Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.
Interpretation
Time is crucial in achieving success, as even a small amount can lead to vastly different outcomes.
This quote emphasizes the importance of time in competitive situations, suggesting that the effective use of even the briefest moments can determine the difference between winning and losing. It highlights how preparation and timely action are foundational to achieving success, making us aware that small time intervals can have significant impacts on results.
In practice
In a motivational speech about success, one could emphasize how every second counts.
Firstly, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman, as you do the devil.
Never break the neutrality of a port or place, but never consider as neutral any place from whence an attack is allowed to be made.
To do nothing was disgraceful; therefore I made use of my understanding.
Let me alone: I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it's off the better.
In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.
If you can shrug off a loss, you can't be a winner.
She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.
To become the kind of person you want to become, you've got to have discipline. It's easier to keep to your standards 100 percent of the time versus 98 percent of the time.
The key is not to worry about being successful, but to instead to work toward being significant - and the success will naturally follow.
So many good things have happened to me in the game of baseball. When I do allow myself a chance to think about it, it's almost like a storybook career. You feel so blessed to have been able to compete this long.
How you start is important, very important, but in the end it is how you finish that counts. It is easier to be a self-starter than a self-finisher. The victor in the race is not the one who dashes off swiftest but the one who leads at the finish. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter in life's race. In America we breed many hares but not so many tortoises.
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