My dad was a firefighter for almost 30 years. My mom worked her way up from a secretary to vice president of her own company. They taught me to work hard for everything and take nothing for granted. That's how I play.
J. J. WattRead
Success isn't owned. It's leased and rent is due every day.
Interpretation
Success requires daily effort and commitment to maintain.
This quote emphasizes that success is not a permanent state but rather a continuous challenge that requires consistent hard work and dedication. It implies that to achieve and keep success, one must daily strive to put in the effort, as it is not something you can claim and forget about.
In practice
This quote can be used as a motivating statement during team meetings to encourage consistent effort.
My dad was a firefighter for almost 30 years. My mom worked her way up from a secretary to vice president of her own company. They taught me to work hard for everything and take nothing for granted. That's how I play.
The way I look at it is that somebody in the world, no matter what your field is - teacher, violinist, football player - has to be the best. Why not me?
Success isn't owned - it's leased. And rent is due every day. Every single day, someone's coming for your job. Someone's coming for your greatness. If you're the greatest, someone wants to be the greatest, and so if you're not constantly improving your game, somebody else is.
No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. I always attribute my success to always requiring myself to do my level best, if only in driving a tack in straight.
I didn't get hugely famous really quick. It was a slow, gradual process, so I was able to sort of grow into myself and figure out who I was and what I wanted without the glaring spotlight on me telling me who I was.
If I'd had a great level of success early on, who knows how I would have responded. I might have been a complete jerk.
What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is.
In all things, you need a good organization. You can have the best player in the world; if you do not have the best team, you will not win.
Battles that last five minutes spawn legends that live a thousand years.
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