The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.
Interpretation
Success comes from focusing on one's own journey rather than feeling envious of others' achievements.
This quote by Herodotus suggests that the true key to success is not merely avoiding failures, but rather maintaining a mindset free from envy. It emphasizes the importance of being content with one's own progress and achievements, rather than comparing oneself to others, which can distract and detract from personal growth and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage students before their exams.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.
Professional players work almost every day, for hours on end, and the emphasis is on the word 'work.' It can be with a partner or it can be alone, but professional chess is always a pursuit of something new and surprising.
If the world couldn't see your results, would you rather be thought of as the world's greatest investor but in reality have the world's worst record? Or be thought of as the world's worst investor when you were actually the best?
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated.
As I started to consider a career in music, I hoped for success, truthfully. I didn't imagine anything that would amass the level of the first record, but I hoped that I would be able to sustain a career.
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