consciousness of one's own inferiority. It is a mental cancer.
He is a wise man who seeks by every legitimate means to make all the money he can honestly, for money can do so many worthwhile things in this world, not merely for one's self but for others. But he is an unmitigated fool who imagines for a moment that it is more important to make the money than to make it honestly. One of the advantages of possessing money is that it facilitates one's independence and mental attitude. The man head over heels in debt is more slave than independent.
Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.
If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business.
Certainly, I've never wanted to live on past achievements.
We need to have a better balance between a deliberate strategy and staying open. Because in the end, most of us end up being successful in a career that we never imagined we would be in at the beginning.
It takes 20 victories for people to recognize you as a great pitcher.
I've been fortunate over my career to make a little history on the 16th hole at Augusta National.
Success is outliving your failures
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
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