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Pregame Speech (October 2005)Thoughts, stories, examples and ideas on challenging your team to perform at their highest level possible. QUOTES
for YOUR MONTH: "A
great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems
to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were
somehow absent before the change." Earl Nightingale "Our
attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us." Earl Nightingale
"Get into a line that you will find to be
a deep personal interest, something you really enjoy spending twelve to fifteen
hours a day working at, and the rest of the time thinking about." Earl Nightingale "People
often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why
we recommend it daily." Zig Ziglar "You
are the only person on earth who can use your ability." Zig Ziglar "If
you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost." Zig Ziglar "Failure
is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome." Zig Ziglar "Did
you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone who is not obsessed
with being right?" Dr. Wayne W. Dyer "A
non-doer is very often a critic-that is, someone who sits back and watches doers,
and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be
a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change." Dr. Wayne
W. Dyer "You are always a valuable, worthwhile
human being, not because anybody says so, not because you're successful, not because
you make a lot of money, but because you decide to believe it and for no other
reason." Dr. Wayne W. Dyer "Circumstances
do not make a man, they reveal him." Dr. Wayne W. Dyer "Most
so-called Failures are only temporary defeats." Napoleon Hill "Your
big opportunity may be right where you are now." Napoleon Hill "Any
idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought."
"Big pay and little responsibility
are circumstances seldom found together." STORY
for YOUR MONTH: “Whatever
your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” -- “You become what you think about.” -- Earl Nightingale (1921-1989) “Fear of failure
becomes fear of success for those who never try “You can have everything in life that you
want if you will just help The four most prominent motivational speaker-authors
share five similarities that help account for their success: (1)
Childhoods laden with hardships Napoleon Hill was born into poverty in rural Virginia and his mother died when he was 10. Earl Nightingale also grew up poor, in Long Beach, California during the Depression, and his father left the family when he was 12. Wayne Dyer spent the first decade of his life in foster homes and orphanages. Zig Ziglar was born in rural Alabama during the Depression and his father died when he was still a boy. From
an early age, Napoleon Hill tried to find the answer to how people from meager
backgrounds with no discernible advantages manage to reach tremendous heights
in life. Striving to overcome a handicap of birth of ignorance and superstition,
he studied the greats–Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darwin, Lincoln, Ford, Carnegie
and his namesake, Napoleon–and tried to reshape his own character by emulating
them. As a mountain In the book, Hill tells
a story that illustrates his philosophy that “whatever your mind can conceive
and believe it can achieve.” A man named Barnes was bent on partnering with
Thomas Edison. One day Barnes showed up at Edison's door and Edison thought he
looked like a tramp. But impressed with the determination on his face, Edison
offered Barnes a job in his office at a nominal wage. It was not exactly the golden
horseshoe, but when the opportunity did present itself, it turned out Like
his idol, Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale was hungry for knowledge. As a young
boy he would frequent the Long Beach Public Library in California, searching for
the answer to a question similar to Hills’s: “How can a person, starting
from scratch, who has no particular advantage in the world, reach the goals that
he feels are important to As a member of the Marine Corps,
Nightingale volunteered to work at a local radio station as an announcer. Years
later, he would become host of his own daily commentary program and for three
decades was heard on more than 1,000 radio stations across the U.S., Canada, and
10 foreign countries. When he was 29, he read Think and Grow Rich and its message,
“We become what we think about,” would become his credo. As owner of
an insurance company, Nightingale spent time motivating his sales force to greater
accomplishments. His sales manager begged him to put his inspirational words on
record. The result, entitled The Strangest Zig Ziglar grew up with insecurities and small expectations. As a salesman, he had little confidence until a sales exec told him that if he would only recognize his ability he’d become a great one. Ziglar went on to become a star salesman and many of his books focus on improving the self-esteem of sales people around the world. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, author of 20 self-help books, is the only author in the self-improvement section of Barnes & Noble on 82nd Street and Broadway, to have a shelf embossed with his name. Affectionately known by fans as the father of motivation, Dyer began his career as an educator and eventually earned a doctorate in counseling psychotherapy. He too borrowed from Napoleon Hill, especially the philosophy that we become what we think about. One principle he lives by is to focus on what you want and refuse to let anyone stand your way. He uses the example of the Wright Brothers. “I don’t think Orville and Wilbur said to each other, 'This thing is heavier than air, so how will it get off the ground?'” How
can we emulate these four masters of self-improvement? While we have no control
over our birthright, we can expand our curiosity, help others to achieve their
dreams, and always keep our eye on the ball. |
