How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
Private victories precede public victories. You can't invert that process any more than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Personal achievements must come before external recognition or success.
The quote emphasizes the importance of personal growth and internal victories in achieving broader success in public life. Just as one must plant seeds before expecting a harvest, individuals must first cultivate their skills, values, and strengths internally before they can reap the benefits of public achievements and recognition.
Themes
Private VictoriesPublic VictoriesGrowthSuccessAchievementPersonal Development
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience, you could use this quote to highlight the importance of internal growth.
More from Stephen Covey
All quotes βIf you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee.
Stephen CoveyRead
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
Stephen CoveyRead
If we live out of our memory, we're tied to the past and to that which is finite. When we live out of our imagination, _x000D_ we're tied to that which is infinite.
Stephen CoveyRead
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Stephen CoveyRead
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
Stephen CoveyRead
Similar quotes
It's important to learn from your mistakes, but it is BETTER to learn from other people's mistakes, and it is BEST to learn from other people's successes. It accelerates your own success.
Jim RohnRead
When we begin to experience our life as the miraculous expression of divinity - not occasionally, but all the time - then we will know the true meaning of success.
Deepak ChopraRead
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.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Achievement does not require extraordinary ability. Achievement comes from ordinary abilities applied with extraordinary persistence.
Ralph MarstonRead
My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant - but misdirected - ideas of others.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
Luck is indeed where preparation meets opportunity.
Randy PauschRead