Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.
William Arthur WardRead
A Winner's Blueprint for Achievement BELIEVE while others are doubting. PLAN while others are playing. STUDY while others are sleeping. DECIDE while others are delaying. PREPARE while others are daydreaming. BEGIN while others are procrastinating. WORK while others are wishing. SAVE while others are wasting. LISTEN while others are talking. SMILE while others are frowning. COMMEND while others are criticizing. PERSIST while others are quitting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success comes from determination and hard work while others give in to distractions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of taking initiative, staying focused, and working diligently towards your goals even when others may not believe in you or are distracted by temporary pleasures. It highlights the various actions one should take—believing, planning, studying, deciding, preparing, beginning, working, saving, listening, smiling, commending, and persisting—while reminding us that many people falter or waste time on unproductive activities. This mindset is essential for achieving true success.
Themes
AchievementDedicationSuccessMotivationWork Ethic
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a motivational speech for a team or at a leadership seminar.
More from William Arthur Ward
All quotes →The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.
William Arthur WardRead
Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.
William Arthur WardRead
A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
William Arthur WardRead
Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.
William Arthur WardRead
Do more than be fair: be kind.
William Arthur WardRead
Similar quotes
I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.
Spike LeeRead
I don't care if the whole world is against you or teasing you or saying you are not gonna make it. Believe in yourself, no matter what.
Michael JacksonRead
For neither our greatest fears nor our greatest hopes are beyond the limits of our strength--we are able in the end both to dominate the first and to achieve the second.
Marcel ProustRead
I am hellbent on defying your expectations, at every turn, and even if you don't like what's being done, I dare you to find it uninteresting.
Alan RickmanRead
We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.
Robert Baden-PowellRead
The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.
Roald DahlRead