Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.
Tom ClancyRead
Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.
Interpretation
Success is the culmination of hard work, represented as a finished book, symbolizing personal achievement.
In this quote, Tom Clancy emphasizes that success is not merely the result of external accomplishments, but a deep internal victory over oneself. By likening success to a finished book, he illustrates that each page represents individual effort and dedication, and reaching the final page signifies a significant personal triumph comparable to great adventures.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal accomplishments and self-discipline.
Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.
Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.
Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.
The only real difference between a wise man and a fool, Moore knew, was that the wise man tended to make more serious mistakes—and only because no one trusted a fool with really crucial decisions; only the wise had the opportunity to lose battles, or nations.
One thing about flying that he never got used to was that no matter how awful the weather was on the ground, if you flew high enough you could always find the sun.
Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Your life may change, but your dream doesn't have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it.
All I set out to do was to earn a living playing drums, you know? And as luck would have it, I've surpassed that.
The secret of success is to find a need and fill it, to find a hurt and heal it, to find somebody with a problem and offer to help solve it.
Money is a tool – it’s the means, not the end. Inspiration is the metric that dictates whether or not a project is a success. It’s more realistic than trying to aim for radio play, or trying to satisfy an AR, or the other gatekeepers on these platforms. I don’t even know how to create with those things in mind. But if you tell me the goal is to inspire? That makes my job a lot easier.
If a man has wealth, he has to make a choice, because there is the money heaping up. He can keep it together in a bunch, and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead. Or he can get it into action and have fun, while he is still alive. I prefer getting it into action and adapting it to human needs, and making the plan work.
When I won in 2003, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would win Wimbledon and have my kids seeing me lift the trophy, so this is pretty surreal. And yeah, I was almost shocked in the moment that it all came together so nicely.
The companies that work are the ones that people really care about and have a vision for the world so do something you like.
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