The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
Saul AlinskyRead
If people don't think they have the power to solve their problems, they won't even think about how to solve them.
Interpretation
Believing in one's own power is crucial for problem-solving.
This quote by Saul Alinsky emphasizes the importance of self-belief and empowerment in the context of problem-solving. If individuals do not recognize their capacity to address and resolve their challenges, they will not engage in the necessary thinking or action to find solutions, ultimately leading to inaction and perpetuation of their problems.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students to take charge of their education.
The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.
The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.
The threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself.
Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.
My only advice is, follow your dream and do whatever you like to do the most. I chose journalism because I wanted to be in the places where history was being made.
You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.
I began singing in dive bars and really small clubs. I dragged my piano down the stairs, and I went down the street with my keyboard, and I would go to every different dive bar that I could get to agree to let me play. I'd call and pretend I was Lady Gaga's manager.
There's nothing I would retire for, so I won't retire.
I didn't have any money. I had a sense of terrible loss. But what I also had was a fire in my belly. I wasn't going to go back to waiting tables. I felt I had to be better at fronting a band.
Why shoot for the moon? It matters because when you try to do something radically hard, you approach the problem differently than when you try to make something incrementally better.
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