GENERAL INFORMATION AND TEACHINGS FOR LIFESTYLE CHANGE

20 Things Smart People Don't Do

The first question that merits an answer is what makes an individual smart. Is it the abundance of facts that one can memorize? Is it the above average, or exceptional, IQ?  Perhaps, it is the wisdom to make a sound decision at the crucial moment, or knowing how to make the best out of the bad situation.
Maybe it is the ability to take as many aspects as possible into consideration before deciding on the future course of action. It is probably a good combination of all the previously mentioned traits.
Of course, if someone is smart and successful, it is hard to pinpoint what exactly is responsible for that person’s success and wellbeing. Truth be told, it is far easier to notice what these smart people don’t do, and arrive to a conclusion as to what is to be avoided. As long as we circumvent these negative things, the rest will come naturally.

1. They don’t overlook the possibility to save money
Prudence is a virtue, not to be mistaken with greed or stinginess. Being able to handle your finances and save, by avoiding unnecessary expenses, is an admirable quality. In fact, it is surprising how many small details there are, warranting closer scrutiny.
These seemingly meaningless expenses can be easily avoided, and the amount of money you can save can amount to something rather significant.
For starters, buying a tap filter can reduce the money spent on bottled water. Opting to refill a printer cartridge, rather than buying a new one is another judicious investment. Replacing light bulbs inside your home with those that conserve energy, is yet another wise choice. Utilizing apps to reduce credit card processing fees, or choosing a big bank as your provider, instead of your local town bank, is also a good decision.
The internet has an unfathomable amount of quality content, both educational and entertaining. Paying for a cable or magazine subscription is undeniably meaningless. Almost anything you are after can be found online, at cheaper price, either as a streaming service, or as an online news article.
The point is, learn how to fully realize the things you are already paying for or have at your disposal – that’s what being smart is all about.

2. They don’t heavily rely on others
There is nothing wrong with having friends, family members or coworkers you can trust and rely on. Everyone should have someone they can count on when things go south. Heavily relying on someone, however, only portrays you as powerless. As a smart individual, you should never indulge such a commodity.
You can have a brilliant mind, outstanding intelligence, etc. but if you do not put those traits to good use, then you will only come off as incompetent. When you are in need of assistance, pay close attention, see if your problem was truly difficult. In a great number of cases, it is our fear and insecurity that prevent us from acting.
There is always a thought “What if I only make things worse?” The thought is perfectly justified. The unwillingness to overcome such a fear on the other hand, isn’t.

3. They don’t act irresponsibly
Do not mistake this statement as “Smart people don’t have fun” or “Smart people are boring.” You can have fun, you can have a drink, or have a good laugh. Irresponsibility does not equal uninteresting, it only means you like to have an organized lifestyle.
Superior organization leads to greater efficiency, whether you are a student, an employee, a business owner, an artist, or a celebrity.
We all have certain responsibilities, and they are not always imposed by someone else. Putting them off for no valid reason is simply packing to travel into a more stressful future. Almost everyone experiences how being irresponsible tends to backfire, but smart people simply practice what they learn from such inconveniences.

4. They don’t feel defeated just because they need to reevaluate their convictions
Our environment, our parents, our education and our past are all responsible for forging our convictions and our perception of the world. It leads to a creation of what is referred to as “umwelt” which roughly translates as “self-centered world”. Umwelt is more connected to how we create the image of the world surrounding us by using our sense, but it can be extended to our point of view on philosophical matters.
The convictions we acquire throughout life are not wrong per se, but are very likely to be proven incompatible when exposed to an entirely new experience or more difficult questions that need answering. Also, if you move out and change the environment you are likely to witness different patterns of behavior, simply because education, or lack of education in some areas, resulted in the blooming of other human qualities.
Sooner or later, our convictions are challenged and sometimes they will triumph, sometimes they will be trumped. Smart people constantly challenge their convictions; they do not discard them. They reshape them, and they allow them to grow proportionally with their new experience. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to broaden your mind-set, you are not defeated if you gained something valuable.

5. They don’t dwell on their errors
To clarify, this refers to companies that manufactured a bad product, or movie directors who made bad movies, etc. It is not uncommon to come up with an idea for something that appears like a true masterwork for us, but once it’s realized, the general public may not be that impressed. It can feel humiliating and really unpleasant, however it happens, whether we like it or not.
When you are making something intended to be appealing to the masses, and in the end fail, start over again from scratch. If you want to impress, listen to your audience, don’t try to patch up the product, or make sequels, in an attempt to prove your vision was brilliant.
This kind of behavior will only cost you your credibility, and even when you manage to come up with something good, people might not even bother to give it a try. It won’t make you neither weak nor foolish, if you know when to give up. It will only give you more time to work on your comeback.

6. They don’t permit their past to hold them back
The past cannot be erased, and it does not come back to haunt us, it simply never leaves. We need to learn how to cope with it, and not allow it to interfere with our future achievements. If there is nothing useful to be recovered from the past experience, simply close those doors and let it go.
Past experiences shape who we are today, and our previous struggles can build a strong character, but people tend to use their past to justify their mistakes or behavior. Perhaps we use these excuses to gain understanding from others, or to make it easier to forgive ourselves.
Still, if you acknowledge your flaws but refuse to do something about them just because you have an excuse, then you have chosen an easy way out, and that’s not what smart people do.

7. They don’t rely on good luck to solve their problems
“Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.” A good quote to be guided by when you invest your time and efforts into something. Hope for the best possible scenario is what motivates us, whereas preparing for the worst prevents us from falling apart. On the other hand, simply hoping for the things to work themselves out is no different from being lazy.
Luck should only take credit for a fragment of your success, considering that relying on it too frequently will only suffocate your ambition.
Besides, smart people would never permit luck to take glory for all their hard work. When you pour your heart and soul into achieving your goal, it would be disappointing to give good fortune the title of “major contributor”.

8. They don’t neglect important aspects of their business 
One of the key factors responsible for success is attention to details or just paying good attention in general. When one is trying to be a smart business owner, he or she is generally governed by the idea that with a quality product, success is guaranteed.
The logic is not entirely flawless, since even if you can offer a top quality product at a better price than your competition, you are still a far cry from a lucrative business.
The absolute necessity for a successful selling period is credibility, meaning you will need to have a good advertising tactic. This implies striving towards omnipresence and professional appearance, which brings us to the most efficient tool for spreading this kind of brand awareness, and that is your website.
The impact of the website should never be underestimated; people will judge you as a professional based on your website design, its responsiveness, authority and its content. There are numerous people who offer an amazing type of service or products, in person, but simply look like amateurs online.
Start off by finding a good web hosting service, to ensure your sites responsiveness, proceed with quality design, and finally, eloquently describe your product or service.
Clearly, this is a single example of an important aspect, there are others as well. like providing a good customer service and creating efficient incentive plans etc. But the point is never to push in one direction. Always work on numerous fronts.

9. They don’t hesitate to learn from their mistakes
Mistakes are inevitable. Sooner or later something goes wrong, and an unaccounted for variable emerges, and places a grave dent in our previously well-laid schemes. You can’t always have everything under your control, and we do not have the degree of awareness necessary to view every possible angle.
Mistakes are there to remind us of our flaws, and force us to mitigate the impact they have on our lives. Honestly, mistakes can teach us a lot about our lives, and ourselves, but only if we let them.
Learning from your mistakes means finding what is worth salvaging from your unfortunate experience, realizing what went wrong and finding a way to avert it in the future. Smart people use this input to work on themselves, and change the things they have the power to change.
Arrogant people look for excuses, and choose to blindly believe in their judgement without any retrospect. Not only does this kind of behaviour hinder your future success, it also drives people, and allies, away from you.

10. They don’t give up on their ideas just because other people don’t agree with them
I know that it was stated how knowing when to give up and start anew is a good thing, and how being too stubborn or pushy will ultimately yield bad results. Well, a wise person knows when he or she should push the envelope and stand firm when the situation takes a turn for the worst.
There is a difference between when someone gives your idea a chance and did not like it in the end and someone not giving your idea a chance at all. We are all entitled to constructive feedback on why our ideas or products are not satisfactory.
If someone wants to discard our efforts based on a hunch, do not let them. Fight for your chance to shine, or try finding someone else who will hear you out and appreciate your idea.
There is always a possibility that someone is intimidated by your expertise; thus that person wants to hinder your development. If you want to publish or launch something, look for more than one opinion. Even if the first one is flattering, look for more.
Constructive criticism can be used as a precious insight for the future.

11. They don’t make strong remarks that can make them look weak in the future
Actions speak louder than words. Don’t feel overconfident and use words of grandeur to describe your future actions. It only makes you look like an attention seeker, who will inevitably lose his or her credibility.
Credibility is of the utmost importance for one’s future and well-being, and we all know how in “Boy who cried wolf” the loss of credibility had a strong impact on the outcome of the situation. If you want to be taken seriously and to be respected, don’t talk big without a means to back it up. Simply let your hard work tell your tale.

12. They don’t lose the opportunity to broaden their experience
This is closely connected to the previously mentioned convictions, like Friedrich Nietzsche said, “There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.” You can never become a complete being, and you should never set such goals for yourself. However, making ongoing endeavors towards progression in various areas is indeed what a smart person would do.
Science constantly expands our understanding of the world; it constantly tests theories and comes up with new ones. Even old or proven findings are never left alone, they are re-examined, redefined, and updated. They are constantly after progress, investigating what is most likely the truth, not what they want to believe the truth is.
It is a good way to expand your database. After all, scientist are usually those who have the qualities, or are perceived to have qualities, of smart people. The majority of smart celebrities were and are scientists.

13. They don’t know how to back off from a good cause
Much like with the good idea, wise people do not back off from a cause worth fighting for. Revolutions were led and achieved thanks to these individuals, and luckily, our society is still flawed and can provide us with many causes worth fighting for.
We are often criticized by our parents, superiors, or teachers about our tastes, our interests and our hobbies. Honestly, they can be right from time to time, but throughout the course history, a fix has emerged. Older generations tend to scold things they do not fully understand, and are too self-absorbed to even give them a chance.
Imagine just how many art forms, in terms of music, books, and film genres would not be here today if people didn’t regard them as good ideas. Today, video games are struggling with the same issue. They are held responsible for violent and troublesome behavior in youth, and people do not consider them a medium capable of delivering deeper moral values.

14. They don’t waste the potentials of their gadgets
Lacking knowledge related to a certain field, or lacking the necessary skill to accomplish a particular task, does not automatically make someone incompetent. Smart people have a good way of overcoming these obstacles; they can find solutions to compensate for their shortcomings.
Using your gadgets to their full extent can prove to be rather beneficial in a variety of scenarios.
Obviously, smartphones and tablets have internet connection and access to Google, thus all you need to do is know how to utilize these browsers efficiently. Almost anything you want to know has a recorded or a written tutorial online, meaning as long as you are connected to the World Wide Web, you will have the means to solve tricky problems.
App stores have an applications galore, and a great number of them are really remarkable. Sure, there are those which are utter nonsense, but every smartphone and tablet device should have a few useful apps installed. For example, you should have apps that help you with your data management, making your job significantly easier, in terms of organization.
Apps that can help you navigate when you are on unfamiliar terrain, thus boosting your level of security. Apps that can help you find good restaurants while in a foreign country, like Yelp. Additionally, language boundaries are significantly mitigated by use of translating apps, and even though they are not one hundred percent accurate, they can still aid you a great deal.

15. They don’t overestimate their abilities 
Shelly’s Frankenstein and Goethe’s Faust tell a wonderful cautionary tale about how even the brightest among us can suffer a tragic downfall, simply because they overreached past their limitations. Ambition and hard work are healthy and nothing to be ashamed of, but without moderation, these qualities can be dangerous.
Primarily, you are likely to exhaust yourself continually, which can be indeed stressful and it can have a negative impact on your health. The insatiable desire for advancement in a particular field can cloud your perspective, and make you lose grip on other important aspects of life. Ultimately, we can end up being alienated from our peers, and it can be sad to have no one you can share your success with.
Secondly, our mind has its limits too, and very often actively thinking about the problem doesn’t get us anywhere. We need to know when we are stuck and to take a break. In other words, we need to allow our subconscious processes to grab the reins, and see what happens.
You’d be surprised just how frequently certain answers simply dawn on you. Moreover, even when the answers appear obvious, it is better to examine them again in the morning, perhaps they won’t seem as ideal as they did the day before.

16. They don’t make redundant enemies 
Regardless of your status, whether you are a rising star entrepreneur, or an employee in a small firm, you are likely to encounter enemies, nemeses, competition, whatever you want to label particular individuals.
These people are not malefic in nature. Your convictions, ideologies or points of view are only incompatible. The problem is that you can never know what they may do if they feel provoked, and they are probably perceiving you in the same manner, which results in unnerving animosity.
It is important to define a difference between enemies created by circumstances, and enemies created by our actions. We have already established how our competition can induce minor paranoia, so it is better not to incite any redundant conflicts. When you socialize with stubborn and hot headed individuals, rest assured that you are not the only one who notices their traits.
Trying to prove a point and creating an argument with these people will get you nowhere. A smart thing to do is just nod, or say you do not agree, and end the discussion.
When entering partnerships, do a thorough check on your potential allies, see if they are not prone to deceive you, but also make sure you don’t accidentally do something that can be viewed as treacherous. Furthermore, if you are going through a divorce, see to it that you do not separate on completely bad terms, since creating a relationship based on acts of spite won’t do anyone any good.

17. They don’t allow their pride to get in the way
Time to quote one of my favorite manga artists, Tite Kubo: “If it rusts, it can never be trusted. If its owner fails to control it, it will cut him. Yes, pride is like a blade.” Spiritual teachings usually label pride as a bad characteristic, but reality tends to tell a different story. Having pride is completely acceptable, but being consumed by it is quite inconvenient.
It is not rare that once you become so brilliant, you tend to automatically castigate the opinion of everyone around you. Not only that, but you may often find yourself rejecting a good proposal or initiative simply because you are not the one who thought of it. Smart people rely on their reasoning and if too much pride interferes with it, then it is a feature not worth nurturing.

18. They don’t put all the eggs in one basket
This one is a no brainer. Never fully invest yourself for the sake of realizing a single idea. Always have backup plans, alternatives, contingencies etc. It was already established that people may not be impressed with your design, or that something can go wrong if we don’t account for all the variables.
This doesn’t imply that you should be discouraged and back off when things don’t go as planned, but this matter will be addressed later on.

19. They don’t lie to themselves that everything will be easy
Finally, don’t live in the illusion that life will be easy. Your efforts may be thwarted on more than one occasion. Bright and intelligent people know how to pick themselves up and make a comeback. They work on their confidence, and don’t expect things to get easier. Even when things appear to be easy, don’t drop your guard – it’s always quiet before the storm.
Smart people love challenges and the thrill that comes from overcoming an obstacle. Having some downtime is refreshing, but confronting and tackling new problems is what they live for.

20. They don’t take unnecessary risks
We all found ourselves, at some point in life, when we could have taken a risk in exchange for a greater gain. In the event you are an adrenalin junkie, a motto like “high risk, high reward” is not a bad thing to live by.
Being smart and calculated very often contradicts with this approach, since it is not implied that you won’t face risks, but it limits you to only those that are necessary.
Even small risks with significant gain, like lottery, are a poor choice; if you have some extra cash, save it and wait for it to accumulate. Do not depend on people who are more or less strangers, or wildcards, and stay away from the fluctuating stock markets. Work hard to achieve success – don’t be tantalized by the possibility to change your life overnight.

Removing These 8 Things From Life Can Make You More Successful

Lots of people think that the best way to become successful is to pick up lots of new habits and skills. While this can help, sometimes the best thing you can do is give up the things that distract you from your goals.
Instead of adding more things to your life, try removing some negative things that hold you back from success. Some are very easy to give up, while others require a little more time and effort.
Here are 8 things that you should remove from your life to be more successful:

1. Remove Excuses
Successful people don’t try to blame their family, their friends, their boss or their co-workers for their life. Instead, they understand that they are fully responsible for their own life and situation. They see this as a good thing as it means that they hold the power to significantly improve their life. When you make up excuses you are lying to yourself, which will hold you back from achieving your goals.

2. Remove Perfectionism
Perfection is unattainable, so trying to achieve it is a waste of your time. Instead of worrying about mistakes that you have made or physical flaws that bother you, simply focus on trying to better yourself with small steps. No one is perfect, but anyone can make the decision to be a better person.

3. Remove Fear
Lots of people make themselves smaller without realizing; they keep quiet during discussions when they want to say something; they avoid taking risks; and they always think about the worst-case scenario. This fearful attitude will stop you from achieving your full potential, so remove it from your life and be brave instead; speak up, voice your thoughts and actively chase your dreams and goals.

4. Remove The Need To Control Everything
You can’t control everything, and trying to do so is a futile task. It won’t help you to become more successful, but it will make you feel stressed, upset and frustrated. Instead of trying to control everything around you, make an effort to care less about the things you can’t control and focus on the things that you can.

5. Remove A Fixed Mindset
Lots of people have a fixed mindset and they make no effort to learn more or change their perception. This makes it hard for them to become more successful as their mindset is stuck in the past. Try to embrace knowledge and learning, and remember that you can always become wiser.

6. Remove The Desire For Overnight Success
Some people believe that the majority of successful people became successful overnight, or that they became successful by chance. While luck can certainly play its part, you can’t rely on luck to become successful. In reality success takes time and dedication, so you should plan for the future as well as the day ahead of you.

7. Remove Toxic People
If the people around you are negative and pessimistic, over time you will start to become negative and pessimistic too. Remove the toxic people from your life and replace them with optimistic, supportive people who genuinely care about you and your dreams. You will find that you are more motivated to work on your goals, and you will be happier and less stressed.

8. Remove The Need To Say Yes (When Really You Want To Say No)
Some people struggle to say no to the people around them, even if they want to say no. This normally means that they end up wasting time doing things that they don’t want to do, and other people might start to take advantage of them. Be brave and say no when you want to; only you can make your dreams a priority, and it is difficult to do that if you are too busy helping other people with their dreams.

You can be successful and have your dreams come true. This is just a start. Have faith. Faith is key to durable success.
Steps

1. Figure out what you want to do. If you REALLY want to do it. Then, the questioning part begins: Am I really talented? This question is really important because you don't want to waste your energy on something where you're just not talented. Then ask the others about their opinion. However, you've got to be careful about this one, because there are many people who are just envious and won't tell you if you are good or not.

2.Now think about HOW you are going to achieve this. Do you have to study? Which university is best for it? For you? Which key qualifications do you need? Gather all the information you can.Make sure you know "why do you want to be successful?"write the answer in any paper, and stick it where ever you want, surely it will always keep you motivated.

3. Know what makes successful people successful? Their willpower, their confidence and their optimism. If someone tells you differently, he or she lies. A successful person will never give up as easily. An example needed? Walt Disney! At first, nobody liked his idea, but he did believe in himself and went to Hollywood. He continued improving and working on his idea. And it worked! There's also the boss of Red Bull who wasn't successful at first. But with his ambition and his willpower, he got everything he wanted. What you can learn from this? If you know-deep down there-that you WANT to do this and that you are talented, it doesn't matter what the others say. Keep on working, which brings me to the next point:

4. Work hard! Even if you have to work ten hours a day, do not get lazy. Everything in life has its prize. You have to be willing to pay it. The work really does pay off. Later, it makes you even prouder because you can say:"It didn't just come to me. I actually worked hard and see where it got me!"

5. Fight for your goals. Lack of money? Then DO something! There's always a solution, as long as you keep looking for it...There are many celebrities, musicians, writers, singers and actors who were poor at first. But they worked their way up. They didn't just isolate themselves from the others and be like:" If I should become an actor one day, it will come!" Yeah, it's true that sometimes destiny IS generous, but do not rely on that...If you have the problem that your parents say "no" to your dream, don't be mad at them. Try to talk with them sensibly. Mostly, parents just want the best for you, and if you say:"Mom, Dad, I want to be a musician!" it's logical that they're concerned. They fear that you will have a bad life, not enough money and stuff. But if you are well-informed and show them your plans, they'll see that you actually MEAN it and that you are willing to take responsibility for your actions. If they still say no, just do it. After all, you live just once. And you are not, I repeat, not, their painting book which they can fill in with their favorite colors!
If you did all this, it's a great way to move forwardtowards your goals. However, a good education and some certificates won't hurt. For example, if you want to be a dancer and you break your leg and the doctor tells you: "Sorry, but you'll never be able to dance again!"...It's always good to have a back-up

6. Now go your way, be confident, ambitious hard-working, optimistic and you'll get everything you want. You want to grab the stars? Before you know it, you'll be one yourself if you are willing to give things up for your goals. Above all, remember, believing is achieving!

The earth and rocks are the obstacles -- bad habits, unrealistic planning, incorrect beliefs, negative character traits -- that keep us from feeling truly alive. This is the time of year to tap into our deepest yearning to live, in order to stand before the Creator and ask for another year of life.

The 10 Things Successful People Live By Before They Make It

1. They didn’t use excuses. We all have two voices. There’s the voice that tells us to work hard, to focus on the task at hand and to finish it before we move on to the next. And to finish it well. We also have the voice that tells us to take a break, to think about what’s on TV, or to visit a site that we like to visit that entertains us – whether it’s ESPN.com or facebook. In life we’re the victim of injustice from time to time.

It could be a promotion that we deserve but don’t get. No matter who we are, we’re going to be treated unfairly at some point. We can either feel sorry for ourselves, or push forward and put it behind us – even use it as motivation. Nelson Mandela could have used his unjust imprisonment as an excuse to give into his anger. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to learn, grow, and eventually free others. Listen to your excuses. Understand why you have them.

Then figure out how you can use them for good.

2. It wasn’t just about them. ‘Things’ can be a motivator, they can even be a reward, but they can’t be the motivator. The truly successful in life always get there because they created change in the lives of others, not just their own. If something drives you that is greater than just the ‘ends’, we’re going to work harder, longer, and we’re going to give more of ourselves to our project. Yes we can make money when we have the primary goal of making money. Some might even use that money for good – which is awesome. But there’s no fulfillment in simply making money. And isn’t that the point?

3. Early mornings and late nights. People who have achieved true success in their lives have worked for it. This might come at the detriment of other areas of their lives, such as family or social life. But their mission is first and foremost. Until it’s complete, everything else comes second. There’s literally no substitute for hard work. Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait… but only the things left by those who hustle.” If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to out hustle everyone else.

4. The greatest commodity. Energy is a huge commodity that is often not talked about. Yes, energy in the sense of fuel and electricity is talked about everywhere, but I’m talking about our own energy levels. The fact is that the more energy we have, the easier it is to focus, and the higher the quality of our work is. One of Richard Branson‘s ‘key’s to success’ is staying in great physical shape. So would raised energy levels be the greatest benefit to working out? It may be. Keeping physically fit gives us greater blood-flow to our brain, enhanced alertness and improved focus. Make training a routine part of your life and increase your chances at success – in every meaning of the word.

5. Principles. History will be kind to me. For I intend to write it. Winston Churchill had principles. The difference between him and the rest of us, is that he stuck to his principles at all costs. He didn’t waver when they weren’t popular – an extreme rarity in politics. What are your principles? All of us should have them, know what they are, and live our lives by them. One of Apple’s principles is to bring change to the world through technology, and they do it with every product they release. Identify what principles you have that guide your life through tough times, and when things couldn’t be any better. They shouldn’t change, and at your core, neither should you.

6. Wavering, yet unbreakable faith. We all have moments of doubt. Even the best of us question if our dream is going to come true. The one thing that separates the truly successful from those who never reach their true potential is an unbreakable faith in the fact that what they’re doing is right. Even if they have moments of doubt, they’re soon quelled, where other’s listen to that doubt and let it eat them up and finally they quit. Have your moments of doubt. You’re human. Just don’t let that doubt eat you up. Instead let it motivate you to prove your optimism right.

7. A reason. Many of the greatest accomplishments in the world were accomplished by insecure men and women, people who had something to prove to others. A desire to elevate their status and create change that was so strong, that failure is simply never and option. Abraham Lincoln‘s reason(s) had to do a lot with his view of himself in relation to how other’s viewed him. Where others saw a poor, illiterate boy, Lincoln saw someone capable of achieving more, even if he had to do it completely on his own. He also saw the need for change. A nation that preached freedom wasn’t free. He saw something fundamentally wrong with this and set out to change it. His why wasn’t about him. Which in turn made him one of history’s great men. Understand why. You have that reason to work when others sleep, to sacrifice a safe life for a risky one with no ceiling. Find it by asking why, and not stopping until you hit your core, emotional reason for wanting to change your status, or the status of others.

8. They persevered when others didn’t. How does the guy who quit on his dream know how long it would’ve taken him to become a success? He doesn’t. None of us do. It could be tomorrow, or ten years from now. What separates a lot of the great people we read about in our history books from those we’ve never heard of is the fact that they never quit. Quitting was never an option. They only stopped when they reached their dream. And even then, they created a new mission. Take James J. Braddock, or even Nelson Mandela, for example. They didn’t achieve their greatness or success early on in their careers or in life like some. They achieved it after surviving. They survived while others literally died, or quit. In their cases it wasn’t just that they were the best, but they were the best because of what they endured. They were the last one’s standing.

9. Great people relentlessly studied their craft. Tony Gwynn and Mike Tyson studied their craft as much as anyone. Gwynn spent hours upon hours studying opposing pitchers. He studied their patterns. He wasn’t the most athletic guy around, but he put his work in to be the best at what he did: hit baseballs. When people think of Tyson, they think of an animal, but what we fail to see is the student. No one studied boxing like Tyson did. Watched more film than anyone in the history of the sport. He was a student first, a fighter second.

These great athletes studied film, but how can we perfect our craft? Using myself as an example; much of my job has to do with writing, and obviously fitness. So, I study those two things. I read books about how to become a better writer, ways to connect with the reader, and I simply read great books written by authors who are much better at writing than I am. If you’re in sales, read and study sales. If you’re a marketer, then do the same with marketing.

10. Risk. No risk, no reward. Yes it’s an over-used, cliché of a phrase. But it’s true. Those who have achieved real success have often risked the most to get there. There have been billions of people throughout history who have had the ability to achieve greatness, whether it was the talent or smarts, they had it. What they didn’t have was the guts to risk the life that they were living. They also didn’t have the work ethic to see their talent realized. The greatest tragedy in life is wasted talent ~ A Bronx Tale Your big, audacious dream might be to marry the girl of your dreams and have a family with her. You risk might be to leave the career that you love in order to support her and your family. Your dream might be to help millions live longer, healthier lives. Whatever your dream is, give it enough of a chance to be realized. Risk if you truly want to see the reward. Find your dream. Then risk everything to get it. Passion and success: 4 powerful tips on how to reach your goals

Start climbing your mountain and reach your goals. “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey Passion, as what the dictionary says, is a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for doing something. It is the very thing that makes you feel happy, the one that will motivate you to become the very best you can be. If you know your passion and have the opportunity to do it in your life or in work, climbing the ladder of success will be a lot easier.

Everyday will be like a child’s play day, without getting tired at all. However, even if passion is realized, not every person becomes successful. This is due to the many unnecessary thoughts and things that come on their way as they try to achieve their goals. Being able to overcome those things will help one come up with their expected output – success. So, how are we able to utilize our passion well to lead us on the right path to success? Here are four easy tips. 1. Find your passion and when you see it, harness it.

2. Learn what you can control and accept those that you can’t. Take it easy, don’t make things complicated. It’s a fact that being successful is not 100% flaw-free. As you go on, you’ll meet lots of problems and negativity that will make you be distracted. Don’t focus on them; focus on your goal instead. How to do it? Here are some advices. Manage your fears by not believing on your negative thoughts. Don’t focus on feelings of fear or anxiety which stop you from taking action. Take some risks.

Try and try until you get your desired output. Clarify your goals. Imagine what success would look like. Contemplate on what is really at stake and do not make fear and anxiety control you and your thoughts. Commit to behaviors that will help you achieve your goals. Stay away from doing something that won’t help. Accept that you may always feel some anxiety. You will never, ever feel only good. Stop trying to feel good all the time. Disappointments and failures are common in the way to success.

3. Set your vision and make it a reality. What is your vision? What do you want to achieve? What are your ‘big picture’ hopes and dreams? What are you doing to achieve these dreams? The clearer you become about these goals and dreams and the more often you think about them, the more likely you are to achieve them.

4. Be creative in visualizing and imagining your dreams. Recent research on the science of neuroplasticity shows that people can create new pathways in the brain by focusing on and expanding actions or thoughts. This suggests that visualization is one of the most effective ways of reprogramming the subconscious mind. When you focus your mind on imagining what you wish to experience in your life, it will be more definite that you’ll achieve what you want and be successful. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – a quote from a man whose talents are exceptional, Albert Einstein.

With this, let us all be reminded to bring the power in our passion. In this way, success will not be as far as we thought and as hard as we’ve always imagined. Let us all live our dreams! How to use fear before it uses you 5 ways fear can be your ultimate motivation

vator Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear that we’re just not enough – fear is a common current that runs through all of our lives. And if we let it, fear can keep us locked up in the prison of the comfortable and predictable, which prevents us from reaching our true potential. But there is also a way that fear can serve a valuable purpose, helping us break through the frustration to achieve the life we truly desire. That’s right – if you allow it to, fear can become your ultimate motivator. In your mind, if you have no choice but to succeed – if achieving your goal is an absolute must – then nothing else matters. Sacrifices won’t even be a question.

How do you adopt that mindset and perspective? How do you stop living a fear-based life and step into your true greatness instead? Here are 5 tips to stop letting fear control your happiness and how to start overcoming fear:

1. DETERMINE IF YOUR GOAL IS A “MUST”

2. RECOGNIZE THE EXCUSES It’s easy to push our hopes, desires and dreams aside. We make excuses: There’s just not enough time, I don’t have the money or the resources, I have a family, I’m just too busy. And we start to hide behind those excuses. Because they’re comforting. They’re safe. But excuses will also bring you back to exactly where you started. So remember that the next time an excuse floats into your mind. Are you truly where you want to be in life? Or are you falling back on fear and choosing to be comfortable instead of facing a challenge? By becoming more cognizant of your brain’s proclivity for using excuses so you won’t be held accountable, the better you will become at dismissing them.

3. ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET People often give up on what they want because they believe that reaching their goal is beyond their abilities. They never learn how to overcome fear and settle into their lives, thinking that their goal is simply unattainable so they shouldn’t try at all. But the most successful people foster a growth mindset. They don’t think of their abilities as fixed, but rather as flexible. And when faced with a setback, they try harder. They adopt a new strategy. They keep seeking a solution. They don’t give up when things become challenging. Instead, they find new ways to adapt and work harder to achieve their goals.

4. PAIN BRINGS VALUABLE INSIGHT There isn’t one successful person in the world who hasn’t had to overcome major obstacles. The most painful experiences can help refine what you want and what you don’t want in life. Failure, disappointment, deadends – these can all be used as a means of reflecting and saying, “This didn’t work. It wasn’t the right fit. So what do I really want?” Remember, we are built to adapt. So embrace this strength and use each experience as a tool to help you learn more about yourself and what you really must have in life. When you’re facing a painful experience or feel ready to give into fear motivation, picture someone you admire who faced adversity – they wouldn’t have achieved the success they now have without overcoming fear.

5. KNOW THAT FAILURE IS INEVITABLE You will fail. It’s just part of the process. Any successful person will tell you that. But failure offers insights and inherently corrects the faulty ways of approaching a problem. There is no teacher as impactful as the sting of failure. And no lesson in resilience better than the burn of rejection. But if you use these experiences as unique information, and adjust your strategy and approach the next time around, you will have an advantage that no one else does. If you’re ready to stop living a fear-based life, you have to decide that your dreams are more important than your fear of failure. Make the decision today to overcome fear and start existing as the most joyful, successful version of yourself possible.

Get the life you desire & deserve Overcome any fears holding you back and start living the life you desire at Unleash the Power Within. This will help you unlock and unleash the forces inside you to break through your limitations and take control of your life. Unlike other personal development plans, Unleash the Power Within is an immersive experience that will give you decades of proven strategies over one long weekend. No matter what you want in life – joy, love, passion, fulfillment – Unleash the Power Within will give you the drive and momentum to achieve it. Don’t settle for an ordinary life when you can create an extraordinary one! Commit to the ultimate weekend of personal growth and set personal development goals you can (and will!) conquer at Unleash the Power Within. Let’s get real: we’re living in a time when most people are lowering their expectations. We live in a time of tremendous uncertainty: at a time when 63% of Americans believe that the quality of life for themselves and their children’s future is far less than what it was in the past. We’re in a season of change— where we must thrive and not survive.

No matter how successful you are, there’s a gap between where you are and where you want to be. If your career is going great, you very often don’t have time for your kids. If your relationship with your kids is wonderful, your body is out of whack or your intimate relationship is not where you want it to be.

For almost 40 years, I have passionately pursued the answers to the questions, “what shapes human behavior? How can we create lasting change within ourselves and others?” Through research I’ve conducted, as well and my interaction with 50 million people from 80 countries – I’ve developed some fundamental tools and strategies to help maximize our capabilities as human beings and measurably accelerate the pace at which we can achieve our true goals and desires.

In the process, I have also come to realize that without our health, we have nothing. The importance of our physical health is undeniable, and so at the end of this weekend, you will learn what more than three decades of study has taught me – the Master Principles of a Vital Life: The Power of Pure Energy. This information is about unlocking and unleashing the forces inside you that can help you to break through any limit and create the quality of life that you desire and deserve. I’m truly excited and privileged to have this opportunity to share with you the best of what I have learned about personal growth and improvement. Life produces extraordinary rewards for those who give in extraordinary ways. Let’s make a joint commitment today to participate together with a new level of intensity and passion, one that goes far beyond anything we’ve done before. 300 Motivational Quotes to Help You Achieve Your

Dreams Need a quick dose of inspiration? Need a quick surge in motivation? You'll definitely find it here ...

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now-Chinese proverb If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success-James Cameron

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it-Henry David Thoreau

If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary-Jim Rohn

Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion-Tony Hsieh

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them-Walt Disney

If you are willing to do more than you are paid to do, eventually you will be paid to do more than you do- Anonymous

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm-Winston Churchill

Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them-Vaibhav Shah

Opportunities don't happen. You create them-Chris Grosser

Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value-Albert Einstein It is not

the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change-Charles Darwin

The best revenge is massive success-Frank Sinatra

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work-Thomas Edison

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him-David Brinkley

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it-Henry Ford

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise-Oscar Wilde

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success-Bruce Feirstein

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great-John D. Rockefeller

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you-Nathaniel Hawthorne

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed-Ray Goforth

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can-Arthur Ashe

People ask, 'What's the best role you've ever played?' The next one-Kevin Kline

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have-Thomas Jefferson

The starting point of all achievement is desire-Napoleon Hill

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out-Robert Collier

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than excellent work-Thomas J. Watson i

All progress takes place outside the comfort zone-Michael John Bobak

You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing-Philippos

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear-Mark Twain

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone-Pablo Picasso

We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret-Earl Nightingale

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary-Vidal Sassoon

Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending-Carl Bard

I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing -Martha Stewart

Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover-Mark Twain

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself-Mark Caine

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect-Mark Twain

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser like focus-Bruce Lee

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down-Charles F. Kettering

If you genuinely want something, don't wait for it--teach yourself to be impatient-Gurbaksh Chahal

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life- Steve Jobs

If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you! --T. Harv Eker

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better-Jim Rohn

The No. 1 reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors-Napoleon Hill

In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time- George Bernard Shaw

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going-Jim Ryun

Our greatest fear should not be of failure ... but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter- Francis Chan

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much-Jim Rohn

Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don't have a plan-Larry Winget

To be successful, you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can't just accept the ones you like-Mike Gafka .

Be content to act, and leave the talking to others-Baltasar

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it-Margaret Thatcher

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There's no greater investment-Stephen Covey

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite-G.K. Chesterton

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize-Robert Hughes

What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail? --Robert Schuller

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that's where you will find success-Thomas J. Watson

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere-Albert Einstein

Success is just a war of attrition. Sure, there's an element of talent you should probably possess. But if you just stick around long enough, eventually something is going to happen-Dax Shepard

My tombstone? I'm thinking something along the lines of, 'Geez, he was just here a minute ago.' --George Carlin

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today-James Dean

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness-Frank Tyger

Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want-Alan Cohen Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever-Peter Hagerty

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel-Maya Angelou

Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they've started-David Allen We forge the chains we wear in life-Charles Dickens If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you-Lao Tzu Everything is a gift of the universe--even joy, anger, jealousy, frustration, or separateness. Everything is perfect either for our growth or our enjoyment-Ken Keyes Jr. There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts-Richard Bach If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes-Andrew Carnegie Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are-Chinese proverb For me it is sufficient to have a corner by my hearth, a book, and a friend, and a nap undisturbed by creditors or grief-Fernandez de Andrada You cannot judge what should bring others joy, and others cannot judge what should bring you joy-Alan Cohen The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than growing with them-Bernard M. Baruch Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression, and respect-Alain de Botton If you start to think the problem is 'out there,' stop yourself. That thought is the problem-Stephen Covey Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude-Denis Waitley Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling-Margaret Lee Runbeck Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life- Germaine Greer Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it-Greg Anderson Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared-Buddha The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, then there will be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be-Anne Frank In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom-Buddha Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh.

Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is-Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey

You never regret being kind-Nicole Shepherd

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety-Ben Franklin

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future-Paul Boese

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly-Buddha True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose-Helen Keller

Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it's greedy or loving-Dan Millman

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference-Reinhold Niebuhr

I am not bound to win, I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have-Abraham Lincoln

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow- Melody Beattie

Then you can enjoy a lifelong love affair that brings you the richest fulfillment from inside out-Alan Cohen

Inspiring Motivational Quotes About Success

If you find yourself in a little mid-week or mid-day slump, take a few moments to re-energize yourself with these inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Sometimes, all it takes is a little reminder to boost your spirits and refocus your day

"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same."

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." -- Helen Keller

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." -- Dr. Seuss

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." -- Steve Jobs

"Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from." -- Seth Godin

"The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat." -- Lily Tomlin

"A man should never neglect his family for business." -- Walt Disney

"Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

H. Jackson Brown Jr. "Someone once told me that 'time' is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again." -- Jean-Luc Picard

Here are 75 quotes about success to inspire you to keep pushing forward and achieve your dreams.

2. “Every experience in your life is being orchestrated to teach you something you need to know to move forward.” (Brian Tracy, motivational speaker) 3. “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” (Eloise Ristad, author)

Setting Goals

11. “Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.” (Les Brown, motivational speaker and author)
12. “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” (Harvey Mackay, businessman and author)
13. “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.” (Denis Waitley, motivational speaker and writer)
14. "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." (C.S. Lewis, Famous Author)
15. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” (Eleanor Roosevelt, politician and activist)
16. “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” (Les Brown, motivational speaker and author)
17. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” (Mae West, actress and singer)
18. “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” (Randy Pausch, professor)
19. “You have to fight to reach your dream, you have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” (Lionel Messi, footballer)
20. “Dedication, determination and desire is what it takes.” (Jackie Joyner-Kersee, retired track and field athlete)

1. Determination and Persistence

   
   21. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” (Albert Einstein, physicist)
   22. “It’s not what you achieve, it’s what you overcome. That’s what defines your career.” (Carlton Fisk, retired Major League Baseball catcher)
   23. “Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.” (Marcia Wieder, motivational speaker and author)
   24. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” (Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman)
   25. “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.” (JK Rowling, author)
   26. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States)
   27. “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” (H. Jackson Brown, Jr., author)
   28. “When you lose, you get up, you make it better. You try again.” (Serena Williams, tennis player)
   29. “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream the farther you get.” (Michael Phelps, Olympian swimmer)
   30. “I have failed many times, but I have never gone into a game expecting myself to fail.” (Michael Jordan, retired basketball player)
   Success
   31. “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” (Michael Jordan, retired basketball player)
   32. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” (Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States)
   33. “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” (Arthur Ashe, tennis player)
   34. "I can’t do it" never yet accomplished anything; "I will try" has performed wonders. (George Burnham, banker and politician)
   35. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. (Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft)
   36. “All success is, really, is having a predetermined plan and carrying it out successfully over a long period of time.” (Harvey Mackay, businessman and author)
   37. “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.” (Soichiro Honda, engineer)
   38. “To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.” (J. Paul Getty, industrialist)
   39. “To .. You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” (Tony Dorsett, former American football running back)
   40. “Don’t think about the start of the race. Think about the” (Usain Bolt, sprinter)
   

   Leadership

   
   41. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” (Warren Bennis, scholar and author)
   42. “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” (Simon Sinek, motivational speaker and author)
   43. “This is the only country in the world where today’s employee is tomorrow’s employer.” (Marco Rubio, politician and attorney)
   44. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” (Steve Jobs, businessman and inventor)
   45. “Work hard and become a leader, be lazy and become a slave.” (Proverbs 12:24)
   46. “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” (Arnold J. Toynbee, historian and philosopher)
   47. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” (Farrah Gray, businessman and investor)
   48. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” (George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic)
   49. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” (John C. Maxwell, author and speaker)
   50. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” (John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States)

   1. Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right. —Henry Ford
   
   2. Becoming is better than being. —Carol Dweck, Mindset
   3. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing. —Herman Melville, Moby Dick
   4. The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on. —Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop
   5. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl  
   6. Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it. —Rafiki, The Lion King
   7. If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening my axe. —Abraham Lincoln
   8. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. —   John Milton, Paradise Lost
   9. Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. —Stephen Hawking
   10. Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure. —Stanley McChrystal
   11. Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. —Michael Scott, The Office
   12. The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me? —Ayn Rand
   13. Kid, there are heroes and there are legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you’ll never go wrong. —Babe Ruth, The Sandlot
   14. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. —Michael Jordan
   15. There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere. —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
   16. Fight till the last gasp. —William Shakespeare, Henry VI
   17. Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
   18. Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. —Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
   19. Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. —Judy Garland
   20. The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible. —Charles Kingsleigh, Alice in Wonderland (2010)
   21. Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination. —Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby
   22. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too. —Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
   
   23. Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do?  Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim. —Dory, Finding Nemo
   24. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained. —Marie Curie
   25. Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. —Salvador Dali
   26. If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing. — Ernest Hemingway
   27. Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. —Jim Hensen
   28. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. —Robert Louis Stevenson
   29. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go… —Dr. Suess, Oh the Places You’ll Go
   30. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly. —Neil Gaiman, The Sandman
   31. For artists, scientists, inventors, schoolchildren, and the rest of us, intrinsic motivation—the drive to do something because it is interesting, challenging, and absorbing—is essential for high levels of creativity. —Daniel H. Pink, Drive
   
   32. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. — Thomas Jefferson
   33. Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and again and bring their friend. — Walt Disney
   34. So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. —Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
   35. Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler. —Albert Einstein
   36. Innovation distinguishes from a leader and a follower. —Steve Jobs
   37. The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. —J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
   38. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. —George Addai
   39. I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
   40. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours. —Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
   41. There is only one way to avoid criticism. Do nothing. Be nothing. Say nothing. —Aristotle
   42. It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. —Spoon Boy, The Matrix
   43. Quality is job one. —Henry Ford
   44. Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE. —Joss Whedon
   45. The best way out is always through. —Robert Frost
   46. It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. — Muhammad Ali
   47. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams
   48. Speak softly and carry a big stick. —Theodore Roosevelt
   49. Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. ―Mark Twain
   
   50. It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride. ―Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
   51. There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas. —Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
   52. Unless someone like you care a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not. —Dr. Suess, the Lorax
   53. A proud heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. —Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
   54. You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind. —Irish Proverb
   55. Ignorance and fear are but matters of the mind—and the mind is adaptable. —Daniel Kish
   56. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. —Roald Dahl
   57. Someone, at some point, came up with this very bad idea that an ordinary individual couldn’t make a difference in the world. I think that’s just a horrible thing. —John Skoll
   58. Imitation is suicide. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
   59. If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. —Simon Sinek
   60. Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. —Harper Lee
   
   61. Genius is born—not paid. —Oscar Wilde
   62. Very often, a change of self is needed more than a change of scene. —A.C. Benson
   63. The Answer to the Great Question… Of Life, the Universe and Everything… Is… Forty-two. —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide
   64. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. —Thomas Edison
   65. I’ve learned about the poetry and the wisdom and the grace that can be found in the words of people all around us when we simply take the time to listen. —Dave Isay
   66. It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. —Joseph Campbell
   
   67. Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path then by all means you should follow that. —Ellen Degeneres
   68. It’s easy to solve a problem that everyone sees, but it’s hard to solve a problem that almost no one sees. —Tony Fadell
   69. Learning never exhausts the mind. —Leonardo Da Vinci
   70. If you’re alive, you’re a creative person. —Elizabeth Gilbert
   71. My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.” Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso. —Pablo Picasso
   72. The power of imagination makes us infinite. —John Muir
   73. Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. —Seneca
   
   74. Never ruin an apology with an excuse. —Benjamin Franklin
   75. Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. —Dwight D. Eisenhower
   76. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job.” —Terence Fletcher, Whiplash
   77. Don’t persuade, defend or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real. And listen. — Elizabeth Lesser
   78. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. —Buddha
   79. Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. —Truman Capote
   80. An innovator is one who does not know it cannot be done. —R.A. Mashelkar
   81. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. —Henry David Thoreau
   82. As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame, but for learning. —Margaret Heffernan
   83. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. —Stephen Covey
   
   84. You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London
   85. “I’m bored” is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say “I’m bored.” —Louis C.K
   86. If we can challenge convention, we can solve any problem. —Josh Valman
   87. Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
   88. In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and – SNAP – the job’s a game! —Mary Poppins
   89. If you hit the target every time, it’s too near or too big. —Tom Hirshfield
   90. Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. —Margaret Mead
   91. You can’t change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it. —Mahatma Gandhi
   
   92. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. —Plato
   93. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourselves. —Chanakya
   94. What I love most about rivers is, you can’t step in the same river twice. —Pocahontas, Disney’s Pocahontas
   95. Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over. —F. Scott Fitzgerald
   96. It’s time to try defying gravity. —Elphaba, Wicked
   97. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. ―Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
   98. Goonies never say die! —Mickey, The Goonies
   99. If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path. —Buddha
   100. Tough times never last, but tough people do. —Dr. Robert Schuller
   101. I would visualize things coming to me. It would just make me feel better. Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich. —Jim Carrey

   Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.Babe Ruth

   When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.John Lennon

   When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Lao Tzu

   If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.Sheryl Sandberg

   It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

   Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” Audrey Hepburn

   To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.Doug Conant

   When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.Simon Sinek

   Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.Zig Ziglar

   Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.Sam Walton

   Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.Benjamin Franklin

   I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.Marissa Mayer

   The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.Phil Jackson

   There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.Jack Welch

   Some companies don’t have an engagement problem, they have a hiring problem.Bob Kelleher

   The first thing that has to be recognized is that one cannot train someone to be passionate–it’s either in their DNA or it’s not.Richard Branson

   If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.Seth Godin

   Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.Walter Anderson

   Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.Mark Twain
   In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.Albert Einstein

   Often any decision, even the wrong decision, is better than no decision.Ben Horowitz

   You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.Maya Angelou

   Think big. Start small. Scale fast.Eric Ries

   I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.Steve Jobs

   Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.Jim Rohn

   Getting the right people and the right chemistry is more important than the right idea.Ed Catmull

   Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.Bill Gates

   You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.Zig Ziglar

   1. “Your number one customers are your people. Look after employees first and then customers last.” – Ian Hutchinson, author of People Glue
   2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
   3. “Business and human endeavors are systems… We tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.” – Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization
   4. “A group of people get together and exist as an institution we call a company so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately – they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental.” – David Packard, late co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
   5. “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” – Anne M. Mulcahy
   6. “On what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work.” – Marilyn Carlson, former CEO of Carlson Companies
   7. “The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.” – Sybil F. Stershic, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care
   8. “Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” – Tracy Streckenbach interview, Clear Goals Matter More than Mission, The New York Times
   9. “People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” – Pamela Stroko in Tanveer Naseer’s blog post How Leaders are Creating Engagement in Today’s Workplaces
   10. “Employee engagement is the art and science of engaging people in authentic and recognized connections to strategy, roles, performance, organization, community, relationship, customers, development, energy, and happiness to leverage, sustain, and transform work into results.” – David Zinger, Let’s Co-Create an Employee Engagement Charter, The Employee Engagement Network
   11. “Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.” – Meghan M. Biro, Your Employees are Engaged…REALLY?, Forbes
   12. “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.” – Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard, Do People Really Know What You Expect from Them?, Fast Company
   13. “Engaged employees stay for what they give (they like their work); disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security).” – Blessing White’s The State of Employee Engagement 2008
   14. “TURNED ON people figure out how to beat the competition, TURNED OFF people only complain about being beaten by the competition.” – Ben Simonton, author of Leading People To Be Highly Motivated And Committed
   15. “It’s sad, really, how a negative workplace can impact our lives and the way we feel about ourselves. The situation is reaching pandemic heights – most people go to work at jobs they dislike, supervised by people who don’t care about them, and directed by senior leaders who are often clueless about where to take the company.” – Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld, Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times
   16. “Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.” – Timothy R. Clark, The 5 Ways That Highly Engaged Employees are Different
   17. “Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.” – Francis Hesselbein, Hesselbein on Leadership
   18. “Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.” – Napoleon Hill
   19. “Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all you heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.” – Dale Carnegie
   20. “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.” – Sam Walton
   21. “I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among men the greatest asset I possess. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement.” – Charles Schwab

   22. “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” – Buddha

    

   1. Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right. —Henry Ford

   How to Fulfill Dreams

6. “Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” – Gail Devers
   I’ve discovered over the past year that dreams come in all shapes and sizes. But their fulfillment is almost always found in the same 7 steps…:

   1. Select a dream to fulfill. Some of us have so many dreams swirling in our minds, we don’t know where to start… while others of us are unable to put our finger on even one. Whether the decision be to write a book, run a marathon, buy a home, or find true love, fulfillment always starts with the intentional identification of one single goal and the heartfelt conviction to accomplish it. Take some time. Pick one. And then, set out to accomplish it.

   2. Believe it is achievable. Unfortunately, too many people will never accomplish their dreams because they simply refuse to believe in themselves. Optimism is absolutely required for dream fulfillment and life enjoyment. If you don’t have natural self-confidence, make finding it your first dream to accomplish. I suggest, “How to Believe in Yourself: A Four Step Plan.” If you do have self-confidence, begin to specifically direct it towards your chosen goal.

   3. Ask for help. People have gone before you. Learn as much as you can from them. When I decided to run a marathon, I read How to Run Your First Marathon and talked to my co-worker Carole almost every single week. When I decided to write an ebook, I talked to Jeramiah (technology), Martha (editing), and Jana (title/outline). Each had information that I needed and played a significant role in helping me accomplish my dreams. Don’t let your pride be the one obstacle that keeps you from them. Instead, humble yourself and ask for help.

   4. Adjust your life as necessary. By definition, if you have not accomplished your dream yet, you’ll need to adjust your lifestyle to accomplish it. And while some of the adjustments may be major, they always start small:
   Running a marathon starts with running one mile.
   Writing a book starts with deciding on a subject.
   Clearing your home of clutter starts with cleaning one drawer, closet, or room.
   Losing 50 pounds starts with changing one meal.
   Buying a home starts with saving one dollar.
   Fulfilling your dreams will require you to change your lifestyle – one small step at a time. And while there may be a large number of steps to take, the good news is that the first one is completely achievable… and so is the second…

   5. Set a deadline. Deadlines force our hand and call us to action. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to pick a realistic timeline and get moving. Buy a home in the next 3 years. Fix your marriage in the next year. Lose 20 pounds in the next 6 months. Or start a blog in the next 30 days. Find a calendar, a red marker, and a day. Go ahead, circle it. After all, a dream without a deadline is just a wish.

   6. Tell others. I have found limitless encouragement by sharing my dreams with others. The number of people cheering for me automatically doubles. Soon, it triples. Suddenly, I’m not just trying to let myself down, but I’m trying to not let my friends down as well. And the cost of failure has just increased.

   7. Stay focused. By nature, dreams will require perseverance. There will be successes and failures along the way. Those who persevere through the failures will accomplish their dreams. Those who give up will return to step #1. And if you’ve gotten this far, why would you want to start over? Instead of allowing failures to kill your dreams, use them to refocus you and your resolve.
   On a side note, I realize all too well that the circumstances of life ebb and flow. I humbly recognize that the positive circumstances of my life this past year have allowed these dreams to be accomplished. One major illness, accident, or misstep could have derailed any of them listed above. If you currently find the circumstances of life derailing you from reaching your dreams, let me encourage you. Don’t lose hope. Just redirect your dreams.

   PROFILES OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE FROM POOR FAMILY BACKGROUND AND HOW THEY MADE IT:-
   Some of the world's wealthiest people started out dirt poor.
   These 17 rags-to-riches stories remind us that through determination, grit, and a little bit of luck anyone can overcome their circumstances and achieve extraordinary success. 

   Russian business tycoon and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich was born into poverty and orphaned at age two.

   Net worth: $8.2 billion
   Abramovich was born in southern Russia, into poverty. After being orphaned at age two, he was raised by an uncle and his family in a subarctic region of northern Russia.
   While a student at the Moscow Auto Transport Institute in 1987, he started a small company producing plastic toys, which helped him eventually found an oil business and make a name for himself within the oil industry. Later, as sole leader of the Sibneft company, he completed a merger that made it the fourth biggest oil company in the world. The company was sold to state-run gas titan Gazprom in 2005 for $13 billion.
   He acquired the Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and owns the world's largest yacht, which cost him almost $400 million in 2010.
   Montpellier rugby club president and Entrepreneur of the Year Mohed Altrad survived on one meal a day when he moved to France.

   Net worth: $1 billion
   Born into a nomadic tribe in the Syrian dessert to a poor mother who was raped by his father and died when he was young, Altrad was raised by his grandmother, who banned him from attending school, in Raqqa, the city that is now capital of ISIS.
   Altrad attended school anyway, and when he moved to France to attend university, he knew no French and lived off of one meal a day. Still, he earned a PhD in computer science, worked for some leading French companies, and eventually bought a failing scaffolding company, which he transformed into one of the world's leading manufacturers of scaffolding and cement mixers, Altrad Group.
   He has previously been named French Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur of the Year.

   Kenny Troutt, the founder of Excel Communications, paid his way through college by selling life insurance.

   Net worth: $1.5 billion 
   Troutt grew up with a bartender dad and paid for his own tuition at Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance. He made most of his money from phone company Excel Communications, which he founded in 1988 and took public in 1996. Two years later, Troutt merged his company with Teleglobe in a $3.5 billion deal.
   He's now retired and invests heavily in racehorses.

   Starbucks' Howard Schultz grew up in a housing complex for the poor.

   Net worth: $2.9 billion
   In an interview with British tabloid Mirror, Schultz says: "Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. And for some reason, I don't know why or how, I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible. I may have a suit and tie on now but I know where I'm from and I know what it's like."
   Schultz ended up winning a football scholarship to the University of Northern Michigan and went to work for Xerox after graduation. Shortly after, he took over a coffee shop called Starbucks, which at the time had only 60 shops. Schultz became the company's CEO in 1987 and grew the coffee chain to more than 16,000 outlets worldwide.

   Investor Ken Langone's parents worked as a plumber and cafeteria worker.

   Net worth: $2.8 billion 
   To help pay for Langone's school at Bucknell University, he worked odd jobs and his parents mortgaged their home.
   In 1968, Langone worked with Ross Perot to take Electronic Data Systems public. (It was later acquired by HP.) Just two years later, he partnered with Bernard Marcus to start Home Depot, which also went public in 1981.

   Born into poverty, Oprah Winfrey became the first African American TV correspondent in Nashville.

   Net worth: $3 billion 
   Winfrey was born into a poor family in Mississippi, but this didn't stop her from winning a scholarship to Tennessee State University and becoming the first African American TV correspondent in the state at the age of 19.
   In 1983, Winfrey moved to Chicago to work for an AM talk show which would later be called "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

   John Paul DeJoria, the man behind a hair-care empire and Patron Tequila, once lived in a foster home and his car.

   AP
   Net worth: $2.9 billion
   Before the age of 10, DeJoria, a first generation American, sold Christmas cards and newspapers to help support his family. He was eventually sent to live in a foster home and even spent some time in a gang before joining the military.
   With a $700 dollar loan, DeJoria created John Paul Mitchell Systems and sold the shampoo door-to-door while living in his car. He later started Patron Tequila, and now invests in other industries.

   At one time, businessman Shahid Khan washed dishes for $1.20 an hour.

   Net worth: $4.4 billion 
   He's now one of the richest people in the world, but when Khan came to the US from Pakistan, he worked as a dishwasher while attending the University of Illinois. Khan now owns Flex-N-Gate, one of the largest private companies in the US, the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, and Premier League soccer club Fulham.

   Forever 21 founder Do Won Chang worked as a janitor, gas station attendant, and in a coffee shop when he first moved to America.

   Net worth: $6.5 billion 
   The husband-and-wife team — Do Won Chang and Jin Sook — behind Forever 21 didn't always have it so easy. After moving to America from Korea in 1981, Do Won had to work three jobs at the same time to make ends meet. They opened their first clothing store in 1984.
   Forever 21 is now an international, 480-store empire that rakes in around $3 billion in sales a year.

   Ralph Lauren was once a clerk at Brooks Brothers dreaming of men's ties.

   Net worth: $6.8 billion 
   Lauren graduated high school in the Bronx, New York, but later dropped out of college to join the Army. It was while working as a clerk at Brooks Brothers that Lauren questioned whether men were ready for wider and brighter designs in ties. The year he decided to make his dream a reality, 1967, Lauren sold $500,000 worth of ties. He started Polo the next year.

   Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal came from modest beginnings in India.

   Net worth: $12.3 billion
   A 2009 BBC article says the ArcelorMittal CEO and chairman, who was born in 1950 to a poor family in the Indian state of Rajasthan, "established the foundations of his fortune over two decades by doing much of his business in the steel industry equivalent of a discount warehouse."
   Today Mittal runs the world's largest steel making company and is a multibillionaire.

   Luxury goods mogul Francois Pinault quit high school in 1974 after being bullied for being poor.
   Net worth: $14.2 billion
   Pinault is now the face of fashion conglomerate Kering (formerly PPR), but at one time, he had to quit high school because he was teased so harshly for being poor. As a businessman, Pinault is known for his "predator" tactic, which includes buying smaller firms for a fraction of the cost when the market crashes. He eventually started PPR, which owns high-end fashion houses including Gucci, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Yves Saint Laurent.

   Leonardo Del Vecchio grew up in an orphanage and later worked in a factory where he lost part of his finger.

   Net worth: $24.1 billion
   Del Vecchio was one of five children who was eventually sent to an orphanage because his widowed mother couldn't care for him. He would later work in a factory making molds of auto parts and eyeglass frames.
   At the age of 23, Del Vecchio opened his own molding shop, which expanded to become the world's largest maker of sunglasses and prescription eyewear with brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley.

   Legendary trader George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and arrived in London as an impoverished college student.

   Net worth: $24.2 billion
   In his early teens, Soros posed as the godson of an employee of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture in order to stay safe from the Nazi occupation of Hungary. In 1947, Soros escaped the country to live with his relatives in London. He put himself through the London School of Economics working as a waiter and railway porter.
   After graduating, Soros worked at a souvenir shop before getting a job as a banker in New York City. In 1992, his famous bet against the British pound made him a billion dollars.

   After his father died, business magnate Li Ka-shing had to quit school to help support his family.

   Net worth: $27.1 billion
   Ka-shing fled mainland China for Hong Kong in the 1940s, but his father died when he was 15, leaving Ka-shing responsible for supporting his family. In 1950, he started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries, which manufactured plastics at first but would later expand into real estate.

   College dropout Sheldon Adelson grew up sleeping on the floor of a Boston tenement house.

   Net worth: $29.5 billion
   Adelson, the son of a cab driver, grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and began selling newspapers at the age of 12, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.
   A Forbes profile of the billionaire says years later, after dropping out of the City College of New York, Adelson "built a fortune running vending machines, selling newspaper ads, helping small businesses go public, developing condos and hosting trade shows."
   Adelson lost almost all of his money in the Great Recession, but he earned much of it back in the following years. He now runs Las Vegas Sands, the largest casino company in the world, and is considered the most high-profile political donor in America, says Forbes.

   Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison dropped out of college after his adoptive mother died, and he held odd jobs for eight years.

   Net worth: $49.8 billion 
   Born in Brooklyn, New York, to a single mother, Ellison was raised by his aunt and uncle in Chicago. After his aunt died, Ellison dropped out of college and moved to California to work odd jobs for the next eight years. He founded software development company Oracle in 1977, which is now one of the largest technology companies in the world.

   The Greatest Self-Made Men in American History

   The idea of the self-made man is inextricably tied up with that of the American dream. It is his image that has lured thousands of immigrants to our shores, all hoping for the chance to turn a handful of beans into a vast fortune. The self-made man is he who comes from unpromising circumstances, who is not born into privilege and wealth, and yet by his own efforts, by pulling himself up by the bootstraps, manages to become a great success in life. Frederick Douglass, a self-made man himself, said the discussion of self-made men was the discussion of “manhood itself, and this in its broadest and most comprehensive sense.” Douglass sensed that the story of the self-made man is the story of manliness personified. The self-made man harnesses and utilizes the most important masculine qualities: hard work, perseverance, and most of all, personal responsibility. The story of the self-made man embodies the goal of every man: to become the captain of his own destiny.

   What is a self-made man?

   Although typically associated with the rags to riches story, a self-made man is anyone who attains far greater success than his original circumstances would have indicated was possible. The self-made man often has to overcome great obstacles to achieve his goals. Self-made men attain their success through education, hard work, and sheer willpower. While no man is an island, it’s not external help or special relationships that make the crucial difference in the self-made man’s rise.
   Nor is luck the deciding factor. Society loves the story of a man whose success came to him largely by chance, from an opportunity dropped from the sky. Such stories allow unsuccessful men to excuse their failure as due to unavoidable bad luck and demerit the success of others by chalking their achievements up to chance. Sadly, too many men today believe that lounging on the shore, waiting for their ship to come in, constitutes the best pathway to reaching their goals. Instead, self-made men throughout history have made their own way in life by reaching deep inside themselves and through willpower and elbow grease, creating their own destiny. While there are always many factors to success, all are subordinate to work, which is the great key to success.

   The History of the Self-Made Man

   In his rise from being the son of a candle maker to a legend among men, Benjamin Franklin became America’s original self-made man. Abraham Lincoln likewise captured the public imagination when he made the improbable leap from lowly log-cabin to the White House. Yet the concept really took hold in American culture during the post Civil-War period. The so-called Second Industrial Revolution was in full swing, new inventions quickly made men rich and famous, and factories sprung from the ground, seemingly overnight. While a young man’s destiny had formerly been laid out for him practically at birth (he would follow his father into the family business) the possibility now existed to leave hearth and home and strike out for one’s individual success. For the young man who was willing to work hard and get ahead, the nation seemed to offer innumerable opportunities to strike it rich. Inspired by real examples like Andrew Carnegie and the fictional heroes of Horatio Alger’s novels, a man’s success seemed limited only by his drive and ambition.
   After the heyday of the self-made man, the concept took several hits. During the 1920’s, America experienced a (thankfully) brief infatuation with eugenics and the idea that a man’s destiny and character were almost entirely determined by his DNA. The idea of the self-made man was further weakened during the Great Depression, when men who had seemingly done all the right things-worked hard, scrimped, saved, and invested- saw their fortunes wiped out and all they had worked for washed away. Buffeted by grave external forces, it was hard to retain faith in the idea that one’s life remained in one’s control.
   The modern age continued to assault our culture’s belief in the self-made man. Sociologists and public policy experts stressed the effect of poverty and culture in determining an individual’s success, arguing that these factors greatly inhibited the rise of those beset by them. My American history textbook in college twice called the idea of the self-made man “a myth.” Most recently, Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, posits that great achievement is largely the result of cultural background and good luck.

   Why this list of self-made men?

   While the popularity of the self-made man may have faded in recent times, it is worthy of being revived. The concept of manly personal responsibility has greatly eroded, and too many young men today believe they are the helpless victims of their circumstances. The following list provides a strong remedy against such thinking. It is full of stories of men who refused to be satisfied with their lot in life and instead chose a different, more extraordinary path for themselves. They set a course for greatness and proceeded to work without rest until their goals became a reality.
   These stories prove that it doesn’t matter who your parents are, where you’re born, or how much education you acquire; the difference is in your character and willingness to do whatever it takes to be the best and achieve your dreams. As we honor these self-made men, we hope to inspire you to join their ranks. As Frederick Douglass said:

   Though a man of this class need not claim to be a hero or to be worshipped as such, there is a genuine heroism in his struggle and something of sublimity and glory in his triumph. Every instance of such success is an example and help to humanity. It’s better than any mere assertion, gives us assurance of the latent powers of simple and unaided manhood. It dignifies labor, honors, application, lessens pain and depression, dispels gloom from the brow of the destitute and weariness from the heart of him about to faint, and enables man to take hold of the roughest and flintiest hardships incident to the battles of life, with a lighter heart, with higher hopes and a larger courage.

   This list of great self-made men is not all-inclusive; both the past and the present are studded with far too many remarkable strivers to possibly cover them all. But here we highlight some of the most extraordinary of these stories. While some of these varied men were far more virtuous than others, none were saints. All had flaws and made mistakes. Some were ruthless in their pursuit of success. Any time a man’s life is held up for an example, it is incumbent upon the reader to glean the valuable lessons to be learned from that life, while discarding those things which he finds distasteful.
   And now the list:

   Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

   Does thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.
   Franklin’s life is the pattern from which all other self-made men have been cut. His rhetoric of hard work, ambition, and thrift was not merely a philosophy he preached; it was he code by which he lived his life. None of his successes came by chance; they were created by the ceaseless way in which he organized his life to maximize productivity. Such discipline was necessary if he ever hoped to rise from his humble beginnings. Franklin was the 15th of 17 children born to father Josiah Franklin, a candlemaker. Granted only two years of formal schooling, Franklin supplemented his knowledge by constantly having his nose stuck in a book.
   When he was 17, young Ben struck out on his own and traveled to Philadelphia. Unlike other aristocrats of the period, who used slave labor to free up time for their other pursuits, Franklin created an enormously successful printing business which allowed him to retire and became a veritable Renaissance man. His accomplishments are too numerous to list. As an author he penned the Poor Richard’s Almanack, his famous autobiography, and numerous classic essays. As an inventor, he created the lightning rod, the glass harmonica, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and the flexible urinary catheter. As a thinker he established the Junto discussion group, the first subscription library, and the American Philosophical Society. As a scientist he made important investigations into the nature of electricity. He served his country, state, and city as a councilman, postmaster, recruiter of the Pennsylvania militia, Speaker of the Pennsylvania State House, delegate to the Second Continental Congress, ambassador to France, President of Pennsylvania, and Founding Father. Not bad for the son of a candlemaker, eh?

   Ross Perot, 1930-

   Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.
   Born in Texarkana, Texas to a father who worked as a cotton broker, Ross Perot could have lived and died in obscurity like thousands before him. But from a young age, Perot’s ambition set him apart. He became an Eagle Scout in high school and then attended the Naval Academy where he helped establish the school’s honor code and became class president and battalion commander.
   After leaving the Navy, Perot became a salesman for IBM. Perot quickly distinguished himself from the pack, filling the year’s sales quota in two weeks. Full of entrepreneurial ideas, but ignored by the higher ups, Perot left IBM in 1962 to found his own company, Electronic Data Systems. Things started off rocky; Perot’s initial attempts to sell their data processing services to corporations resulted in 77 rejections. Yet Perot persisted, won EDS government contracts, and turned the company into a technology powerhouse. EDS was eventually bought by GM for a cool 700 million. Not content to rest on his business laurels, Perot began to involve himself in political policy issues, an interest that culminated in his famous run for the presidency in 1992. Garnering the largest percentage of the popular vote as a third party candidate since TR’s run in 1912, Perot’s success surprised the pundits and assuredly a lot of folks back in Texarkana.

   John D. Rockefeller, 1839-1937

   I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
   John D. Rockefeller needed neither a trust fund nor the example of a successful father to become the richest man in American history. His dad was a salesman who was rarely at home as young John grew up. Rockefeller was left to forge his own path. As a young man, he took a job as an assistant bookkeeper, saved his dough, and then partnered with others in buying a couple of oil refineries in Cleveland. In 1870, Rockefeller incorporated his holdings into Standard Oil.
   Rockefeller’s business plan was simple; by obsessively increasing the efficiency of his refineries and pressuring railroad companies for discounted shipping, he successfully undercut and then bought out the competition. It was said he had the “soul of a bookkeeper,” and he loved to pour over his figures and see where waste could be eliminated. Utilizing both vertical and horizontal integration, Rockefeller soon owned nearly every aspect of the oil business and controlled 90% of the kerosene market. Such success netted Rockefeller great wealth; when he retired he was estimated to have accumulated a $1,500,000,000 fortune. Having won this wealth through his own toil, he didn’t just sit on this money. He donated much of it in hopes of providing others with similar opportunities for success.

   Ralph Lauren, 1939-

   Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigor and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.
   Growing up as a Jewish kid in the Bronx, Ralph Lauren never hung out at the country club, played polo, or went sailing on a yacht. Although his brand is now a famous symbol of gentility and affluence, Ralph Lauren’s own beginnings were far more humble. Born as Ralph Rueben Lifshitz, his parents were Ashkenazi Jews who had immigrated from Belarus, and his father was a house painter. The family lived in a small apartment, with Ralph sharing a room with his two brothers. Ralph’s mother hoped he would become a rabbi, but from a early age, Lauren was drawn to fashion and entrepreneurship. He worked after school as a stock boy and sold handmade ties to his classmates in order to purchase stylish suits.
   Lauren attended Baruch College for two years, but then dropped out. He never went to fashion school. After a stint in the army, he became a salesman for Brooks Brothers. They weren’t interested in helping Lauren develop his own line of ties, so he then went to work for Beau Brumwell Neckwear which allowed him to design and sell his own “Polo” brand ties in their showroom. The ties became popular and other stores started carrying them. Lauren started designing women’s and men’s wear, and of course, introduced his now famous Polo shirt. He soon had enough money to open his own store and develop his brand into an empire. Today, Lauren has 35 boutiques across the country, has expanded his brand to include home furnishings and cologne, and currently ranks as the 76th richest man in America.

   Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

   Allowing only ordinary ability and opportunity, we may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!!
   When it comes to rags to riches stories, there are no rags lowlier than those worn by American slaves. Rising from the shackles of slavery to extraordinary success required monumental amounts of hard work, tenacity, and passion, and Frederick Douglass had these qualities in spades. Douglass understood that nothing in life would ever be handed to him. When his master’s wife, who had been teaching him the alphabet, was reprimanded for doing so by her husband, Douglass continued to learn to read by interacting with white children and working through any written materials he could find. When he was traded to the cruel mastery of Edward Covey, who regularly whipped Douglass, Douglass confronted his master, getting him to back down and never raise his hand to him again.
   In 1838, Douglass took his greatest risk yet and escaped from slavery to Massachusetts. Douglass soon rose to prominence, becoming an outspoken abolitionist, a spectacular orator, a bestselling author, and a newspaper publisher. After the Civil War, Douglass served as President of the Freedman’s Savings Bank; marshal of the District of Columbia, minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti, and chargé d’affaires for the Dominican Republic. During the 1888 Republican Convention, he became the first African-American to receive a vote to be nominated for the Presidency. Dying in 1895, Douglass had risen from slavery to become one of the most prominent and well-respected black men in the United States.

   Ray Kroc, 1902-1984

   Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
   Ray Kroc, a high school drop out, attained his first job by employing a bit of dishonesty; the 15 year old young man lied to the military to become an ambulance driver during WWI. The war ended before young Ray could see action, and so Kroc took a job playing piano for a radio station at night and selling paper cups by day. He next became fascinated with a multi-mixer milkshake machine and purchased the marketing rights to it. For the next 17 years, Kroc traveled the country selling his milkshake making miracle to whoever would listen. As he made the rounds to customers, he became intrigued by a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California owned by the McDonald brothers. While the McDonald brothers were satisfied with their small franchise, Kroc believed the burger business had far greater potential. Although Kroc was by then a 53 year old man suffering from diabetes and arthritis and missing both his thyroid and gall bladder, he had a vision of turning the restaurant into a global fast food empire. In 1961, he purchased the McDonalds’s franchise. In only a few years years, Kroc had sold a billion hamburgers and opened the franchise’s 500th store. McDonald’s had begun its campaign to take over the world. The Hamburglar would be proud.

   Harry Reid, 1939-

   Reid was born in the tiny, abandoned mining town of Searchlight, Nevada: population 200. His father was a miner and alcoholic who possessed only an elementary school education. His mother took in laundry from local brothels to help the family make ends meet.
   The family lived in a house with two rooms and an outhouse. As a youth, Reid was rough around the edges and loved to use his fists, whether competing as an amateur boxer or taking part in an impromptu rumble in the streets.
   Yet he overcame this auspicious start, graduating from Utah State University and attending law school at George Washington University. In order to support his family during law school, Reid would go to class during the day and work as a security guard at night. Reid practiced law before being elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 1967. He then served as Lt. Governor. Losing the senatorial election in 1974, Reid instead took a position as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. In 1982, Reid ran for Congress again, and this time won a seat in the House of Representatives. He then became a US Senator, and steadily moved up the leadership ranks from Democratic Whip, to minority leader, and finally to majority leader, the position in which he currently serves.

   Thomas Edison, 1847-1931

   It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
   Kicked out of school for being easily distracted, Thomas Edison received only 3 months of formal schooling. The rest of Edison’s education came from his mother’s homeschooling and his reading of classic books. Though he lost nearly all of his hearing at a young age, Edison did not let this disability hinder him. He early on showed a tenacious entrepreneurial streak; he sold candy and newspapers aboard trains as a youth and then won a position as telegraph operator when he saved a station agent’s son from being run over by a train. As a telegrapher, he worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Edison requested the night shift so that he could read and do his experiments during the slow evening hours. His constant tinkering paid off; Edison (often with help from his partners) came up with a myriad of inventions, including the phonograph, stock ticker, fluoroscope, kinetoscope, and most famously, the first commercially viable incandescent lamp. “The Wizard of Menlo Park” was both a genius inventor and a savvy business man; he filed more than 1500 patents during his lifetime and founded 14 companies including General Electric.

   Larry Ellison, 1944-

   The most important aspect of my personality, as far as determining my success goes, has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting the experts and questioning authority. While that can be very painful in relationships with your parents and teachers, it’s enormously useful in life.
   Larry Ellison was born in the Bronx to an unwed mother; he never knew his father. While still an infant, Ellison was shipped off to Chicago to be taken care of and eventually adopted by, his mother’s aunt and uncle. Ellison grew up in a two bedroom apartment and attended two years of college before dropping out when his adoptive mother died. Interested in computer and software design, Ellison went to work for Ampex Corporation before founding what would become the database company Oracle in 1977 with $2000 of his own money. Greatly successful, the company made Ellison a billionaire many times over and continues to secure his place as the 9th richest man in the world.

   Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

   Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
   Lincoln lacked connections, charisma, good looks, and formal education, and yet became one of the greatest presidents in United States history. Famously born in a one-room cabin to uneducated farmer parents, Abraham Lincoln’s rise to the Presidency has long been the stuff of legend. Lincoln was almost entirely self-educated; he received only 18 months of formal schooling. He offset this disadvantage by voraciously consuming any book he could get his hands on. At age 22, Lincoln packed his meager belongings in a canoe and paddled out on his own. He taught himself the law and became a successful attorney and state legislator in Illinois. Losing his senatorial campaign in 1858 to Stephen Douglas did not deter him from his goals; he persevered against this very same opponent to win the presidency. The rest, of course, is history. Lincoln went on to guide America through her darkest and stormiest hour.

   Clarence Thomas, 1948-

   Clarence Thomas was born in the poor community of Pin Point, Georgia. Abandoned by their father and left homeless after a fire, Clarence and his brother moved to Savannah. They moved in with Clarence’s grandfather, who would have a profound effect on the boy. He taught Thomas the value of hard work by taking Clarence on deliveries for his ice business and having him regularly work on a farm from sunrise to sunset. Thomas became the first person in his family to attend college when he headed off to the College of the Holy Cross. He then received his JD from Yale Law School. After law school, Thomas steadily attained more and more prestigious positions, starting as an assistant to the Attorney General of Missouri and becoming Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office of Civil Rights. GHW Bush appointed Thomas to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He finally grasped the legal world’s brass ring when he was confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice in 1991.

   Sam Walton, 1918-1992

   I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.
   Now a big-box retailing behemoth, the idea for Wal-Mart came from the mind of an unassuming farm boy from Oklahoma. Walton spent his early years living on his family’s farm, and then moved to Missouri when his father decided to become a farm loan appraiser. Sam showed great ambition from an early age; he became Missouri’s youngest ever Eagle Scout when he received that award in 8th grade, and he was elected class president his senior year in high school. Despite growing up during the Great Depression and working odd jobs like delivering newspapers to help support his family, he excelled academically throughout his school years. He paid his way through the University of Missouri by working as a lifeguard, newspaper delivery boy, and waiter. When he graduated, he took jobs at JC Penney’s and at a DuPont’s munitions plant before serving in the army during WWII.
   After the war, Walton was determined to open his own variety store. He pooled the substantial amount of money he saved while in the military and with a loan from his father-in-law, bought a Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas. Walton supplied customers with a wide variety of goods at low prices and kept those prices low by buying in high volume directly from wholesalers. The store was highly successful, and Walton then opened his own store, “Walton’s Five & Dime” in Bentonville. In 1962, Walton introduced the first true Wal-Mart to Rogers, AR. That store, like all his others, turned a nice profit, and Walton began to expand the franchise across the country, making it the world’s largest retailer by 1991. He reigned as America’s richest man from 1985-1988, and were he alive today, he would be the world’s richest man, with wealth double that of Bill Gates.

   Harry S. Truman, 1884-1972

   In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.
   Harry S. Truman lived by the motto, “The buck stops here,” long before it officially adorned his Oval Office desk. Such decisiveness was a necessary trait for a man who had to routinely overcome low expectations to win respect. Truman was born into a farming family in Missouri. After high school, Truman was employed in a few odd jobs before returning to labor on the family farm. College was not in the cards for Harry; he couldn’t afford to attend any school except West Point, and they turned him down because of his poor eyesight. Truman would thus become the only president to serve after 1897 who did not hold a college degree.
   Yet, Harry was determined to make the best of his circumstances.
   He joined the National Guard and served in WWI. His eyesight should have prevented him from joining up, but Truman memorized the chart in order to pass. Truman served heroically, and became a Colonel in the Guard. After the war, Truman opened a haberdashery in Kansas City that went bankrupt during a recession in 1921. He then was elected as a county judge. In 1934, he became a US Senator. Ten years later, he was chosen to be FDR’s VP. When FDR died, Truman had finally ascended to the highest office in the land.
   When he ran for reelection in 1948, Truman was, as he had been in his senatorial campaigns, the true underdog. He had to fight fiercely just to secure the nomination, and during the general election, determined to get his message out to the people, he crisscrossed the nation in an energetic whistle-stop tour. While the Democrat’s prospects looked bleak, Truman vigorously came from behind and pulled off an upset win. He had spent his whole life giving his naysayers hell, and he had done it once again.

   Sean Combs, 1969-

   I’ve never been surprised about what happened to me. I’ve put in hard work to get to this point. It’s like when you become a lawyer – if you’re bustin’ your ass, you’re not surprised when you get your degree. I came in to win, you know. This is why I stay up late while other people are sleeping; this is why I don’t go out to the Hamptons.
   Puff, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy-whatever you want to call him, the name Sean Combs most deserves is that of self-made man. Mr. Combs claims to work harder than anyone else in the entertainment business, and he has the success to show for it. Born in public housing projects in Harlem, Sean’s father was shot to death when Sean was only 2. At age 12, Combs, who was too young to officially have his own paper route, found a way around the rule by taking over the routes of several older boys and giving them 50% of his earnings. He was soon making over $700 a week as a paperboy. After high school, Mr. Combs interned at Uptown Records while he attended Howard University. He dropped out and took an executive position with the company. Fired from the label in 1993, Combs formed his own company-Bad Boy Records.
   In addition to producing hit artists like the Notorious B.I.G., P. Diddy started putting out his own successful rap records and diversifying his business interests. His enterprises now include the Sean John clothing line, a cologne, the Making the Band television series, and a restaurant in Atlanta. With a net worth estimated to be around $324 million, Combs has taken full ownership of his life and done it with style.

   Henry Ford, 1863-1947

   Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
   Very few men will ever have the chance to completely revolutionize the American way of life; even fewer who do so will come from obscure backgrounds. Henry Ford was born in 1863 on a farm near Detroit, Michigan. His father wanted Henry to take over the family farm, but Henry had other plans. At age 16, he left home to become a machinist’s apprentice. After several years, he returned to farm work, and also ran a sawmill. But his love for engineering kept calling him away. In 1891, Ford was hired by the Edison Illuminating Company, and he worked his way up to chief engineer. He saved money scrupulously until he had enough so he could quit and work on his experiments with gasoline engines.
   Ford began creating and testing self-propelled vehicles, but could not produce them cheaply and efficiently as he desired. With this goal in mind, Ford and partner Alexander Malcomson founded Ford Motor Co. Ford’s technical smarts were matched by his business savvy. He offered his auto workers $5 an hour, nearly double the going rate. The country’s best mechanics thus flocked to Ford, and this greatly slowed employee turnover and increased productivity. And he introduced moving assembly belts to his plants, which greatly improved efficiency. Such ideas helped make the Model T an affordable, immediate, and widespread success; half of all cars on the road in 1918 came from Ford factories. Ford found equal success with his next model, the Model A, which he had large part in designing. Ford secured sole ownership of the company for his family, expanded the business internationally, reaped a massive fortune, and introduced America to its ongoing love affair with the automobile.

7. Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

   My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.
   Any man who can turn an acting career into a successful run for the presidency certainly earns the title of self-made man. There was no silver spoon in the mouth of Ronald Regan when he came into the world in 1911. Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan’s father was a salesman who was always looking for better work. Reagan thus grew up moving from one tiny town in Illinois to the next, often living in apartments above banks and stores. The Gipper attended the definitively not ivy league Eureka College, mostly, by his own admission, to continue playing football. After college, he became a radio announcer and landed a film contract with Warner Brothers. After a stint in the military, Reagan became the president of the Screen Actors Guild. He began his foray into politics by working on Barry Goldwater’s campaign in 1964. Then in 1966, without holding prior political office, Reagan was elected governor of California. Though he failed to win the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976, Reagan was not discouraged and won not only the nomination, but also the White House in 1980.

   Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919

   People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
   Carnegie represents the epitome of the self-made man. His father was a Scottish hand-loom weaver, who moved with his family to America when Andrew was 13. Carnegie’s first job was working as a bobbin boy at a textile factory, making $1.50 a week. He subsequently took jobs as a boiler tender, bookkeeper’s clerk, and telegraph delivery boy. All the while he read to educate himself and worked to mitigate his thick Scottish accent. In 1853, Carnegie landed a job with the Pennsylvania Telegraph Co.
   He religiously saved his money and reinvested it in the railroad business. He worked his way up to being superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Western Division and then supervised the Union’s telegraph lines during the Civil War. He continued to make incredibly wise investments with his savings which reaped him handsome dividends. After the war, he left the railroad business and began to focus on building and investing in ironworks. By bringing great efficiency to the business, taking over one steel company after another, and utilizing vertical integration, Carnegie soon created an empire of steel and iron.
   In 1901, Carnegie sold his steel holdings to JP Morgan for $480 million. Carnegie had long preached what he called “The Gospel of Wealth,” a philosophy in which a man should aim to acquire as much fortune as possible and then give it away to others. On this point, (unlike several others) Carnegie was a man of his word. During his lifetime he donated $350,695,653 to philanthropic causes; upon his death he gave away the last $30,000,000 of his wealth.

   Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915

   I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.
   Booker T. Washington was often criticized by fellow African-American advocates like WEB DuBois for his approach to helping his people progress. While DuBois felt that the fight for civil rights should have the top priority, Washington argued that blacks had to first work hard, manifest the virtues of industry and thrift, and achieve economic success. Once this occurred, he argued, the rights they sought would naturally follow. While Dubois felt that this approach was harmfully accommodating, such a philosophy was a direct product of Washington’s personal experience, a life which had taught him that man can work to make of himself anything he desires.
   Washington grew up as a slave until freed by the 13th amendment. As a freedman, he took work in salt and coal mines before entering Hampton Institute in pursuit of an education. The president of Hampton recommended that Washington be made the head of the newly formed Tuskegee Institute. From this position, Washington soon came to prominence as a nationally known advocate for the uplift and education of African-Americans. His efforts to befriend many of the rich corporate heads of this time and persuade them to donate their money to the education of his fellow freedmen met with great success and led to the building of over 5,000 schools in the rural South. His profile was further raised by the brisk sales of his autobiography, Up from Slavery, and his invitation from President Theodore Roosevelt to become the first African-American to dine at the White House

   Milton S. Hershey, 1857-1945

   Milton S. Hershey had to face some bitter failure before he was able to achieve sweet success. Hershey was born on a farm in Pennsylvania in 1857. Due to his father’s frequent failed business schemes, the family moved frequently, and Milton’s parents separated. Hershey dropped out of school after the fourth grade. He was then apprenticed to a printer, but did not take to that line of work. He began an apprenticeship with a candymaker and after four years or learning the trade, attempted to open his own shop. This venture failed as did his two subsequent efforts in New York City and Chicago. At age 28, he returned home to Pennsylvania as an unemployed man who had thus far failed to make anything of his life. But Hershey’s luck would soon change; he started a caramel company and this time, his delicious confections caught on.
   During his visit to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, he became fascinated by the German chocolate making machines. He purchased them for his Lancaster caramel factory and began producing various chocolaty confections. Sensing the great potential in chocolate treats, Hershey sold his successful caramel company in 1900 for a whopping one million dollars. With this new wealth he bought 40,000 acres of land near Lancaster, Pennsylvania and built the world’s largest chocolate factory and a model town for his employees. He was determined to bring what was then a Swiss luxury product-milk chocolate-to the masses. He tinkered with the formula until Hershey’s milk chocolate was ready to be introduced to the public and become the necessary ingredient for s’mores.

   Walt Disney, 1901-1966

   The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
   The man who would one day create the “happiest place on earth,” experienced a less than idyllic childhood. Walt Disney’s father wandered from one job to another looking to find success, and often needing to rely on his brother to stay afloat. Walt lacked not just financial security, but for affection; his father was a cold and abusive man. Walt was determined to blaze his own path of success and not end up like his dad. At age 16, he dropped out of high school and served in the ambulance corps during World War I. After the war, Disney found work creating ads for businesses in Kansas City. He was fascinated by the emerging field of animation and decided to set up his own animation business. Unable yet to manage money effectively, the business went bankrupt.
   Then Disney set up a studio in Hollywood and began turning out cartoons, culminating in the enormously popular Steamboat Willie in 1928. Over the next several years, Disney introduced equally beloved characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. In 1934, Disney began to work on his most ambitious idea yet: a full-length animated feature. Dubbed “Disney’s folly” by his critics, most thought the idea would spell the demise of the Disney studio. Instead, Snow White and the SevenDwarves was a smashing success. The film was followed by a myriad of other beloved full-length features and animated shorts. In the 1950’s Disney expanded the work of his company to include the production of live-action films. Disney also completed an ambitious project few believed could be a success: the 1955 opening of Disneyland. Disneyworld followed in 1964. Walt always understood the desires of average people. While critics lamented the artificially wholesome world depicted in his family-friendly movies and theme parks, the public fell in love with it and bought into Disney’s vision completely.

   Barack Obama, 1961-

   Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way.
   The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
   His story is of course well known by now, but it bears repeating,and certainly merits him a spot on this list. Obama’s childhood was far from typical. Obama was born to a white mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii. His father went back to Kenya when he was only 2 and saw his son only once more. His mother married again, this time to an Indonesian, and the family moved to Indonesia. Barack lived there for several years and then returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Obama graduated from Columbia University, worked as a community organizer in Chicago for 3 years, and then went to Harvard Law School. While there he became the first African-American to be elected as president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama returned to Chicago and spent 12 years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, and the US Senate in 2004. After only one term as Senator, Obama won the presidential election and became the first black president in United States history.

   Ben and Jerry, 1951-

   Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood buds who early on bonded over their preference for eating over gym class. After high school, Ben attended and dropped out of several colleges, never quite finding his calling. He eventually took a job teaching pottery on a farm in the Adirondacks. Jerry attended and graduated from Oberlin college. Upon graduation, he unsuccessfully applied for admission to medical school. When the guys met up again, both were rather adrift professionally. They decided to open an ice cream shop in Burlington, Vermont. After taking a $5 correspondence course on ice cream making, they opened their store in a dilapidated gas station. The guys’ rich, chunky ice cream gained a popular following in the community. They soon began selling pints of their ice cream to local grocery stores. During the next several years, Ben and Jerry were able to expand their franchise and by 1988 had stores in 18 states. Ben and Jerry’s became a nationally known brand, and the company was bought by Unilever in 2000 for $326 million dollars, enough to buy a whole mountain of Cherry Garcia.

   John Sperling, 1921-

   John Sperling was born to a poor sharecropping family and struggled in school. Dyslexic and semiliterate when he graduated from high school, Sperling joined the merchant marines and sailed the world. Along the way, he taught himself to read. During WWII, he served in the Navy. When the war ended, Sperling attended Reed College, completed graduated work at Berkley, and earned his Ph.D from Cambridge; his childhood teachers had clearly underestimated him.
   Sperling spent the next couple of decades as a professor, but he never could shake his concern that colleges were filled with the middle and upper classes, while those who were not well-off were left out of academia. At age 53, he decided to do something about it. He tried to bring a program for working adults into the university but was rebuffed. So he created his own university for adults. In 1976, he started the University of Phoenix, a franchise that would quickly expand around the country. This for-profit enterprise not only gave working adults a alternative for regular college, it made John Sperling a billionaire.

   David Sarnoff, 1891-1971

   Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us.
   David Sarnoff was born to a poor family in a small Jewish village in what is today Belarus. His talents were recognizable from a young age, and his family planned on David becoming a rabbi. These plans were interrupted when the family emigrated to the United States in 1900. Living in New York City, young David helped support the family by selling newspapers before and after school. Then, when his father was stricken with tuberculosis, David was forced to become the man of the house and its main breadwinner. He found a position as the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. Sarnoff worked hard to educate himself to the ins and outs of the communications business and steadily rose through the company ranks. He paid close attention to the developing radio technology and suggested to his superiors that they begin to design and build a radio for the average consumer. His idea for a “radio music box” was ignored by his bosses at the Marconi company, and his ideas continued to fall on deaf ears when the company was bought by GE and became RCA.
   Yet, as the 1920’s dawned and Sarnoff’s predictions about the popularity of radio were proved to be quite prescient, Sarnoff began to get the recognition and respect he deserved. RCA launched NBC radio in 1926, and only a few years later, Sarnoff was made its president. After building the AM radio business into a success, Sarnoff turned his attention to the television, which he sensed was going to be bigger than radio. Sarnoff, now the president of RCA, invested heavily in the research and development of the new technology. His gamble paid off when NBC introduced television to the American public at the 1939 New York’s World Fair. The next day, RCA began selling their television sets in stores. The television business exploded after the war, and Sarnoff again led NBC to dominance by being first to introduce color television to the country.

   Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947-

   For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.
   Sharing much in common with another famous actor-turned-governor-of –California, Arnold Schwarzenegger made the improbable leap from bodybuilder and actor to politician. Arnold was born in a small village in Austria. His cold and abusive father was the local police chief, and yet money was always tight for the family. Life in the unhappy household left Arnold determined to leave home and find fame and fortune. Deciding at an early age to make bodybuilding a career, Schwarzenegger started pumping iron at age 14. He also studied psychology to better sharpen his mind’s strength and willpower. Nothing could keep Schwarzenegger from his love of bodybuilding; as a youth he busted into the gym when it was closed on weekends and as a soldier he went AWOL to enter a competition.
   Years of sweat and toil paid off when Arnold, at age 20, became the youngest ever winner of the Mr. Universe competition, a title he would win four more times. He continued training while simultaneously attending business school and working at a gym. At age 21, he moved to America to become a star of the silver screen. He continued to compete in bodybuilding and won the Mr. Olympia title seven times.
   Arnold’s entrance into film was far more difficult than his workouts. With a thick accent and bulking body, he met many rejections before finally landing roles. After becoming a blockbuster action-star, Schwarzenegger’s next obstacle to conquer was politics. In 2003, overcoming his inexperience, accent, and having appeared in as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin, Arnold won the California recall election and became the governor of California.

   7 inspiring rags to riches stories of entrepreneurs
   This is one genre of stories that has enjoyed an ever-lasting appeal: rags to riches tales. Stories of heroic struggle against odds, survival and eventual triumph have always inspired people, given them hope, courage to fight, and egged them on to persevere. Here, YourStory brings 7 such fabulous stories from around the world, which we believe, would ignite your never-say-die spirit and inspire you to become all that you can be:

   1. The steel tycoon who grew up in a one-room weaver’s cottage: Andrew Carnegie

   This American industrialist, the founder of Carnegie Steel – a company that produced more steel than all of Great Britain at one point – was born to a poor handloom weaver in Scotland.
   He grew up in poverty, living in a one-room house, often sleeping to “forget the misery of hunger”. To fight starvation, his family migrated to the US.  His first job was at age 13 as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory. In his spare time, he would read works of Robert Burns and historical Scottish heroes like Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, and Rob Roy. His next job was as a telegraph messenger boy. A true entrepreneur, he was a hardworker, and soon was promoted as an operator. Colonel James Anderson, who opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys each Saturday night, gave a good boost to Carnegie’s education and passion for reading. He did a series of railroad jobs. There, he learnt about the industry and business in general. It was during this stint that he began making investments in steel and oil companies that earned him huge returns. By 1889, Carnegie Steel Corporation was the largest of its kind in the world. He went on to become the richest man in the world.
   Known as one of “builders” of  America who helped shape the nation, in 1901, he sold Carnegie Steel to JP Morgan for $480 million and became a philanthropist. He donated millions to the New York Public Library, established the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, which is now known as Carnegie-Mellon University, created the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and formed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
   Remember, the journey began in a one-room weaver’s cottage in Dunfermline.

   2. The retail giant who had to milk cows, deliver newspapers: Samuel Walton

   This American entrepreneur who built a small grocery store into the giant Walmart supermarket chain, amassing a fortune of over $23 billion, grew up during the Great Depression.
   He had numerous chores to help make financial ends meet for his family as was common at the time. He milked the family cow, bottled the surplus, and drove it to customers. Afterwards, he would deliver Columbia Daily Tribune newspapers on a paper route. In addition, he also sold magazine subscriptions. During his college, he worked various odd jobs, including waiting tables in exchange for meals. After graduation, he joined the US Army during the World War II. After the war, he left the military and started managing a variety store at the age of 26.
   He took a loan to buy his first store, and thanks to simple innovations in business, he soon bought his second store. Within 3 years, his sales volume grew to $225,000. The first true Wal-Mart opened on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. The rest is history. Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest person in the United States from 1982 to 1988. At the time of his death in 1992, he had 1,960 Wal-Mart stores, employed 380,000 people and clocked annual sales of about $50 billion.

   3. The Queen of all media who was raped at age 9: Oprah Winfrey

   Best known for her multi-award-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show — the highest-rated program of its kind in history — Oprah Winfrey is dubbed as the ‘Queen of all media’ and ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century.
   She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother. She was later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She has often spoken about the hardships she experienced during childhood, saying she was raped at age 9 and at 13, after suffering years of abuse, she ran away from home. She became pregnant at 14. Her son, she said, died in infancy. While in high school, she landed a job in radio and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. She got transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena because of her emotional ad-lib delivery.
   She became a millionaire at age 32 when her talk show went national. She is credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication. Forbes’ international rich list has listed her as the world’s only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history. As of 2014, she has a net worth in excess of 2.9 billion dollars and has overtaken former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America.

   4. The CEO of Oracle who was born to an unwed Jewish mom: Larry Ellison

   Larry Ellison was born in New York City to an unwed Jewish mother. His father was an Italian American US Air Force pilot. According to Wikipedia, Ellison contracted pneumonia when he was  nine months old and his mother gave him to her aunt and uncle for adoption. His adoptive mother was warm and loving, while his adoptive father was unsupportive and distant.
   He was a bright but inattentive student. He left the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after his second year without taking his final exams because his adoptive mother had just died.
   Later, he attended the University of Chicago for one term, where he first encountered computer design. In 1966, aged 22, he moved to northern California.
   In 1977, he founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) with two partners and an investment of $2,000. In 1982, the company became Oracle Systems Corporation after its flagship product, the Oracle database. Currently, Ellison owns stakes in Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology Inc. and Astex Pharmaceuticals. In September 2011, Ellison was listed on the Forbes List of Billionaires as the fifth richest man in the world. Ellison is still the third richest American, with a net worth of about $36.5 billion.

   5. The richest man in Asia who had to quit school at 15: Li Ka-shing

   This Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist is the richest person in Asia, with a net worth of $31.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of April 16, 2014.
   He was born in Guangdong province, China. After his father’s death, he was forced to leave school to support his family before he turned 15.  He found work at a plastics trading company where he laboured 16 hours a day. After years of back-breaking work, he was able to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries.
   According to a Harvard Business School article:
   “From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher’s son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping.”
   Today, Li’s businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to the Internet. The Cheung Kong Group operates in 55 countries and employs over 260,000 staff worldwide.

   6. The poor Ukrainian immigrant who became a Silicon Valley mogul: Jan Koum

   When Facebook announced that it was buying mobile messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in February 2014, that caused quite a stir. Jan Koum, the startup’s cofounder became the most talked about entrepreneur overnight. Media reported that the WhatsApp floored Mark Zuckerberg so much that the record offer was made so that the two could become “friends.”
   A true rags to riches hero, Koum was born and raised in a village on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine, as the only child of a housewife and a construction labourer. Forbes reported that his house has no hot water, and his parents feared that their phone was tapped by the State and so rarely talked on it. He immigrated to California with his mother when he was 16. He used to sweep the floor of a grocery store and stood in line to collect food stamps. By 18, he was an expert computer hacker.
   In 1997, Koum was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer, shortly after he met Brian Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester. In January 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and realized that it would spawn a whole new industry of apps. On his birthday, February 24, 2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California.

   7. The polyester prince who sold bhajia at village fairs: Dhirubhai Ambani

   India too has its share of rags to riches heroes. And Dhirubhai Ambani is one of the best known among them. This founder of Reliance Industries was one of the three sons of Hirachandbhai, a school teacher, and Jamanaben. He also had two sisters. An anecdote from his childhood is that he once bought a tin of groundnut oil on credit from a local wholesaler and sold the oil in retail on the roadside. He earned a few rupees as profit from this transaction. Apparently, during weekends when his school was closed, he used to set up bhajia stalls at village fairs to make ends meet at home.
   According to R-ADAG, when he was 17, he went to Aden (now Yemen) in search of opportunity, and worked as a dispatch clerk for A. Besse. That was in 1949. A couple of years later, the company became a distributor for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden. It was here that he dreamed of setting up and owning a refinery, which he later realized with his petrochemicals venture. After returning to India, he started his first textile mill in Ahmednagar. Though his businesses were a huge success, there were also issues regarding Ambani’s control over stock exchange. His detractors accused him of illegal or unethical transactions and acts but an investigation by the RBI did not find any evidence of it. By 2007, the combined fortune of the Ambani family stood at $60 billion, making Ambani’s the second richest family in the world.

   If you were to guess whether world’s top 100 richest people got their money from someone else or made money themselves – you would be right to guess that most of them made their own money. But you might think that even the self-made had advantages you don’t have.
   From Zero to Billionaires, Almost?
   After all, Mark Zuckerberg‘s father is a dentist. Maybe it did not help him become a billionaire. After all a dentist couldn’t be much help with hacking. But you also might think that having a dentist dad makes it easier to not worry about what you are going to eat tomorrow.
   There is no denying that Sergey Brin is a self-made man, but you might think that his father and grandfather, both mathematicians, had something to do with him studying math in the first place.
   So if your father is a cab driver or if you have no father at all, is it still possible to become a billionaire? Apparently, it is. Researching the top 100 richest people in the world, all of whom are billionaires of course, we found 8 that were from absolutely humble backgrounds. In fact even worse than the average. On top of that, they never got a college degree:
   Larry Ellison, Oracle founder, an orphan
   Li Ka-Shing, Hong-Kong famous investor, an orphan
   Leonardo del Vecchio, Luxottica founder, an orphan
   Amancio Ortega, Zara founder, son of a rail-road worker father
   John Fredriksen, oil magnate, son of a welder father
   Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands founder, son of a cab driver
   Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder, son of a farmer
   Francois Pinault, French art collector, son of a lumber miller
   (Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and owner of football club Chelsea would be number 9 on the list, but he got a correspondence degree in law later in life. So technically he does have a degree. But otherwise he was poor, an orphan and qualified.)
   Mark Zuckerberg meets a computer
   His father, although not an engineer, was an early computer enthusiast. Running a dental office he had a vision that computers would change the way people communicate. But for the time being he used them for taking scanning people’s mouths. At age 10 Mark was bored with school. His father noticed and introduced him to his Altair computer. Together they wrote a program that connected the computer at home with the computer in the office. They called it “ZuckNet.” It alerted doctor Z, as he is known, when a patient arrived. It worked better than having the receptionist yell, “Patient here!”
   Mark Zuckerberg starts hacking
   Mark quickly learned everything his father knew about computers. He started studying with a tutor. Then he started taking a college class in computer science while still in middle school. He read books. But he really started learning to code when he transferred to a private school where he met a programming whiz kid Adam D’Angelo. Together they started hacking. They made an artificially intelligent music player that learned the user’s music taste. Soon Microsoft found out about it and offered money and a job. Zuckerberg was not interested.
   There is a running theme in how Mark Zuckerberg started. He would be offered millions and even billions at least 11 times since then, and every time he walked away. He might have a bigger plan every time.
   
   After watching The Social Network, I wanted to find out how truthful that account of Facebook’s creation was. I turned to the books. Among all Facebook related books The Facebook Effect stands out as the only account where the famously elusive Mark Zuckerberg talked to the author and pulled back the curtain on some of the processes inside.
   In the first half of the book you learn the troubled, and sometimes chaotic, history of Facebook’s creation.
   We learn that Mark Zuckerberg used the time he saved from not attending classes to create the first version of the website. He also used the site to help himself pass an art history class by posting pictures of paintings and asking classmates to post notes next to each. Soon after Facebook was launched, Zuckerberg realized he needed help. His roommate Dustin Moskovitz became the person who woke up every morning fearful that competing websites were going to speard to other colleges – this fear fueled the fast expansion of the early Facebook. Zuckerberg, pragmatic as he was, rewarded Moskovitz with giving him more equity.
   The book doesn’t worship Zuckerberg, pointing out his unusual social ways on many occasions. Still, the athor attempts to show what makes Zuckerberg work: how he makes decisions about his company, and what sort of people he surrounds himself with.
   All told, the book and the movie are worlds apart. While the movie The Social Network paints a compelling picture of a sociopath who got lucky, the book shows the actions and people that actually lead to Facebook’s rise, such as Zuckerberg crying on the bathroom floor of a restaurant.

16 billionaires who were once dirt poor

While most of the world's richest people earned their money, some had farther to climb. Neither Bill Gates nor Warren Buffett inherited wealth, but they were raised in affluent homes so they didn't have to worry about keeping their families fed. In contrast, there's something reassuring about a billionaire who grew up poor—something that goes beyond the classic, clichéd tale of the American Dream. For all the allure that stems from the lifestyle afforded by such wealth, the billionaires on this list say their mission was rarely about the grand money game. Making a billion dollars from nothing was most often about filling a need and getting started in a small business. Whether they were born in poverty, dropped out of high school, immigrated to the U.S., or even lived homeless for a time, these 20 Americans started at the bottom and worked their way to the top:

Sheldon Adelson
Schooling: High school diploma and some college
Hometown: Boston
Money made: Trade shows and casinos
Best-known venture: Las Vegas Sands

Sheldon Adelson grew up the son of a cab driver in Boston's rough Dorchester neighborhood. He started selling newspapers at the age of 12 and later dropped out of college to become a court reporter. According to The New York Times, Adelson sold toiletry kits to motels and tried mortgage brokering, then struck it rich when he founded Comdex, an annual computer trade show. He went on to build Las Vegas hotels around conventions, rather than casinos—not that he left the casinos out. At the end of 2006, The Times has estimated, Adelson's net worth had grown by about $1 million an hour for two straight years.

Carl Berg
Schooling: B.A. University of New Mexico
Hometown: Tucumcari, N.M.
Money made: Real estate and venture capital
Most well-known venture: Mission West Properties

At the age of 10, Carl Berg's father died and his schoolteacher mother was left to raise him alone in rural New Mexico. To pay his way through college, Berg repaired vending machines at day and worked as a clerk at what Berg called "the best hotel in town" at night. Berg took the hotel job with the goal of meeting someone that would give him a job in investment banking. "My theory worked fine," Berg says and explained that he eventually approached a regular who turned out to be the largest home builder in the country. The man offered Berg a job in the local office. "I would call all the time and raise hell about way they were running the home office," Berg says. "When I got ready to graduate college, he said 'Berg, if you're ready, you can come run the mortgage company.'" Eventually, Berg used the skills he learned in the mortgage business to make a real estate fortune in Silicon Valley. From there, he branched out into venture capital, a business he continues today. "The way I'm approaching it is, I'm trying to give someone else the opportunity that I had," Berg says. "I do everything I can to make the company succeed." Today, Berg is chairman and chief executive of Cupertino (Calif.)-based Mission West Properties (MSW), a giant real estate investment trust.

Stephen Bisciotti
Schooling: Bachelor's degree, Salisbury State University
Hometown: Severna Park, Md.
Money made: Staffing
Best-known venture: Allegis Group

Stephen Bisciotti's father died when Bisciotti was just eight years old, leaving his mother to raise three children alone. Bisciotti worked his way through school and went into the temporary help business after graduating from Salisbury State in Maryland. At 23, Bisciotti and his cousin founded a high-tech temp agency in a basement office; sales reached $1.5 million in the first year. He built that company into Allegis Group, now among the nation's top staffing firms, and stayed true to his Maryland roots in 2004, when he bought the Baltimore Ravens National Football League team.

Leon Charney
Schooling: BA, Yeshiva University; law degree, Brooklyn Law School
Hometown: Bayonne, N.J.
Money made: Real estate
Best-known venture: L.H. Charney Associates

Leon Charney made more than a billion dollars from real estate investments, especially in properties around Manhattan's Times Square. The Leon Charney Report, his weekly cable TV show, states that his "rise to international prominence is a classic 'American Dream' story." Charney started amid humble beginnings as the child of immigrant parents. His father's death while Charney was young left the family destitute. Charney worked his way through college and law school, singing at times for money. (He still serves as a cantor.) With $200 in the bank, he started a law firm and first came to prominence advising President Jimmy Carter on the 1978 Camp David Accords.

John Paul DeJoria
Schooling: High school diploma
Hometown: Los Angeles
Money made: Hair products
Best-known venture: John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patrón Spirits

No stranger to hard times, John Paul DeJoria was born to immigrant parents and spent time in an East Los Angeles foster home. Following two years in the U.S. Navy, his odd jobs included stints as a janitor and gas station attendant. At times he was homeless. DeJoria worked his way up in hair care and cosmetic companies before joining with Paul Mitchell in 1980 to launch a hair products company, putting up an initial investment of just $700. The packaging was printed in black-and-white because color printing was too expensive.

Larry Ellison
Schooling: Two years, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; one term, University of Chicago
Hometown: Chicago
Money made: Software
Best-known venture: Oracle

Ellison was born in Brooklyn to a single mother, who asked an aunt and uncle to raise him in Chicago. According to the Academy of Achievement, Ellison dropped out of college and drove to California after his adoptive mother died. There, he held odd jobs for eight years before founding a software development company in 1977. That venture is today known as Oracle (ORCL), one of the world's largest technology companies. This year, Ellison achieved a dream in the realm of sailing when he won the America's Cup and brought the oldest trophy in international sports back to the U.S. for the first time in 15 years.

Alan Gerry
Schooling: Dropped out of high school
Hometown: Liberty, N.Y.
Money made: Cable TV
Best-known venture: Cablevision Industries

The son of Russian immigrants, Gerry dropped out of high school to join the Marines. He started a tiny television repair business after training via the G.I. Bill. In 1956, starting with $1,500 saved from his business, Gerry borrowed $20,000 to create a cable company and worked from the ground up, borrowing carefully without equity partners or initial stock offerings. By the time he sold to Time Warner Cable (TWC) in 1996, Cablevision Industries had become the country's eighth-largest cable provider, with 2,500 employees and 1.3 million subscribers. "We were filling a need," Gerry says. "People were so hungry for television."

Alec Gores
Schooling: Bachelor's degree, Western Michigan University
Hometown: Nazareth, Israel
Wealth from: Leveraged buyouts
Best-known venture: Gores Group

Raised in Nazareth, Israel, Alec Gores moved with his family to Flint, Mich., at the age of 15. Members of his extended family were in the area and he worked at everything from stocking shelves to being a butcher at his uncle's grocery store while obtaining computer science and math degrees at Western Michigan University. On graduating, Gores started a company to sell software and hardware to small and midsized businesses. After selling it to Continental Telephone in the early 1980s, he realized he no longer wanted to start businesses from scratch, so he started buying promising companies he believed were underperforming. Today, with $2.7 billion under management, Gores Group has acquired more than 80 companies since 1987 in the areas of industrial equipment, technology, telecommunications, health care, and business services.

Harold Hamm
Schooling: High school diploma
Hometown: Lexington, Okla.
Money made: Oil and gas
Best-known venture: Continental Resources

Harold Hamm grew up milking cows, gathering eggs, and feeding chickens. The youngest of 13 kids born to sharecropper parents in Oklahoma, Hamm says that he hardly remembers a time when he wasn't working. "We came up working for the family unit," Hamm says. "You certainly learned quickly to do your part." At the age of 20, he bought a water pump truck to deliver drilling fluids and service drilling rigs. "That is the company that became Continental Resources (CLR)," Hamm says. "It was a very meager start." He says he raised his kids in much the same way he grew up. As his fledging company got off the ground, Hamm's wife kept the books and his daughter, starting as young as six, would answer telephones. At the end of last year, the Enid (Okla.)-based company estimated its proved reserves at 257.3 million barrels of oil, with interests in 2,317 wells. Continental Resources generated $627.7 million in revenue, according to the company's 10-K. Hamm remains at the helm. As he puts it: "I get as much excitement going to work today as I did when I was 20 years old."

George Josep
Schooling: Bachelor's degree, Harvard University
Hometown: Beckley, W. Va.
Money made: Insurance
Best-known venture: Mercury General

Born to a Lebanese restaurateur in West Virginia, George Joseph flew a B-17 in World War II and returned home to earn a degree at Harvard University on the GI Bill. When he graduated, he started working for Occidental Life as a systems analyst by day and an insurance salesman by night. "I learned a lot about the insurance business during this time and it opened my eyes to some opportunities in other areas," says Joseph. He applied what he had learned to a new model of selling auto insurance that covered all risk areas. He founded Mercury General (MCY) in 1962 and built the Los Angeles-based insurer into a company with 2009 revenues of $3.1 billion.

Kirk Kerkorian
Schooling: Dropped out of 8th grade
Hometown: Fresno, Calif.
Money made: Airlines, hotels, and investing
Best-known venture: Tracinda

Kerkorian started earning money for his Armenian-immigrant family at the age of 9, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He dropped out of eighth grade to become a boxer known as "Rifle Right Kerkorian" and earned his first serious paychecks ferrying bombers across the Atlantic Ocean for Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II. He turned his flying practice into an airline and eventually went into constructing many of Las Vegas' biggest hotels. Kerkorian later branched into buying troubled companies such as automakers through Beverly Hills (Calif.)-based Tracinda. He has been Detroit's rescuing angel and menacing demon through various rounds of owning stock in General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and Ford (F). Since recession set in, Kerkorian and Tracinda have quit automotive stocks and diversified.

Ken Langone
Schooling: BA, Bucknell University; MBA, New York University
Hometown: Roslyn Heights, N.Y.
Money made: Investing
Best-known venture: Home Depot

Born to a plumber and a cafeteria worker in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., Kenneth Langone dug ditches and worked as a caddy while at Bucknell University. To help pay for school, his parents mortgaged their home. Langone later earned an MBA at New York University on a part-time basis. His first fortune came in 1968, when he partnered with Ross Perot to take Electronic Data Systems (HP) public. In the 1970s he teamed with Bernard Marcus to start Home Depot (HD), which they eventually took public in 1981. Langone hasn't kept the rewards all to himself: In 1999—and again in 2008—he reportedly gave New York University separate gifts of $100 million.

Ralph Lauren
Schooling: Dropped out of what is now Baruch College
Hometown: The Bronx
Money made: Clothing
Best-known venture: Polo Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren graduated high school in the Bronx, then dropped out of college to serve in the Army reserve. Next he worked as a clerk at Brooks Brothers, then toiled as a tie salesman—which caused him to decide that men were ready for wider, brighter designs. According to a profile in Time, Lauren sold $500,000 worth of ties in 1967, the year he started designing them for St. Louis-based Beau Brummell Cravats. The next year, he started Polo (RL) with $50,000 from clothier Norman Hilton. The company tallied $5 billion in revenue during its 2010 fiscal year.

Carl Lindner Jr.
Schooling: Dropped out of school at 14
Hometown: Norwood, Ohio
Money made: Convenience stores
Best-known venture: United Dairy Farmers

In 1938, when Carl Lindner Jr. was 19, most milk was delivered by milkmen. Carl Lindner Sr. came up the idea of selling milk from the family's dairy farms in grocery stores, eliminating a lot of delivery costs. Carl Jr. and three siblings helped support the family by running milk routes through the Depression, then expanded the business into what would become one of the Midwest's largest chains of convenience stores, Cincinnati-based United Dairy Farmers. Eventually Lindner branched into insurance and real estate. From 1999 to 2006, he owned a controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball.

David Murdock
Schooling: Received high school diploma in 2009
Hometown: Wayne, Ohio
Money made: Real estate and acquisitions
Best-known venture: Dole Food Co.

Homeless and with little more than a few cents to his name after serving in World War II, David Murdock borrowed $900 from a Good Samaritan. He bought a diner in Detroit and flipped it for a profit of $700, then used the proceeds to buy a car to drive to Arizona. In the desert Southwest, he started building homes, starting a real estate empire that grew to include Dole Foods Co., Castle — Cooke, and nearly all of the island of Lanai, Hawaii. Murdock's credo is listed on the company website: "To do the impossible, you must see the invisible."

Thomas Peterffy
Schooling: Dropped out of engineering studies to immigrate from Hungary
Hometown: Budapest
Money made: Brokerage firm
Best-known venture: Interactive Brokers Group

Born during a Russian bombing raid in 1944, Thomas Peterffy moved to New York in 1965, as a refugee from communist Hungary. He spoke no English when he arrived, but found a job as a draftsman, according to Forbes. In 1977, he bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange and shocked traders in the early 80s when he brought an early handheld computer to the floor. The company that eventually grew out of that seat on the AMEX became Interactive Brokers Group. According to a November of 2005 profile in Interactive Brokers, Peterffy wrote computer code in his head while trading during the day then went back to the office later to apply computer models to trading. Those early uses of computers made him a pioneer in the field. Today, the company website claims Interactive Brokers logs more than one million trades per day.

Howard Schultz
Schooling: Bachelor's degree, Northern Michigan University
Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Money made: Copies and coffee
Best-known venture: Starbucks

Howard Schultz grew up in a Brooklyn housing project, where his father worked from one blue collar job to the next. After attending college on a football scholarship, Schultz worked at Xerox (XRX) and in 1979 became general manager for Swedish drip coffee maker Hammarplast. This led him to a small Seattle chain called Starbucks Coffee Co. In 1987 he acquired the company's retail unit for $3.8 million. Today Starbucks (SBUX) operates more than 17,000 stores in almost 49 countries, generating more than $10.7 billion in 2010 revenues. Schultz told Portfolio.com in 2008 that his decision to provide health insurance to employees who work more than 20 hours a week was due to a period of time his father spent laid-up with a broken ankle. When Schultz was named a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, he told the Horatio Alger Assn. that his parents were essentially "working poor" who had been unable to live the American Dream. "My story is as much one of perseverance and drive as it is of talent and luck. I willed my dreams to come true," Schultz said.

Kenny Troutt
Schooling: Bachelor's degree, Southern Illinois University
Hometown: Mt. Vernon, Ill.
Money made: Telecom
Best-known venture: Excel Communications

The son of a bartender, Kenny Trout grew up in Mt. Vernon, Ill. He sold insurance to get through Southern Illinois University. In 1988, Troutt founded Excel Communications, a company that grew to be the fourth-largest long distance carrier in the country in just seven years. Troutt retired in 1999 and turned some of his attention to racehorses. This year his horse, Super Saver, won the 136th Kentucky Derby.

Albert Ueltschi
Schooling: High school diploma
Hometown: Frankfort, Ky.
Money made: Training pilots
Best-known venture: FlightSafety International

At the height of the Depression and still in high school, Albert Ueltschi opened a hamburger stand to earn money with the goal of learning to fly. Using the eatery as collateral, he bought a bi-wing airplane with $3,500 he borrowed. According to a profile in The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets of the Berkshire Hathaway Managers, a book by Robert P. Miles, Ueltschi sold rides, put on airshows, and eventually flew clients around the country. In 1951 he borrowed $15,000 to start FlightSafety International, a company to train pilots. Ueltschi sold it to Warren Buffet for a reported $1.5 billion in 1996.

Oprah Winfrey
Schooling: B.A., Tennessee State University
Hometown: Milwaukee
Money made: Media
Best-known venture: The Oprah Winfrey Show

Born in poverty in Mississippi and raised in Milwaukee, Oprah Winfrey moved to Nashville in 1968 to live with her father. Two years later, she won a scholarship to attend Tennessee State University. At 19 she was hired as Nashville's first African American TV correspondent. In 1983, she relocated to Chicago to take on the AM Chicago talk show later renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her work in movies, radio, and publishing built an influential business empire. The first African American to appear on Forbes' billionaires list, Winfrey has frequently been the sole African American to make the roster.

Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her parents were unmarried and separated soon after conception. Oprah had a difficult childhood. She lived in great poverty and often had to dress in potato sacks for which she was mocked at school. She was also sexually abused at an early age.
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
From the age of 14, she went to live with her father. Oprah says he was strict, but she was in the mood to be disobedient during her teenage years. After working her way through college, she became interested in journalism and media and got her first job as a news anchor for a local TV station.
Her emotional style did not go down well for a news programme, so she was transferred to an ailing daytime chat programme. After Oprah had taken over, the daily chat show took off, and this later led to her own programme – The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Oprah Winfrey show has proved to be one of the most successful and highly watched TV show of all time. It has broken many social and cultural barriers such as gay and lesbian issues. Oprah has also remained a powerful role model for women and black American women in particular. She is credited with promoting an intimate confessional form of media communication, which has been imitated across the globe.
In recent years, the Oprah Winfrey show has focused on issues of self-improvement, spirituality and self-help. Diet has also been a big issue with Oprah once successfully losing a lot of weight. Her subsequent diet book sold millions of copies.
Oprah Winfrey has promoted many spiritual books, which have focused on the aspect of taking responsibility for your life – not changing your circumstances, but changing the way you look at your life.
“What I learned at a very early age was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves, that you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.”
– O Magazine (January 2007), pages 160 & 217
Oprah Wealth
Her range of media enterprises have made Oprah one of the richest self-made women. The Forbes’ international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world’s only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history.In 2014 Winfrey has a net worth of more than 2.9 billion dollars.
Book Club
The Oprah Winfrey book club has become the most influential book clubs in the world. A recommendation from Oprah Winfrey frequently sends books to the top of the best-seller lists. Many commentators agree that Oprah Winfrey exerts enormous influence. Some estimated her support for Barack Obama helped him gain one million votes in the 2008 election.
As Vanity Fair said of Oprah Winfrey:
“Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope”
Acting career
Oprah Winfrey was also nominated for an Oscar in the film – A Color Purple. Produced by Steven Spielberg, the epic Color Purple told of segregation in America’s deep south. Oprah was widely admired for her role as Sofia.
Support for Obama
From 2006 to 2008, she lent her support to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Her influence and personal following played a key role in helping Obama to become the first African-American to become president.

In the world of entrepreneurship, age really is just a number. Scott Adams, the creator of the cartoon strip Dilbert, says the more often you try, the more chance for success you'll have. That means the 40s can be a golden age for entrepreneurship. There's no exact recipe for success, and many entrepreneurs who take quite a few swings at success eventually get what they are after.
Dreams Have No Age Limit: Famous People Who Started Late
“For of All Sad Words of Tongue and Pen, the Saddest are These, It Might Have Been.....” John Greenleaf Whittier
Imagine reaching a point in your life where you looked back over the years and deeply regretted not having done something you whole-heartedly wanted to do. Now imagine the reasons. Did you not pursue your dream goal because you put yourself second or third to everything and everyone else in your life? Or maybe it was because you were afraid to try and become dejected over not being good enough to “make it immediately?”
“It might have been” is a sad commentary to describe a life. That makes it a life lived without personal fulfillment. Unfortunately those words will become prophetic if, for whatever reason, you aren’t nourishing your dreams.

What is sadder still is never having even tried because you felt at a certain age that it was too late for your success. However, dreams should have no age limit.
The great news is that it is never too late to begin to put yourself at the top of your list, prioritize, and do what you’ve always wanted to do. No matter if you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, or beyond, you can still have your chance. Becoming successful is not limited to one certain age or even one career. In fact, the most successful people are the ones who have reinvented themselves, tried, failed, and tried again. Let’s redefine the word failure as simply a plan that didn’t work the first time around. It may just need a few tweaks and perseverance.
The following are great examples of people who did exactly that; they kept trying.

F. Murray Abraham got his first decent screen role as an actor when he was 45. The role was in the movie Amadeus and he won an Academy Award for his brilliant portrayal of Antonio Salieri. He had thought of giving up acting just two years before but thankfully didn’t.
Andrea Bocelli didn’t start singing opera seriously until the age of 34. Some ‘experts’ told him it was too late to begin.
Phyliss Diller became a comedian at the age of 37. She was told by many club owners that she was “too old” to become a success.
Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, was 43 when he began drawing his legendary superheroes and his partner Jack Kirby was 44 when he created The Fantastic Four.
Julia Child didn’t even learn to cook until she was almost 40 and didn’t launch her popular show until she was 50.
Elizabeth Jolley had her first novel published at the age of 56. In one year alone she received 39 rejection letters but finally had 15 novels and four short story collections published to great success.
Mary Wesley was 71 when her first novel was published. Talk about not giving up!
Ricardo Montalban had his dream house built at the age of 68. That was when he was finally financially able to do so and he went full-speed ahead with it.
Harlan Sanders, the Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, was 66 when he began to promote his style of cooking and create an empire.
Laura Ingalls Wilder began writing as a columnist in her 40s. Contrary to a belief begun by the TV series about her family, the popular Little House books weren’t written when she was a young girl at all. They were written and published when the ‘girl’ was in her 60’s!
All of these people were discouraged at times and afraid. Being human, they thought about giving up but didn’t; they kept their dreams alive and continued to strive for what they wanted. They didn’t assign an age limit to their dreams and neither should you.
If, as John Greenleaf Whittier says, the saddest words are “it might have been,” the next saddest have to be “I should have tried.”

Can I succeed at an old age?
Ever told a friend of yours that you want to become successful in life then he replied saying that its too late?
I personally know many people who are at their late twenties and early thirties and who believe that time for success has passed already. Depression happens when you believe that there is no hope in reaching an important goal.
Now if you believed that time for success has passed already then you will certainly get depressed (assuming that success is important for you). No medications or actions can help you in such a case because after all the only soloution is to bring the past back.
Only soloution?
No, actually there is another soloution.
What about bringing back hope by showing yourself that some people have actually succeeded at and old age?

Mark Pincus was an enthusiastic little kid who always wanted to do something big. One day he couldn't sleep at night because of knowing about the release of the first web browser. He kept browsing the web and wondering whether this can be the future of computers.
Mark wrote an article about the future of the web and because his article was so good an investor who came across it offered him funding to help him make his vision true. Mark started a small company that was shortly acquired by another company and he instantly became a millionaire.
Few month later however problems started to happen inside the major company that acquired his small one and the company failed. Mark found himself again at the starting point but he decided to give it another shot. He started another company that also failed after some time.
Mark then decided to start a social network but the unexpected growth of my-space killed his hopes and forced him to stop working on his third project.
Mark was almost forty and he was spending a lot of time playing computer games at that time. While doing so he discovered that many people would do anything to pass a certain difficult level even if this thing was paying money.
Mark quickly founded another company that created online games and soon his games became very popular. Mafia wars, Farm ville are among the great games mark have created.
Within a short period of time mark has became a billionaire with a net worth around 2 billion.
Lessons to learn from Mark Pincus:

1) The more you try the luckier you get: Mark didn't become a billionaire at the first attempt but he failed three times before the fourth attempt helped him reach his goals. Luck is all about the number of tries, each time you fail you learn new things that increase your chance of becoming successful in the next attempt. If you kept trying you will reach a level of knowledge that will prevent you from failing (see The secret to getting what you want in life)

2) Being prepared: Mark wasn't sleeping in his bed wishing that the universe will help him nor he was repeating affirmations then doing nothing. He was always developing his skills, meeting people and searching for the opportunity that would change his life. People who search for opportunities find them.

3) I will do it: The determination to become a big player in the Tech industry has motivated mark to start over 4 times. Just like it happens in every success story I write about determination was the reason Mark finally became one of the most successful people in the world at the age of 47

It’s Never Too Late For Success Even in Your 40’s

Last time I wrote a post about people who found success starting in their 30’s, and it got amazing feedback.Wanted to know if hope was there for 40 year olds. There definitely is!
I just read a 2009 survey that said the average median age of 539 company founders when they started their current companies in a variety of industries, including aerospace and defense, computer and electronics, health care, and services, was 40. (This is consistent with their previous research, which found the average and median age of technology company founders to be 39).

For this post, I have actors and entrepreneurs on the list. You might not want to be an actor, but their stories are inspiring. Plus being a television/movie star is one of the most difficult professions to succeed in. So to be a working, successful actor for many years is a huge achievement.

Steve Carrell
America’s favorite 40 year old virgin got his big break in his 40’s.
Earlier in his career he was a mail carrier, but fired cause he wasn’t efficient enough. He planned on applying to law school, but was unable to write an explanation why he wanted to be a lawyer on his application form.
He then turned to acting. He did some children’s theater and a commercial. He got a minor role in a movie. He had some small roles in short lived television shows.
Some fans will remember him as a correspondent on the Daily Show starting at the age of 37. That lasted for six years.
I first remember him as a hilarious news anchor in Bruce Almighty. He was 41 years old. Then things started to get better. The next year, he had a memorable supporting role in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
In 2005, Carrell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office. Though the first season’s ratings were mediocre, they renewed the show due to the anticipate success of his first starring role, The 40 Year Old Virgin. Their guess was correct.
That movie established Carrell as a leading man at 43. It was a huge hit!
That translated to The Office becoming a hit on television. In his third year on The Office, he was paid approximately $175,000 per episode! There were 25 episodes that season, so you do the math.
Since leaving The Office in 2011, he has focused on his movie career playing comedic and dramatic roles.
Hard to imagine Steve Carrel not making audiences laugh, but it took him awhile to let people know his true comedic abilities. For him, it took a series of small roles, till he got his first starring role in The 40 Year Old Virgin that changed his career forever.

Samuel Jackson
He’s acted some memorable roles in Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jackie Brown, The Incredibles, Shaft, Snakes on a Planes, and the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
It’s hard to believe he found success starting in his 40’s. To me, it seems like he’s been acting forever! But it was a long road filled with small roles, heroin and cocaine addiction.
After college, he moved to New York and spent a decade acting in stage plays. He had tiny roles in movies. I remember he was in one of my all time favorite comedies Coming to America playing a robber. He was 40 years old when that movie was released.
While in New York, he developed an addiction to herion first, and then cocaine. After seeing the effects, his family entered him into rehab. He came out clean.
He continued with minor roles and did have a role in Jurassic Park playing a scientist.
Then he was asked by Quentien Tarintino to star in Pulp Fiction. The role was written specifically for him. Although that was his thirteenth film, the movie made him an international superstar at age 46. It also resurrected the career of John Travolta.
From there, he found starring roles in everything from a Jedi knight to next summer’s highly anticipated movie, The Avengers.
The 2009 edition of The Guinness World Records, stated that Jackson is the world’s highest grossing actor, having earned $7.42 billion in 68 films.
It all started in his 40’s.

Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond as former Vice President Dick Cheney
He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995-2009. You may know his impressions of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Sean Connery, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney. He’s been on the most episodes of any cast member in the history on SNL.
When he left the show he was the oldest cast member in history at 53.
In his 20’s, his ultimate career goal was to be on Saturday Night Live. He took a rough road to get there.
In college at the University of Florida, he had been turned down by professors and directors for plays, because he constantly fumbled his speech. One theater professor, David Shelton took a chance on casting him in a play. From there he convinced Darryl this was a career he should pursue. That gave him confidence to continue acting after college.

He moved to New York after college, but he struggled. He was abused as a child and that affected him all throughout his life. He turned to alcohol to ease the pain. He spent his first three years waiting tables and drinking so much that he was barely able to go to auditions.
He cleaned up his act, cut back on drinking, and studied at an acting studio whose alumni included Robert DeNiro, Billy Crystal, and Barbara Streisand. That led to roles in off-Broadway and regional theater.
He tried stand-up comedy, performing at a local club when he was 26. The next year, he made it his ultimate goal to be on Saturday Night Live.

It took him 13 years to make his dream come true. So many would quit after just one year.
He moved back to Florida doing some voice over work the next few years. He kept his eye on his goal and developed a philosophy of self improvement that got him through those years. (I love this)
“I came up with a concept when I was 27. The concept was that if I could make one small improvement in myself, in my abilities, once a week, that would be 52 improvements by the end of the year.”
That’s what he focused on and at 32, moved back to New York, determined to be a successful stand-up comedian and attract the attention of Saturday Night Live producers.
Being in his 30’s he knew he started late.
“By the time I was 32, I figured I was too old to make it anyway. But I had that terrible moment of truth when I realized I had to try even though I thought I wouldn’t make it, because that was my dream.”
He was still struggling with his past and kept drinking. However, his dream was the only thing that kept him going.

He put pictures of Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi on his wall for inspiration. His reason was that they were people who probably didn’t have any evidence that they could accomplish what they wanted to accomplish, but kept going anyway.

On Saturday Night Live he was known for his incredible impressions, but the stand-up clubs at the time didn’t accept it, so he had to keep those talents hidden.
During the next seven years, he had two auditions for Saturday Night Live and failed. Most people would have just given up their dream. He didn’t.
One night in 1995, he did a one line impression of Bill Clinton. In the audience that night happened to be an SNL producer, who hoped to fill a void for a Clinton impression.
Then he got an invitation to audition directly for SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
He said he had been preparing for that moment for 12 years.
He landed the role at 39. When the first episode aired, it was a month before his 40th birthday.
He said 39 was way too old to be on Saturday Night Live, but that didn’t stop him being a cast member longer than anyone in the show’s history.

At an age when other struggling actors had long given up on their dream, his was just beginning.
He went from a struggling actor, to having Presidents know his name. A couple years after on SNL, he performed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He performed there a total of three times.
After 14 seasons, on SNL and over 200 episodes, it was time for him to leave the show.
He leaves some advice that we should all remember.
“Remember that life is a marathon, not a sprint. Just because you don’t make it by the time you’re 25 doesn’t mean you’re not going to make it when you’re 29 or 39.
“I never really thought I was going to make it, but I’d become this crazy, coiled up human who was determined to try to make it. You have to just keep plugging away.”

Mark Pincus
If you’ve ever played Farmville, Cityville, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker or a handful of games online, then you’ve played games created by Zynga, a company founded by Mark Pincus.
Zynga was his fourth company. He started it at 41. After each previous company was sold, he went into brainstorming mode for his next venture.
It started by building a poker game for Facebook when they started allowing developers to create for the social media site.
The game was launched July 2007 and by September, the company was profitable.
Now as of July 2011, there are 232 million users. His company is potentially worth between $15-20 billion in just four years. He just became a billionaire this year.

John Paul DeJoria
You may not recognize his name but if you’re a woman, you’ll know the first company he started, Paul Mitchell Systems. For the guys who don’t know, they sell hair care products to salons. It’s big business.
If you’re a tequila drinker, you’ll know his second company.
He started Paul Mitchell at age 36. When he started it, he was homeless. This was the second time in life he was homeless. This time he wasn’t getting along with his wife, so he left and gave her all the money.
A financial backer was suppose to give half a million to start Paul Mitchell. He never showed up. So he slept in his car for two weeks. In the end, the investor never showed up. Instead he borrowed $350 from his mom and his partner (Paul Mitchell) came up with the other $350. As of 2011, Paul Mitchell Systems had over $900 million in annual revenue. (Imagine what that investor is thinking now)
At age 45, in 1989, with a friend, they started the Patron Spirits Company, maker of the premium tequila Patron.
This is how the business got started. (I always find it interesting how big ideas got started.)
I started Patron in 1989 with a friend of mine. I had put my friend Martin [Crowley] in the architectural business. He had a little bad luck in his life, so he would go down to Mexico, buy stone pavers and furniture and come back to the United States and sell it to architects. I said, “Martin, why don’t you bring back a few bottles of whatever the best tequila is that Mexicans drink down there.” So Martin brought me back the tequila and this bottle he found, that was the same bottle as Patron today.
He said, “JP, I have this idea; taste this.” I thought, Wow, that’s smoother than anything we’ve ever had. He said “I can make it smoother. I can send a mixologist down. And here’s a bottle we can put it in, and I’ll design this beautiful label for it. What do you think about going into business together?” We made it a little smoother, put it in these hand-blown bottles. So I bought a thousand cases–12,000 bottles. And my thinking was, if no one bought it, I would keep it, because Paul Mitchell was doing good. And for 10 years everybody I knew got one–for their birthday, christening, bar mitzvah, any kind of holiday you could think of. “Here’s a bottle of tequila! [laughs] If you’re too young, give it to your parents.”

He didn’t have to resort to giving it away as gift. It’s now the #1 selling premium tequila. Celebrities drink it. Rappers rap about it.
Before he starte the company, tequila was seen as a cheap drink. As Ed Brown, CEO of Patron says, “”Who would have ever thought of doing ultra-premium tequila back in those days?” John Paul DeJoria did and now he owns about 70% of the company.

I couldn’t find how much he’s earned through Patron because it’s a private company, but he said it’s extrememly profitable and very large.
His net worth is $4 billion according to Forbes. That’s a lot of hair care products and tequila.
It’s Never Too Late

One advantage about being in your 40’s is that you have more experience. Most entrepreneurs I read about have that attitude that “it’s now or never”. It’s a powerful motivator to know you’re not getting any younger.
However, we’re living longer and longer now so even if you find your success in your 40’s, you still have decades to grow it and enjoy it.
I leave you with a quote by Anthony Robbins,
“We usually overestimate what we think we can accomplish in one year, but we grossly underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.”

Inspirational Stories of Success After 40

There’s a rumor that Paul Graham, the founder of the world’s most successful incubator, once invested in someone because he looked like Mark Zuckerberg. But being young isn’t a prerequisite for starting a successful company.
Don’t believe me? Here are 10 entrepreneurs who had accomplished nothing by 30-years-old.
Note: This post is all men, so make sure to check out Part 2 of this post for 10 wildly successful female entrepreneurs.

Jack Dorsey
As much as he’d like you to believe he’s a sophisticated entrepreneur, Jack Dorsey was a punk skater well into his mid-20s.

Dorsey’s first company (started while he was at NYU) was a cab dispatching program.
When this fizzled out, Dorsey approached Ev Williams, who was running Odeo, a podcast company. He pitched him the idea of an instant messaging service.
Williams loved the concept and teamed up with Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass to pursue it full time. Dorsey was appointed CEO. He was 30-years-old at the time.

Tim Westergren, Pandora
Tim Westergren started Pandora when he was 35. But he couldn’t pay salaries for two years.

Before starting Pandora, Westergren was a failed musician, part-time composer, nanny and hippy.
Although he started Pandora (his first entrepreneurial endeavor) at 35, Pandora didn’t become an online radio channel until Westergren was 37.
Pandora started as a hardware company that allowed stores to play music. Pandora even went bankrupt in their first two years and Westergren somehow convinced 50 employees to work without pay – for two years.
Here’s the speech he gave employees each week that convinced them to stay. After hearing this words, I’d have stayed too.
Think you’re persuasive enough to convince 50 of your employees to work for two years without pay? Probably not. Well that’s exactly what Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, managed to pull out. How? By giving one helluva pump up speech.
Pandora was founded in 2000 with about $2m in funding. In 2001 the company ran out of money and went broke. Unwilling to give up, Westergren had to figure out how to keep his 50-person team from quitting. They had yet to launch their product and were years away from making money.
So how did Westergren do it? Every two weeks, when it was time to hand out the paychecks he couldn’t afford, Westergren would give his this-startup-is-a-rocket-ship-get-on-board speech.
At Hustle Con 2015, Westergren explained how Pandora got started and succeeded despite running out of money for two years. At the end of his talk, an audience member asked him to recite the speech he regularly gave that convinced his team to defer their salary until Westergren was able to get more funding.
Here’s his answer:
Audience member:
Will you just imagine this crowd as your 50 employees and give that pitch that you gave and talk about how you evolved that pitch over time?
Tim Westergren:
Fuck that’s hard! …I might not get the whole pitch but let me tell you what I’d focus on. I would say:
We all know here that what we have created is unique and it’s solving a gigantic problem. No one on earth is gonna do what we’ve done, and when you use this product we all know how magical it is. It will find its home. Everybody on the planet loves music. There are millions of musicians who produce great music and they can’t find each other. When this thing finally finds its home, it’s gonna change culture. And how many times in your life do you have a chance to do that? That’s what this is about.
Did it work?
His pitch starts at 19:30. I got chills when he closed his eyes before giving the pitch. I can totally see how this worked…very inspiring.

Jan Koum
Before creating WhatsApp, Jan Koum applied to work at Facebook. They rejected him.

Koum incorporated WhatsApp on his 33rd birthday. He’s a San Jose State college dropout.
After leaving school, he landed a gig at Yahoo where he met Brian Acton, his cofounder. After nine years at Yahoo, Koum applied to work at Facebook and was famously rejected, which I find pretty hilarious.

Jack Ma, Alibaba
Jack Ma’s never written a line of code, and the first time he used a computer was in his 30s.

Now he’s worth $22.5 billion, but until his 30s he thought himself a failure. In a Charlie Rose interview, Ma revealed he failed his college entrance exam three times. After that, he applied to over 30 different jobs, including KFC, and again, he was rejected.
So, at the age of 31, Ma started his first internet company called “China Yellow Pages.” The company made around $800,000 in the three years it was in business.
At 35, he founded Alibaba. Like Amazon, Alibaba didn’t make any profit in its first three years, but we know how the story ended.
Interestingly, Jack Ma has never written a line of code. Perhaps he should be a speaker at Hustle Con?

Ben Horowitz, LoudCloud
After starting his first company at 33, Ben Horowitz was often on the brink of bankruptcy.

After graduating from UCLA in 1988 and hopping from job to job for seven years, 29-year-old Ben Horowitz joined Netscape as their first product manager.
After Netscape was acquired in 1999, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen (Netscape’s founder) teamed up to start LoudCloud. Horowitz was 33-years-old.
In Horowitz’s book, The Hard Things About Hard Things, he talks about the many near death experiences that LoudCloud faced, such as being two weeks away from defaulting on payroll. Thankfully for Horowitz, Loudcloud was acquired for $1.6 billion in cash when he was 41. Beautiful.

Sam Walton, WalMart
Before Sam Walton founded WalMart, he owned a small discount store with his father-in-law.

In 1945, before starting WalMart, Sam Walton took out a $20,000 loan (about $250,000 adjusted to today) from his father-in-law and purchased a franchised Ben Franklin variety store. Three years later, Walton bought another Ben Franklin store, 220 miles away. But even though Walton was managing two stores, he still struggled to pay his employees.
In 1945, when Walton was 44-years-old, and had years of business experience, he opened the first WalMart.

Peter Thiel, PayPal
One of the world’s most successful tech investors almost went to law school.

I never thought I’d say this sentence, but I’m thankful Peter Thiel followed Tucker Max’s advice.
Before he was the founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel was just another lawyer who hated his life. After graduating Stanford Law in 1992, Thiel landed a gig at a Manhattan law firm, a place that, in his words, “from the outside everyone wanted to get into,” but, “on the inside … everybody wanted to leave.”
After seven months Thiel left, and joined Credit Suisse as a derivatives trader. Three years later Thiel founded Paypal. He was 31-years-old. Four years later, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion, making his stake in the company worth roughly $50 million.

Reed Hastings, Pure Software Reed Hastings was in the Peace Corp in his 20s.

Most people don’t realize this, but Reed Hastings was actually a successful entrepreneur before he started Netflix. In 1991, when he was 31-years-old, Hastings started Pure Software, a debugging tool for software engineers. Hastings, a trained engineer, helped the company double their revenue each year. In 1997, when Hastings was 37, Rational Software acquired Pure Software for $750 million, giving Hastings the means to start Netflix.
In between college and starting Pure Software, Hasting was in the Peace Corps. He taught English in Swaziland. Whatta guy.

Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company
Before starting Ford at the age of 40, Henry Ford’s perfectionism led to failure as he missed deadlines on making his prototypes.

Although he created one of the biggest self-made fortunes in mankind history ($199 billion), Henry Ford bankrupted his first two companies before starting Ford. Ford, like Steve Jobs, was a perfectionist who cared deeply about every minor detail of his automobiles. Because of that he continually missed deadlines and failed to complete his first prototypes.
After years of failure, Ford’s investors convinced him to hire James Couzen. Couzen convinced Ford to sell an “imperfect” car and to have mechanics throughout the country that were trained to fix broken automobiles.

Mark Cuban, MicroSolutions
28-year-old Mark Cuban shared a three-bedroom apartment with five people. His bedroom was in the closet.

At 24, Cuban graduated from Indiana University and moved to Dallas to work as a bartender. His first gig out of school was selling computers for $18,000 a year. But he was fired for disobeying his boss. At 25-years-old he started MicroSolutions, a software consultancy company. After seven years, Cuban sold MicroSolutions, netting him $6 million… enough to start Broadcast.com, which he sold for $5.7 billion.

3 Entrepreneurs Who Became Successful After 40 (WMT, YUM)

The movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" details the inspirational story of Christopher Gardner, who went from being a jobless, homeless father to being a millionaire entrepreneur, stockbroker and author. Gardner (portrayed by Will Smith in the movie) struggled with personal relationships and changing jobs until late in life, before he established his own brokerage firm in 1987 and created a sizable net wealth.
Gardner's story is famous because of his writing and the subsequent movie, but his story is only one of many entrepreneurs who didn't make it big until after their 40th birthdays.

Wally Amos
Most Americans are familiar with Famous Amos cookies, which are sold in just about every major gas station chain, supermarket and grocery store in the country. Few know the story behind founder Wally Amos, who spent his entire early adulthood working in a New York City mailroom.
Amos took a shot as a music agent in his 30s (even managing Marvin Gaye at one point), but he never really struck it rich. One of Amos' favorite hobbies was baking, especially cookies. On the eve of his 40th birthday, Amos received a $25,000 loan from Gaye and Helen Reddy to open his first bakery. Half a decade later, Amos was pulling in more than $10 million a year in sales.
Amos went on to host an adult-learning program, Learn to Read, and has spent millions in philanthropic efforts promoting literacy in America.

Colonel Harland David Sanders
Kentucky Fried Chicken (NYSE: YUM) is synonymous with the Colonel. The multibillion-dollar fast food chicken restaurant is the creation of entrepreneur and businessman Harland David Sanders. Sanders was born in 1890 and worked as a steam engine stoker, insurance salesman, blacksmith, fireman and service station operator before starting to serve meals in the 1930s.
Sanders tinkered with his chicken recipes until the 1940s, when he finalized his now-famous secret recipe and focused on food sales. He didn't open his first franchise for KFC until 1952, at the ripe age of 62. Still, major success eluded him until 1959, when he opened the headquarters in Shelbyville.
Sanders traveled the country, often sleeping in the back of his car, and lived off of Social Security checks to promote his recipe and try to sell franchises. It worked; there were more than 600 locations by 1964, and Sanders' interest in the company was worth more than $2 million. Prior to his death in 1980, the Colonel's chicken franchise had more than 6,000 locations and generated annual sales in excess of $2 billion.
Sanders was commissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1935 by then-governor Ruby Laffoon. He was recommissioned in 1950.

Sam Walton
One of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, Sam Walton didn't open up his first Walmart (NYSE: WMT) until age 44. Born to poor farmers in Kingfisher, Oklahoma in 1918, Walton moved around during the Great Depression doing whatever odd jobs were required to help support the family.
He worked a short stint for his brother's farm mortgage company, waited tables, delivered newspapers and eventually joined J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) as a manager in Des Moines. Walton spent 18 months with J.C. Penney and earned $75 a month.
Walton joined the Army in 1942, eventually reaching the rank of captain before leaving the military after World War II ended. Walton used a loan from his father-in-law and $5,000 of his own personal savings to open his first retail variety store, where sales volume jumped from $80,000 to $225,000 in three years. He managed a chain of Ben Franklin stores until 1962.
Later that year, Walton opened up the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas. Walton focused his expansion on smaller towns and keeping the shelves stocked with low-priced goods. By 1977, there were 190 Walmarts. That number grew to 800 by 1985. When Walton died in 1992, his business empire spanned 1,735 Walmarts, more than 200 Sam's Clubs and more than $50 billion in annual sales.

It is telling you to wake up again.
To believe again.
To choose to see again.
To dream again!
And most of all, to take action again.
What happened before does not need to repeat itself. What happened before, though it may have been painful, has caused you to grow into a powerful being – You are now capable of so much more than you were before life happened.
Like the seed must fall into the ground and die, so you fell and you died and now it is time to wake up and live.

Stop holding on so hard to the shell of the past. Why do you think that if you let it go, you will forget and make the same mistakes again? You are no longer the same person! that person who did that, died and left behind this stronger, more powerful person. However, you keep holding on to the old.
The time has certainly passed for that old version of you.
The time is NOW for this expanded version of you.
It is enough! Take off the shell of the past and let the real you shine through. There is nothing that comes your way that you are unable to contend with.
This is your time!
The world needs your particular brand of awesome.
Dream again, write out those dreams, get support, make a plan and take action.
My friend, everthing is never too late.
Twenty-somethings have a tendency to think that they need their lives figured out by 30, which can cause panic if their 30th birthday rolls around and their greatest aspirations seem far out of reach.
But there are plenty of success stories that prove otherwise — from celebrity chef Julia Child, who wrote her first cookbook at 50, to writer Harry Bernstein, who authored countless rejected books before getting his first hit at 96.Gary Heavin was 40 when he opened the first Curves fitness center in 1992, which ended up becoming one of the fastest-growing franchises of the '90s.

Also, beware of feel-good quotes and pictures that show success at an older age. Almost everyone who has delayed success until they were older has been working on their craft for decades. So don't think you can slack off and one day get "lucky", you have to be prepared when that opportunity arises.
Age has nothing to do with it. But it depends how and where you measure success. Do you mean success in the work/labor market or as an entrepreneur? Successful after 40 in the labor market often means that you get hired for senior positions in top management or specialist positions that only a very few people can do (more experience the better). For generic, middle management positions you are then considered to be too experienced, too expensive and hence too old. So the older you get, the more narrow the job market becomes for you to work out a success. But, the older you get the wider the entrepreneurial market becomes in starting companies, working as a consultant etc since you have the experience for it to become successful.

Hi, I guess your definition of success = wealth! If it is all about amassing wealth then it is never late. You can dust yourself and find out what you are good at, if you can't, better still, acquire some new skill, it can be in any field of interest.The biggest mistake people do is, they get fluttered with delayed gratification. If you can believe in yourself and if you decide to re-write your story into a beautiful classic, i am sure, you deserve to change your life for good.

To be successful at any age requires first the right belief. You must believe that you can be successful.
Some people do not become successful at any age because of limiting belief. They might not think they can. They were told they could not. They lack confidence.
These are only a few reasons why a person will not be successful no matter what age they are.
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ― Henry Ford
I know there are some limitations such as at age of 80 years you can’t climb mountain Everest.
Actually sir Yuichiro Miura already climbed Everest at age of 80years.
Only thing that can keep hold of you is your mind so you must know what you want?
Either success or quit (never) because you are 40 years old
Sir believe me you can be successful at any age, you are at perfect age to taste success because you have energy, time, money, knowledge, experience. What else you need?
Inspiration??

It is never too late for anything... consider it that you have been building footsteps for the past 40 years and have started to climb it now. every step away from the ground is a success by itself. Philosophically speaking... success is the amount of satisfaction which is decided by yourself. take an example of cold.. is there anything called cold, it is us humans judge cold depending on our capability to resist the temperature. for ex -200 degree is very cold indeed. when you are stranded in that temperature with limited protection you feel that atleast few degrees higher would help you survive.. right? suppose you are transported from the -200 degree temperature to a -10 degree temperature, would you not feel warm immediately? both the temperatures are below freezing (of course using Celsius) but dont you think that you have a chance now? Success is measured by people around you whereas satisfaction is measured by you alone. So do you want to be successful? or do you want to be satisfied?

It becomes more difficult but most definitely not "too late". The difficulty usually comes from the fact that the person involved would most likely be married with young children. Children limit to some extent the ability to take risks and obviously take a lot of time to care for.

3 Things Leaders With Impressive Communication Skills Always Do

As a leader, your communication skills have the potential to leave a lasting impact on others--make sure that impact is a positive one.
Communication is an essential life skill for anyone and everyone. It's one of the earliest survival skills we learn as growing children. (How else would we have asked our parents for another cookie?) As we grow and become fully functioning human beings, communication only increases in complexity and importance--especially when you're leading a company.

No matter what industry you're in or what size company you're leading, you're working constantly with different kinds of people. You've got internal team members and employees, clients, prospective clients, recruits, and other industry professionals, each with their own personalities and communication styles.
You even communicate in a lot of different ways: during meetings; via email, phone calls, and group messaging; through thought leadership content published online and on social media; and at industry events.
With countless audiences and vehicles to deliver your messages, it's easy to get lost in the chaos and revert to easy, disorganized messaging--but that only leaves your team feeling more confused than informed. To clearly communicate your point and build trusting relationships, here are three things that leaders with impressive communication skills always practice:

1. They focus on developing a helpful mindset.
If you aren't ending all your conversations by asking, "How can I be the most help to you moving forward?" then you're missing out on a massive opportunity for connection. Ending all my conversations with this one simple question (or one along these lines) has made a world of difference in my ability to connect with people and build long-lasting relationships. Obviously, you have to be authentic with your word and follow through, but offering help demonstrates that you care about people.
Kelby Price, director of sales and marketing at IR Optimizer, explains how having a helpful mindset can not only improve communication but also lead to better solutions:
"A leader with a helpful mindset checks his or her ego at the door. Instead of focusing on the individual, this leader looks at problems from a solutions-focused perspective. This outlook allows for communicators and leaders to be more open to team collaboration, understanding that working together often results in more effective and efficient results."

2. They show their presence with consistency.
Obviously, I don't mean consistently lazy or consistently insincere. Your audience should be able to trust you and rely on you to respond. This means communicating consistently in two main ways: through your tone and frequency.
This applies to your communication in all its forms: in person, on stage at speaking events, via email, and through your digital content. Think about it: If you're communicating in a way that's really laid-back and fun one minute and then really buttoned-up and formal the next, you'll throw off people in your audience--and that just reinforces trust barriers between you.
Good communicators are also frequent communicators; they keep communication open and don't ghost people. You wouldn't execute a social-distribution strategy that only had you sharing content once every few days. Particularly with your published content, you wouldn't write one or two awesome articles and then wait five months before creating anything again.
Your audience needs to be able to count on you, so develop a publishing schedule in your editorial calendar and stick to it. (By the way, there are plenty more free content marketing tools out there that can help you and your team make this process easier.)
3. They aren't afraid to be authentic.
When my oldest daughter was about 3 years old, she loved Aladdin. Every time we'd watch it together, she'd be having a great time until the part when Aladdin pretends to be a prince to make Princess Jasmine like him. At that point, I'd see her get mildly frustrated; she would ask why he does that instead of just being himself. What she was really upset about was his inauthenticity.
I truly don't think we ever lose that ability to sense when people aren't being true to themselves. It puts us off and gives us a strange feeling. When you're genuine, people can tell. It puts others at ease and makes them more inclined to trust you--which makes communication a lot easier and opportunity come more naturally. Good communicators don't sacrifice their authenticity to score cheap points by trying (and, more often than not, failing) to impress others.
Whether you're communicating in person, at a speaking engagement, or in an email, it's important to understand just how much what you say and how you say it matters. Your communication skills have the potential to leave a lasting impact on others--make sure that impact is a positive one. Practice these three key skills, and you'll start noticing that expert communication opens endless doors of opportunity.

Where can I go to start over with nothing, no money, no job, no life, no friends, and no family?

You have you. What else you need? For yourself The universe exists only if you exists. If you don't exist nothing exists in this world for yourself.
Assume yourself as a orphanage child, and drift nowhere, the road will lead you somewhere. Sit in a shade in the night, and give your pain a visual display. You might want write something or give it colors.
I don't know to which country you belongs but where ever you belongs you can make all these things you listed on your question from money to family even good prestige, you just need to have courage and believe in yourself.

Even if you've all these things you are certainly gonna feel empty in some point of your life. I swear that..
Travel by foot to ruined places, you'll discover you're much more wealthier than the people of such places.

Here's are the few suggestions
Live Altruistically: Work hard and give away everything
Visit the worse places: It might sound weird but try it, visit some places where people have nothing, not even to eat and see how they're living. The only thing that makes a human alive is a hope. You'll discover you're not only the person who don't have anything..
Live Your life for art: Be creative, because when you don't have anything, you are powered by your soul and you can give that energy a display..
Without food, man can serve years, without water months, without breathe minutes but without hope not even seconds.

Maybe you start first with something you do have…
You can see, maybe you are healthy, you have a phone or a computer which is working (serious, no joke, but reality)
You have “the balls” to ask for help, good for you I am proud of you.
Maybe you lost everything because you were in a life that looked happy and yours, but was as glas and it all broke.
When you trust yourself that you have the power to live through all this, use this power now in a positive way and you only ask yourself now:
“What I need first now” , than… What I now choose to become me, really me. What are you're talents, what is you experience.
Make a plan and start with the first thing that is for you the most important to realise, nobody can answer that question, so start now.

I don't wish you luck… You just do it with the power which is yours. I trust your inner power.
If you have a vehicle, anywhere can be a start. Generally though you'll need a little money to get going. Bus ticket, living quarters, food, etc. Those all take money. If you are healthy and have no criminal history, give the armed forces a try. They will offer all your basic needs plus job training, pay, college finding, and medical coverage. It's just like having parents. Only they are parents who can imprison you, if you disobey.
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.
Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine.

Even if you are considered to be the most sinful of all sinners, when you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries.
As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.

In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time.

A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.
But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.

What's the reason of doing that? You can just move to a new town or country but what is your goal with it? It's better to face what you've done than doing it “wrong” again. Figure out what you want from all that and head to that. Once done then take the decision for a new life. Or if it's all great and you just want to change life just travel, do it a lot. Learn, see, meet new people do all the things you like. :)

In my opinion I think you need to look at why you have nothing. Why do you want to move on? From what? From who? It's hard to start from nothing in a strange new place you know nothing about. My only advice is don't come to Florida. Otherwise with a vague question and not many details I can't give you much advice.
If I was as religious as my mom, I would tell you to go to church.

Do you really think that you have nothing? Are you sure that you have any friend? I’m sure there’s a lot of people who want to give you their support, to be close to you, to be with you and want to be your friend…
You are breathing so I suppose you have a life…
Are you graduated? If yes I think you can look for a job anywhere.
If not , I’m pretty sure you have an hidden skill…
If you want to start over you can do it where you are… ( My opinion…)
If you want to start over each and every place is good for you. Because each place of world have infinite energy for start new. You don’t need specific place to start over.
More you don’t have nothing and i think each place have that all thing you mentioned like job,friends,family so you can start from each place.
Ok I don't get this whole no hope answer, if you have a good degree go to Saudi Arabia, they'll give you a job because they need labor, learn some Arabic while you are there and make use of your time there and develop your career potential, its tax free money, its cheap to live and meet some expatriate friends there, then start looking at the glass half full, if you want to change something , change your attitude first then everything will follow
How to Start a New Life when You're at Rock Bottom
When J.K. Rowling said, "Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life," she hit the nail on the head. Sometimes you have to sink down to the depths to find the energy to skyrocket back up. If you want to start a new life when you're at rock bottom, start making improvements that allow you to stabilize your income, quit bad habits, and think proactively. Taking care of your body and mind throughout the process will also make it easier to start fresh again.
Take Care of the Basics
1. Whine a little. That's right. That's the first step to starting over. You gotta feel what you're feeling. Clamming everything up will just make you explode later. And what's more: admitting this is how it is could fuel you to do something about it. Acknowledging your situation and not liking it is the only way you can do something about it. So go ahead. Whine. You're unsatisfied. That's how living works.
Talk about it. You know how dieters are supposed to have a diet buddy, or at least let the world know what they're going through? That's for support and accountability. It's the same principle here. Even if you just find one person, you'll have a friend to lean on and someone that can keep you on track when you slip. We all need that support.

2. Take time (off). The fact of the matter is that right now you need a break. Sometimes, life just needs to stop. In as much as you can actually do this, grab that Kit Kat and take a short hiatus. Start replenishing your energy bar for the massive endeavor you're about to rock, showing life who's boss.
If you have a job, you may need to take time off work. Not a long time -- nothing to get you fired. Just a day or two to assess and concentrate. Right now is all about you.

3.Get a stable income. There's a definite hierarchy of needs that all humans have. For most of us, it involves having money at our disposal. In order to have food on the table, you gotta have money in your pocket. You don't need a lot, but in order to move up the hierarchy (and to start thinking about climbing up), you need a stable income.
So to put it succinctly, if you're unemployed, start looking for work. Looking for work should take you 40 hours a week. In today's economy, it may not come easily, but it'll come. Keep your nose to the grindstone and leave no stone unturned, nor opportunity turned down.

4. Finish school. If you haven't finished high school, this is doubly important. In order to get a job, you'll need a GED. All it takes is pulling up a Google search and making a phone call to a local adult education center. Most places can help you work out a payment plan and want to see you on the right track. What's more, where's the harm in just asking?
If you have some college, but haven't graduated, consider going back. Not only will you up your employment options, but you'll feel good about yourself. You'll feel accomplished. After all, rock bottom is just a state of mind. There are plenty of people who others might consider to be on rock bottom that feel on top of the world. Finishing college could change your mindset entirely.

5. Quit the nasty habits. If you're smoking, drinking, or partaking in other addictive behaviors on a constant basis, it needs to stop now. There is no personal advancement if it does not. In order to see progress, you cannot keep your old tricks. The buck stops here.
Imagine the person you want to be. Does that person have a dependency on anyone or anything else? When it comes to this self project, why settle for anything less than that ideal image? You owe it to you to be the best you can be. If you can't kick this habit, none of the new, better habits will fall into place.

6. Start thinking proactively. When you need to change everything about your situation and to completely start over in life you need to make some major adjustments between your ears. You need to think like a new person, act like a new person, dress like a new person, and surround yourself with new people, yes. However, to do this, you need to start thinking positively and with conviction. Put away the "I can't," "what if?", and "maybes." There's no room for those here. This starting over? You're going to do it.
It's highly possible that training your brain to think differently could alleviate this situation entirely. What are you but your thoughts, anyway? While it's impossible to instruct someone on how to specifically do this, know that the rest of this page will make that process a lot easier. Thinking positively and with confidence will make all these steps doable.

7. Determine exactly who you want to be. What will you look like. What will you dress like? What will your relationship look like? Where will you live? What car will you be driving? Take a good 15 minutes, close your eyes and really imagine the life you want down to what you feel like in that life. Take a good mental snapshot of your perfect life. You need to believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that this person you envisioned will be you.
You need an end point in order to know just how and where to start your journey. Where do you want to end up? What goals would you like to reach? Write it down. Everybody needs something to work to because none of us is perfect. Now's your chance to pick yours. This is what you'll be aiming for.

Taking Care of Your Body
1. Take a shower. It may sound a little funny, but in order to get your mind clean, you gotta get your body clean. To start fresh, you gotta be fresh. Being dragged down by the dirt of the day will only be a reminder of your present situation.
Like we discussed earlier -- "rock bottom" is very much so a mental state and therefore can come and go with ease. Showers (and other seemingly pointless endeavors) then become tricks of the trade in that they can relax you, take away stress, and cue your mind that it's time to start over. You're not just getting clean -- you're getting prepared.

2. Start exercising. Seems a little ridiculous, on the outside, huh? What kind of person at rock bottom has the will (or maybe the means) to exercise? But the thing is you can't think of these things in such a linear fashion. In fact, you gotta think backwards. Does the successful person exercise or does the exerciser become successful? Is it the chicken or the egg we should be addressing?
The first thing to go when you're down in the dumps is your body. You lie in bed all day, only greeting the sun to tell it to go away. To make matters worse, it's a vicious cycle that only propagates itself. Your body starts to drag and then your mind goes with it. When you exercise, your mind starts taking cues from your body instead of the other way around. You feel better, you look better, and you are better when you exercise -- enabling you to tackle the other parts of this insane world.

3. Concentrate on eating more healthily. All of a sudden it becomes hours upon hours of TV dinners, boxed wine, tubs of ice cream, and piles of self-loathing. After the binge, you feel absolutely terrible -- thus forcing the process to repeat. The only thing you can do then is lie on the couch and pray for a release from the impending indigestion. Not very productive, huh?
Food should make you feel energized, not lethargic and full of reproach. After a healthy meal, your body feels better and you feel better. Are you noticing a pattern? Getting out of a rock bottom is about feeling good enough (not being good enough) to do something about it. Eating healthy is part of the mental trickery to get your mind speeding down the track to Awesome Town.

4. Make an effort on the outside. For the record, this point is not at all endorsing materialism or vanity. That being said, looking good on the outside can make you feel good on the inside. So after you take that shower (post-workout), throw on a nice outfit and go socialize. You've earned it.
Knowing you look good can change your outlook on everything -- and how people treat you too (sad, but true). You'll find an inner source of confidence that can ultimately change your behavior (for the better). The world will probably be a bit kinder to you and in turn it's easier to be kinder to yourself.
Taking Care of Your Mind

1. Stop the negativity. You! Stop it. You know how it works. Instead of thinking thoughts that are helpful and rational you end up thinking things like, "I'm a complete failure -- I'll never amount to anything regardless of what I do, so why bother trying?" Here's some news for you: Those thoughts are not facts. They are feelings. And feelings can change.
When you catch yourself thinking something negative, either force yourself to immediately stop it in its tracks or add on something to make it better. "I'm a complete failure" turns into, "I'm a complete failure at this one thing today. Tomorrow is another story." Take yourself out of the black and white. Nothing is 100%. When they said, "This too shall pass," this is what they were talking about.

2. Old hobbies and find new ones. Between naps and box sets of the Golden Girls, it's easy to lose track of who you once were. In order to snap out of the rut, you gotta do things that you may not want to do -- and keeping up your old (pre-rock bottom) life is one of them. If you used to play music, force yourself to play music. If you used to love cooking, cook. It may be the last thing you want to do, but rediscovering what once brought you joy could be just the catalyst for change you need.
In addition to keeping up old habits (the good ones), new ones work just as well! Staying active (both physically and mentally) will force you out of this lackluster, lethargic thought-path you've been squeezed into. Are there any opportunities at your school or workplace? Is a friend trying something out that seems interesting to you? What could be a valuable way to spend your free time? In other words, what could distract you?

3. Make an every day to-do list. That damn villain called lethargy strikes daily. Morning rolls around and the only reason to get out of bed is to go to the bathroom. This is where the to-do list comes in handy. On it, write all the little things you want to accomplish for the day. It doesn't have to be world-changing, it just has to get you out of bed and being productive.
It all depends on where you are in the process. It could be something like "send in 5 applications, "go for a 2 mile (3.2 km) run," or "talk to a new person." Think of a few things you'd like to see come to life in the near future -- what are small things you could do every day to achieve them?

4. Help others. Another trick to get out of your world and more wrapped up in the world of others (which can be a much less scary and intimidating place) is to help others. Not only will you make them feel good, but making them feel good will make you feel good. Instant gratification.
Seek out the little opportunities in addition to the bigger ones. Offering to walk an elderly neighbor's dog, helping a pregnant woman with her groceries, help someone in your family -- all these little deeds add up. You'll gain a sense of purpose, possibly make friends, and just make the world better. That's three wins in one.

5. Surround yourself with positive influences. It's very possible that the crowd you're around is to blame for this rocky place you're up against. Hate to break it to you, but those around us can be total drains on our potential. Is it possible the relationships you have are making you a little worse for the wear? If the answer is even a maybe, it'll be best for you to put your efforts elsewhere.
Sometimes it's necessary to end toxic friendships. We grow as people and our friends don't meet these new identities we find. It's totally normal. If any of your friends (or significant others) don't fill you with joy, maybe it's time for them to go.

6. Move. Obviously this is easier said than done, but if your present circumstances are highly dictated by location (no job opportunities, no friends to speak of), you may want to consider moving -- if it's financially feasible. It doesn't have to be a big move, but a change of scenery could do you some serious good. What better way to rejuvenate you than to rejuvenate all of your senses?
With a move, soon enough you'll forget all about your former life. Who were you once, anyway? If bad memories are associated with where you are currently, give this idea serious thought. Is there anywhere you could go but still maintain your support network? Sit down with yourself and ask if this process (arduous though it may be) would be worthwhile. It's like getting handed a whole new world.

Striking a Balance and Routine

1. Be patient with yourself. Straight up, starting a new life doesn't happen overnight. It could take years. You'll probably be making such constant small progress that you won't even notice. Imagine losing 1/16th of a pound a day. You're not going to be able to tell for a long time -- but one day your clothes will be far, far too big.
By the time you do notice, you'll probably be so awesome, happy, and content that rock bottom seems like it barely ever existed. Until the moment comes when you wake up and realize, "Crap. That used to be me, didn't it?" take your time. It'll come. It always does. It's always darkest before the dawn, remember?

2. Focus during the transitions. This is another way of saying, "Slow down before the speed bumps." There are going to be times when you're about to lose it -- when you feel on the cusp of falling back to where you used to be, only worse (is there a worse than rock bottom?). It's these times when focusing, staying positive, and realizing this is totally normal are absolutely mandatory.
You're striking a serious balancing act between your old life and your new life right now, and that can get pretty daunting. No one expects you to do it with your hands tied behind your back and one eye closed. In fact, we expect you to lean on us for support. That's what we're here for. Though the transitions will be messy, know that they're only temporary. Focus and you'll get through them.

3. Cultivate a passion. You're on the up and up. Fan-fricking-tastic. Now it's time to find something new. Something fulfilling. Something to drive you. Something to keep those demons at bay. What does your mind immediately jump to? Any passion will do as long as you're passionate about it. It'll take up your time, use your creativity, and give you purpose. All wonderful, wonderful things.
Being truly good at something is so rewarding. Being truly good at something you really, really enjoy is even more rewarding. Cultivating a passion, regardless of what it is, can do great things for your sense of self. You'll get so well-established that rock bottom isn't a place on your map anymore. It got erased.

4. Get into a satisfying routine. Now that you have all these new ideas that are fresh and exciting, you've gotta stabilize and make them just part of your everyday world. It might take a few weeks, but balancing work, a social life, your passions, and free time will eventually all fall into place. There's no reason it shouldn't.
The good news here is that the routine will help shape itself. As long as you keep your priorities in line (taking care of your body and your mind, like we covered), it'll fall into place.

Career Advice for Starting Over After Age 40 and With No Education

Consider rephrasing the question
What immediately caught my attention was how the question was focused – starting over, no education, at age 40. This makes the question about overcoming obstacles, which of course I’ll address in this post since that was what was asked.
But keep in mind that how you frame your question is how you’ll get your answer.
When you’re networking and are tempted to ask a question about obstacles you’re facing, try posing the question about your end goal instead. Instead of saying you want to start over, be specific about what you want to do when you start over. If you don’t know exactly, you might know what types of activities you want in your next role or maybe you have an industry you’ve always been interested in or even a specific dream company.
Consider phrasing all your fact-finding questions on what you want, not what you don’t or what may stand in your way. 
Starting over = career change ≠ traditional job search.
I don’t have any additional information on Monet, but “starting over” suggests there is a newness in this quest. Perhaps you are starting over after an absence from the workforce. Perhaps you are starting over in a different role or different industry.

You want to treat a restart like a career change, which is different than just any old job search.
With a job search, you’re going after the same line of work but somewhere else. So you have experience, a track record, and therefore some proof of potential. When you’re changing careers or starting over, you’re a blank slate. Your focus needs to be on amassing that proof of potential.
Lack of education is not a deal-breaker for career change
One proof of potential is education – e.g., coursework in a related subject, degree from a selective school – and therefore some people assume education is necessary to starting over in a new career. However, you don’t need specific schooling to change careers, and in fact I blogged specifically about why you shouldn’t go to grad school to change careers.
What you need is the learning and projects that education often provides, but that you can get elsewhere.
You absolutely need to know the area where you’d like to work – what’s trending in the industry, what the challenges are, who the competitors are, what skills are needed. You can do this by reading, taking a one-off class or program, joining a professional association or attending a conference. To get hands-on project experience in your related field, consider volunteering or temping. 

Use age to your advantage
So, starting over is feasible and lack of education can be overcome. Similarly, landing a job after 40 is definitely doable. As an older job seeker, you have advantages – more years to gain experience, wisdom and perspective, more contacts in quantity and diversity, hopefully more maturity!
There are several good resources for the older  job seeker. I recently read an excellent career guide, 50 Plus! Critical Career Decisions for the Rest of Your Life, by Robert Dilenschneider. In addition to sound advice, Dilenschneider taps different specialists (image consultant, executive recruiter, etc.) to share tips specific to older job seekers.

Other helpful resources include Encore.org for experienced professionals looking to move into non-profit, Five O’Clock Club which has strong career resources at all levels but also a book geared to the over-50 professional, and Life Reimagined, a lifestyle site sponsored by AARP that has a strong Work section (full disclosure: I used to write for it so perhaps I’m biased to the quality!).
There are multitude of ways to land that next job, whether you’re starting over, lacking education, over 40, or some other obstacle. The next step is to identify what you will do next. Pick just one thing and then another and then keep going.

At 40 I lost my wife, my home, and my job. And many of my friends.
And I was ashamed. I didn’t want to tell people my wife had left. I didn’t want to tell people my home was for sale. And the website I had been writing for for seven years, had bought a company I had started, had won over my loyalty for what I thought was forever, was now blocking me from their system.
And I was going broke. Again.
I feel like when I write this it’s like I’m writing the same newspaper twice. In one form or other I’ve written this many times. I’m almost embarrassed to write it yet again.
A QUICK GUIDE TO A ‘JAMES ALTUCHER’ POST:
People tell me, “This is a typical James blog post: I lost everything, I thought about killing myself, and then I did A, B, and C to make it back….and then I lost everything again.” And then I conclude with, “I am still alive”.

(Life is never too busy to “play”). Every day.
When I turned 40, a friend of mine threw me a party. My wife wasn’t there. My daughters weren’t there. My friends weren’t there.
Just the one friend who “threw” the party. He invited all his friends and his girlfriend. They all celebrated the BIG 40 for me.
I didn’t know any of them at all. I barely spoke all night. I paid the bill.
A year later I had nothing left. And even that friend who threw the party conveniently forgot I had lent him money when he was broke and he disappeared.
Like people do.
I was so sad all the time. I thought to myself, “How could this be happening at 40?”
When I was 30 I had a great company, great family, great wife, tons of friends, and I was creative all the time.
My company was soaring and when I was 30 we sold it for a lot. I thought I had it all figured out.
I thought my “job” of growing as a human was all over. That now I can just stop improving my life and just enjoy it.
I had no clue. The second I began to think that way began the long, horrible decade of realizing that improvement never stops.
STOPPING IMPROVEMENT is death. There is no goal. There is no final destination. There is only direction.
Live life by themes and a set of values. A code.
19 years after I turned 30, this is my code:
Honesty
Creativity
Responsibility (Certainty), mixed with
Mystery (exploration)
Emotional connection. Be good to people and love the people close to me.
Significance. Always try to do things that can help people.
Energy. Whether it’s health, or integrity, or spirituality, do the things that will give me energy to do all of the above.
Money is not on this list. Career is not on this list. Fame is not on this list.
When I was 41 there was a moment when I was day trading and I lost a ton of money.
I called my new wife into the room. “I can’t take it,” I said. I don’t like my life.
We took a walk. I lived right on the banks of the Hudson River. We found a path and a trail and walked along it. Eventually we came to this beach through the woods.
I emptied my pockets. Keys, phones, money, debit cards.
I went into the water. I went underwater and just stayed there. Floating with all my clothes on. I didn’t want to go. The sun was setting. I felt the water become colder.
Eventually, she called me to come back on shore.
I did.
The next day I started blogging about my personal issues. About everything I had done wrong in the prior twenty years. Particularly what I did wrong in my 30s.
Did I write about everything? No. Not yet. But I wrote about many things.
Losing money. Losing friends. Losing my feeling that I wanted to live. Being depressed for years.
Even at age 40, having no sense of where my life was. Not even realizing that I needed to find out.
I felt I needed money first. I was so scared about money and what people thought about me that I didn’t even want to consider what my “real” code was. The values that I wanted to live by.
I’ve been writing every day about my stories since then. And those stories have given me so many opportunities that it changed my life into what it is today and I am so grateful.
It turns out that having that code comes first. And then all life is a side effect of that.
A code to live by, values to stand by, creativity to fuel my heart’s desires…this is what goes into a good life.
And then the output is stronger relationships, stronger possibilities, more certainty, more creativity, and eventually success.
Every year is hard. Life is hard. No year is easy. No business is easy. No relationship is easy.
This past year is one of my hardest ever in relationships and in business.
But I’m more creative than ever. And I live by my code described above. So now things get solved faster than when I was 40. Faster than when I was 30. Faster than when I was 20.
A child laughs on average…300 times a day.
An adult on average…5 times a day.
I’m up to about 50 times a day. Maybe more.
Every day we have about 10,000 choices to make. Small and big. My goal each day is that more and more of my choices are made because I WANT them. Not because someone else wants me to make those choices.
That is how I laugh more. That’s how I enjoy more. That’s how 40 was just a starting point for me. That’s why even today is a starting point for me. I am so looking forward to the rest of my day.
I’m going to do a podcast with one of my heroes and I’m scared to death of it.
Then I’m going to read to prepare for more podcasts. Then tonight I’m going to try standup comedy and I am terrified. I’ve been going over my jokes all morning.
The other day a friend of mine, a great artist and photographer, passed away in his sleep. I’ve known him for 22 years and we worked together for three of those in some of the most creative years of my life.
He was younger than me, but had AIDS and maybe his death was related to that.
I remember when we worked together on a project. He took a beautiful photo of a transvestite prostitute working in the meat packing district.
He captured her sadness, her despair at her life situation, the lights barely highlighting her surgical beauty, her shadow looming large behind her.
He is dead. I am still alive.

Broke Doesn’t Mean Dead: 6 Ways To Start a New Life
If you are broke, unhappy with your life, and completely dissatisfied with your job, it can seems as if you are in a hopeless position. Your feels as though you cannot make a change because of your financial situation, so you feel absolutely helpless. Even worse, the build of stress and depression can blind you to any opportunities that do exist for you.
Here’s some good news. Things are not hopeless, and you can make a change. No matter what your situation is, you can start a new life. Here are a few steps that you can take to accomplish this goal.

1. Self-Examination
Before you do anything else, it is a good idea to examine yourself and your current situation. The purpose of this is to determine several things. For example:
What are the factors in your current life that are causing you problems?
Will rebooting your life fix these problems, or simply put them on delay?
Are there things you can fix or change without having to take such an extreme step?
What problems in your life are caused by your own flaws or deficits, and how will you ensure that you want cause yourself the same issues in your new, rebooted life?
Has anything happened recently that might make this an emotional decision instead of a rational decision?
What do you want to leave behind in your old life?
What do you want to gain in your new life?
Once you answer these questions, you should be able to determine if your best strategy is to make things work as they are, or if you should move on to making some major life changes.

2. Identify What Needs to Change in You
One of the most difficult things about rebooting your life is the fact that you cannot force anybody else to change. You can only change yourself, and your expectations of others. One thing that you can do to help yourself determine what needs to change is to complete the following sentences:
If I could change one thing about my approach to romantic relationships I would…
If there was a habit I could break it would be…
If I could make one change in my financial situation it would be…
I would be a better employee if I…

3. Determine What Your New Life Will Look Like
Now is the time to determine the type of life you would like to have. Keep in mind, that this isn’t the plan to get there, it is simply your vision of the life you would like to have. Don’t be afraid to think big. Where would you like to live? What, if any will be the state of your romantic relationships? Where will you work? How will you spend your leisure time? Don’t be afraid to think big.

4. Make a List of The Steps You Need to Take to Change Your Life
You know what you want your life to look like. Now, how do you get there. It is time to write out the specific actions you must take to reach your goal. These will vary from person to person. Here are a few that may fit the bill for many:
Opening up a bank account
Finishing a college degree
Applying for new jobs
Putting a home up for sale
Updating job skills
Joining a gym or starting an exercise/diet plan
Reconnecting with friends and relatives

5. Prioritize the Steps You Need to Take
The first step that you should take, is the first step that will bring you some noticeable results. This is very important if you are broke, broken, and simply not feeling very hopeful. Consider the list above. Something as simple as opening a new bank account can be absolutely empowering, and it can create a lot of hope without taking a lot of time or effort. Applying for job is also a fairly easy task to perform that will generate change and confidence almost immediately.
The longer and more complex steps can go towards the bottom of your list. These often require more time to commit, or they require assistance from others. Remember the point is to build up motivation instead of stress.

6. Taking The First Steps
The last thing to do, is the most difficult thing to do. You have to take action. This can be extremely stressful, however it is worth it and necessary to achieve the life that you want. If you find that you have a fear of change that is causing you a bit of paralysis, try getting a supportive friend or family member on board with you. They can help to propel you forward when you feel stuck.

How to Start All over and Rebuild Your Life from Scratch
This is a sequel to my previous post, What to Do When You Are Lost and Don’t Know Your Next Step.
When life “forces” you to start all over and rebuild your life from scratch, instead of panicking and looking at the whole thing as a punishment, and instead of allowing fear to paralyze you, you can look at it the whole experience as a new chance. As a new opportunity for you to craft your life on a stronger and healthier foundation. A new chance for you to be happy. To start all over and show the world what you are really made of.
Each day is a gift given to you by life itself. Each day is a new beginning, a new chance and a new opportunity for you to create something better, something new.  To offer more value to the world around you, and to reveal more of yourself to those you love. Each day is a new life, each moment is a precious gift. So make the best of each day. Make the best of each moment.
Here are some things you can do to start all over and rebuild your life from scratch.
Enjoy
1. Be patient.
Starting all over and rebuilding your life from scratch is not an easy thing to do. It requires a lot of inner strength, courage, self-love, resilience, faith, and confidence. And since most of these things take the time to be developed, you need to learn to be patient and gentle with yourself. And you need to treat yourself with love, compassion, and understanding. So make sure you do just that.
“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!” ~ C. JoyBell C.

2. You are not a finished product.
Acknowledge the fact you are not a finished product and that life is a continuous process of becoming. You go through life to find yourself, to become yourself. Through every little thing you do, through every word you say and through every action you take, you are meant to discover more and more about yourself. About your inner journey, your life path and about the purpose and meaning of your own life.

3. Embrace change.
Life is constantly changing, constantly evolving and constantly renewing itself. And since life is what flows through all of us, we ourselves need to constantly embrace change, and we need to constantly renew ourselves in order for life to flow through us, and in order for us to feel fully alive once more.

4. Accept what is.
Surrender to what is. And no matter how hard and difficult it might be, accept the situation you are in as if you have chosen it. Embrace your current reality. Make peace with the present moment and you will be at peace all throughout your journey.
“Accept–then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it… This will miraculously transform your whole life.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

5. Immerse yourself deeply into the NOW.
Take deep cleansing breaths throughout the day. Pay close attention to your breathing and with each breath, you take, immerse yourself even more deeply into the present moment.

6. Engage in conversations with the Source of all things.
Engage in vulnerable, humble, honest and meaningful conversations with the Source of all things. Ask God, the Source of all things, to guide you, to help you and to assist you. And at the end of each conversation, make sure you say an honest “thank you” for all the wonderful and precious gifts life will continue to send your way.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” ~ Philippians 4:6

7. Don’t worry about anything; instead, be grateful for everything.
Fill your heart with love, gratitude, and appreciation, and constantly express your honest gratitude and appreciation for all the things life gave to you so far, and for all the things it will continue to give you. Don’t worry about anything; instead, be grateful for everything.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

8. Start at the end.
Ask yourself: “What kind of life do I want to create for myself?” And then, with the power of your imagination, travel in time and see in your mind’s eye how you would want the end result to look like, to feel like. Start at the end and build your life with that beautiful image in mind.
“If today were Wednesday and you decided that it would be quite possible for your desire to embody a new realization of yourself by Sunday, then Sunday becomes the point in time that you would visit. To make this visit you shut out Wednesday and let on Sunday. This is accomplished by simply feeling that it is Sunday, Begin to hear the church bells; begin to feel the quietness of the day and all that Sunday means to you; actually feel that it is Sunday.” ~ Neville Goddard, Your Faith is Your Fortune

9. Detach from the outcome.
Since life doesn’t seem to care about what we want and about what we expect to get from it, giving us, not what we want, but what we need, it is better to learn to detach from the outcome. Instead of desperately trying to cling onto the many mental images, ideas, beliefs, and expectations about how your whole journey should unfold, and instead of trying to control everything that happens along the way, learn to let go. Let go of this picture you have in your head of what it’s supposed to be and put your trust in life. Detach and let go.

10. Let go.
Let go of the many limiting beliefs, excuses, ideas and expectations about how your entire life should unfold and just relax into life. Learn to be soft and flexible. Go with the flow of life and not against it. 
“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.” ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

11. Put your trust in LIFE.
Put your doubts aside and trust in the wisdom of life. Put your destiny in life’s hands, and allow life to guide you. To take you, not where your think you should go, but where you are meant to go. Trust life’s wisdom, because life knows a lot more about you and your life path than you yourself do.

12. Ask your Soul to lead the way.
Make it a part of your daily ritual to ask your wise and loving Soul to lead the way. To guide you, to strengthen you and to show you the path you are meant to walk upon. Ask your Soul to reveal its wisdom to you so that you can live life from a place of truth, love and authenticity, no longer from a place of fear, scarcity, and doubt.

13. Walk the path of the Soul, not of your ego.
Make a promise to yourself to spend your life walking on the path of the Soul, not that of your ego. To make your life about creating and offering a lot of value, and not about acquiring a lot of money and having a lot of success. To pour your love in all that you do and to serve the world with your presence, your words, your work, and your life. To let money and success come to you as a result of being true to yourself and your life path, and not to spend your life chasing money and success and forgetting completely about the work your Soul came here to do.
P.S. There’s nothing wrong with having money and success. But if you spend your life chasing those things, you are not walking the path of the Soul. You are not feeding your Soul, but your ego.
“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.” ~ Wayne Dyer

14. Make peace with the idea that Life is a journey, not a destination.
Make peace with this idea that life is a journey, not a destination, and get into the habit of appreciating and enjoy each moment life sends your way. Be thankful for every day you walk on this Earth. Embrace each moment, because each moment is your life and each day is a priceless gift. Discipline your mind to be present with what is. To embrace the life you are currently living, and to stop waiting for the “real” life to begin.  Learn to enjoy each moment of your journey, because this journey is Your Life!

15. Trust your inner wisdom.
Take the advice of Steve Jobs and don’t waste your life “living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Learn to listen to your inner voice and follow your own intuition. Trust your inner wisdom more than you trust the loud and fearful voice of those around you. 
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” ~ Benjamin Spock
16. Plunge boldly into the thick of life.
Throw away all fears, all excuses, all limitations, and plunge boldly into the thick of life. Live each day as if it were your last and each moment as if it were the only moment you had left. Make the best of every moment, of every experience and of every interaction life sends your way. Take chances, make mistakes. Have no fear of failure. Live a life without regrets.

17. Remember to feel good.
Feeling good is the reason why we do all the things we do. So make sure that no matter what you do and no matter what path you walk upon, you have peace, tranquility, joy, happiness and fulfillment running through your veins.

18. Thank yourself.
Thank yourself for being brave enough to start all over, for daring to embark on a new journey, on a new adventure. Thank yourself for all your courage, your strength, wisdom, and confidence. Thank yourself for all your efforts and all the work you do each day.

Tips for Starting Over When You're Over 40
When is it too late to start over in a career? When you're dead, maybe. Steps to get you going.
There are many reasons we must hit our reset button in life. Death, divorce, job in which you're absolutely miserable, and it is sucking you dry every minute of everyday, a personal epiphany, and on, and on. Whatever your equation happens to be, it's time to start over.
Oh, I had a great job seven years ago. Then, after child number 2, I was working two days a week. My law firm was merging with another, larger firm, and layoffs happened. My career as a Sales Trainer and Marketing Manager was over.

At the time, I thought, "Yes! I can't be here all day when I have a child who's not eating when I'm gone." I had been begging my boss to fire me. I know, I should have quit, but at the time, I was married to a CPA and it was not in the budget. Now, here I am, seven years later, jobless, husbandless and not too many pennies to rub together. I am hitting the button. I am hitting it again and again. My finger is cramping up... oh dear.
Writing this article is one of my first attempts to get myself back out there. I had a very nasty divorce, which did not go well for me (might write more about that later) and I am now beginning my new life!
When I was beginning to contemplate divorce, I began looking at what I really wanted to be when I grew up. I knew it involved changing my life and the lives of others. I had always known "helping others" was important to me. I just pushed it down in an attempt to be what another person thought I should be (oh yes, I just admitted that out loud and I don't blame the other person, I allowed it).

I went to CTI (Coaches Training Institute). I became a Reiki Master. I became an Akashic Records Master. I had a website and began blogging. I had clients. As the divorce became nastier and nastier, I lost the ability to do much beyond survive. No more website, no more clients. Not much of anything, except I did survive and now I'm designing my new life. So here I am, starting over and sharing my thought process, in case you want a new life too, or just need a bit of a push to get your current one in motion.

1. What Do You Really Want?
Really think about what you want. If you want to take the spiritual path, meditate on it. Ask your guides to assist you. Allow whatever you need to hear to come in. Allowing is so powerful.
If you want the brainy path (or in conjunction with the spiritual), think about what excites you. Write it down on an on-going list. Do you love to paint? Draw? Problem solve? When you read, what kind of books are you drawn to? Biographies? Complex, problem solving mysteries? Self Help books? What is it in these books that draws you in?
There are many areas you can look at to discover hidden passions that you appease with various stimulations, TV shows, books, magazines, internet searches and of course hobbies. What excites you?
Ask your friends and family what they think gets you going. When do they "light up" when you're discussing things with them? They know more than you think. We notice things in others on a continual basis, and we often must just ask the questions to bring it to the surface because it is stored somewhere in their brains waiting for use. Write all of it down as you go. Keep a book just for ideas on what you really love.
Do a brain dump. In your "career journal" write down anything that comes to mind, and just keep writing until nothing is left. Get it out of your head and on to paper. It's amazing how different things can look when they exist outside of your mind.

2. Research How You Can Use Your Passions To Make Money
Love bugs? Google it. Find out who else loves bugs and what they do with that passion. Love animals? Everyone might say to become a Veterinarian. That's not your only option. That requires many years of school that may or may not work for you. What else is out there? What is it you love about animals? Do you only love a few certain species of animals?
If you're fresh out of ideas after all of that brainstorming, get a coach or career counselor. They can assist you in uncovering what you may be hiding from. Hiding? Why would I hide? Good question.
We're expert hiders as humans. The thing we hide most often from is our own magnificence. We're often afraid to step into our own truth and power because it feels too big, or scary, or we don't believe we deserve it. Guess what? You do deserve it. I truly believe that if we all lived in our most passionate self and allowed ourselves our full potential, we would all fit together perfectly, like a well-oiled, complex machine. That's why Biff likes to do something completely different than Rock (not people I actually know). 
This is the area where many of us get stuck and frustrated. What if there is more than one option? What if you just don't see your dream as something you can do? What if you just do not know? Try joining a few professional groups, or speaking to professionals in a few of your choice areas. See what you think and feel about it after you look at the life of those professionals.
Also, try to throw away these assumptions that we hold due to family, friends, society or all of the above:
1. I can only do one thing professionally at a time.
Says who? That's something someone made up. Move on.
2. I'm not good at anything.
Says who? This one has probably held you in your own trap for years. Get professional help to release this idea if you can't do it on your own. It's a life destroyer.
3. I'm highly educated and what I want does not require education. I can't throw away my education.
Okay. You keep going to that job you hate then. Obviously the education did not actually work for you for whatever reason.

4. Others will think less of me if I do this.
Yes, they may. And this may be what got you here in the first place. Does it matter what others think if you are miserable? Or is that facade more important than having your own life? What's most important is what you think of yourself and that you're living your best life. Not anyone else's. No one said it would be easy to take control of your own destiny.

5. I paid a ridiculous amount of money to get updated credentials, more education, etc.
Good. Maybe that can be part of how you make money while you get your other life on solid footing. Otherwise, you are just making up more reasons to stay miserable. Nice work.  You win the "most human" award.  We are so good at being comfortably miserable.  I have done it too.  

6. I can't afford to start over.
Can you afford to be out of work for a year while treating your stress related heart condition? Can you afford to lose your job to someone who likes it and has the passion that you lack? There are always reasons to not do something. What's more important are the reasons to do them. If the reasons to do something else are right for you, you can figure out the rest.
Also, allow yourself to know that it's okay if you take a while to figure it out. We get caught up in things when we finally decide it's time and we expect things to just happen as our thought process changes. Remember, the speed of our thoughts are much faster than the speed of our lives. Accept that. It helps.
Also accept that you may choose wrong, or appear to choose wrong at first. Often, once we start to change our lives, the journey ends up looking completely different than we could have planned. I call this divine timing/guidance. You can call it crap or annoying or whatever works for you, but again, if you allow it, it will lead you to exactly the place you are supposed to be. We can learn from everything we do, if we allow it. 

7. Make A Plan
Once you narrow it down and have done your research, begin making a plan. Does it involve more education? What's the time and monetary cost? Does it require involvement in certain groups? Can you start in the group as you work your way into the profession? Professional groups are so helpful for education and understanding of your chosen area. It doesn't have to be a complex plan. Do it in a way that works for you.
My plan is this: Write articles, build a new website, take a few classes, get myself back together, move forward. I know, mind boggling in it's complexity, but it works for me.

8. Get Others On Board
Once you create the plan, get buy-in from loved ones (if you have others that are involved in this, kids, spouses, whoever). Let them know what kind of emotional, financial and physical (babysitting or whatever) needs you will require assistance with as you take this new journey. Give them time to digest it, because it will probably have an impact on them as well. Be clear in expressing your needs. Ask for feedback. Make sure that you have someone privately (parent, sibling, friend) or professionally (a coach, counselor or therapist) who can assist you with all of the path obstacles.

9. Get Started On Your New Journey!
Talk about exciting! You have the courage to begin again, and that, all by itself, is something to celebrate. Celebrate yourself often through this, as you're walking away from something that did not work for you, into something that will (or at least get you closer). That is truly living your life. Good for you!

TIP #1: Just do it.
Meet Matt Scott, if you haven't already. Matt has a lot of excuses that could have derailed him from becoming a basketball star. Including, you know, being in a wheelchair. But instead of reciting excuses, he just did something. He did it good. He seems happy. That's what we all want. To be good and to be happy. Do your legs work? Awesome. You've already got one up on Matt. Although, he'd probably crush you on the court.
Four days ago, I moved to Chicago. I was tired of where I was living. It was really hot. I mean, really hot. Like I started making jokes about it being "Afghanistan hot." Also, where I was, the work opportunities were not great. I felt maxed out. I felt stuck. The last time I felt like this, it took me a long time to say, "OK, I'm done." This time, I wasn't going to do that. I didn't have time to sit around entertaining my excuses like bad house guests.

6 weeks ago, I found a place in Chicago, and now here I am. It wasn't easy, but the fact that I had unloaded a lot of my stuff a year ago helped. That most of my work is done through the internet as a freelancer made it easier. That I had lived in Chicago previously, when I was in graduate school, made the move somewhat less unfamiliar.

There are a lot of excuses that you can think of why you shouldn't do anything. Why radical change isn't right for you. Why radical change may be an interesting idea, but it's not realistic, not for you, anyway. Because you have a mortgage, and a family, and a job in an office. Of course, Matt Scott had a lot of excuses, too. Like not having working legs. If you can discern between challenges and excuses, it's easier to make radical changes than you think.
Because, really? Radical change is all in your mind.

TIP #2: Ignore what everyone else says.
If you announce your radical change to the world, sometimes people like to take that opportunity to tell you how wrong your radical change is. Are you running away from something? they ask. That is a horrible city, they opine. I don't know why you would want to move there. That is a terrible idea! they respond. But I wish you all the best.

Once you start making radical change, you will discover how frightening radical change is. Not to you. You're in it. As a commenter once wrote recently on this blog, the fish doesn't know it's wet. Radical change can be terrifying to those around you. It upsets their teacups. It makes them question their own lives. It causes them to wonder why they can't do what you are doing. Sometimes, though, it inspires people. Which is good. Because here's what you don't want to do in life: conform. Here is what you do want to do in life: inspire.
You also kind of have to tolerate being at sea. Right now, the parking lot behind where I am is being repaved, and the floor is vibrating. Here, there are more people, and more cars, and more traffic, and more things with which I am not familiar, and more stuff to do, and more new places to navigate, and more opportunities to pursue, and more of everything in the world. This can be a little disconcerting. You are an alien. But you can also feel your brain changing. Expanding like taffy stretching. You let it happen, knowing that at least you won't be who you were. You'll be somebody new.
People who don't change are never anyone new. They're always who they were. Is that who you want to be?

Life just gets better if you listen to your inner self and take some damn chances.
It's never too late to start over, whether you're in your 30s, 40s or 50s. We hope you'll be inspired to go for it.
'Whether you change careers or not, never stop learning. It keeps you young.'
"The first few months in real estate, I had doubts I had made the right choice, but the facts proved otherwise. With 30 homes sold in the first year and gains every month since, I don't look back a bit.

Jennifer Lee Keenan
Was raised in Pensacola and married her Washington High School sweetheart after studying elementary education at The University of West Florida. She moved to Gulf Breeze originally as a teacher.
• Bella: Tell us a little about your career(s) thus far.
• Jennifer: After teaching just two years, her husband supported me in opening a teacher supply and toy store, which led to Children's Ministry as a career at Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church. Ministry is a calling. I was called to raise my own children in the church and use my teacher and leadership skills to create a successful ministry.
• Bella: What change did you make around age 40? What lit the spark?
• Jennifer: Not having enough flexibility and family time prompted my career change. I wanted Christmas and Easter back and summer days with my children. During a very stressful, exhausting week, I gave my one-month notice. Over dinner, I shocked my family with the news. They completely supported me as I "found myself" again. I applied to teach, but as fate would have it, I read a sign that said, "You can be a Realtor." I never saw that sign again, but that day, I pulled off the road and inquired. I completed the work with fevered purpose and started to work as a Re/MAX Realtor.
• Bella: What advice do you have for women who are thinking about making a change at 40 — a job change, a new hobby, something else?
• Jennifer: My advice for people considering changing careers would be to ask for counsel from people important in your life, financially prepare, and leave doors open to return along the way. My husband helped me choose a new career, but it felt rushed at the time. Financially we lived off one salary but it was trying as we had lived off two salaries for over 10 years. My time in previous careers plays a big part in my success today. Your work ethic carries forward, along with positive attitude. It is obvious, as already coworkers and members of my church have let me sell their home, and even a parent from my teaching days sold and bought a home through me.
• Bella: What has been your biggest challenge in changing courses? And your biggest reward?
• Jennifer: My biggest challenge is the same as I always face: A balanced work and family life. Success in real estate brought up the same stressors. It occurred to me, it is me and my drive. Slowly I am making progress on finding that balance. I think we all have trouble unplugging, as I type on my iPad on vacation.
My biggest reward is supporting my family financially to do the things we dreamed about while growing closer. My friendships gained along the journey keep the days fun. I'm in a couple of book clubs that are more about supporting each other than reading the books.
'Find the drive that will make you want to make the change, and then do it.'
"I am dedicated 150 percent to helping people with the same challenges that I faced, whether that is finding the right workouts for them, right nutrition plan, or staying focused and motivated in and outside of the gym."

Tammy G. McKinney, Personal Trainer
Tammy McKinney grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, the youngest of 13 children. Tammy's father was a minster, and her mom stayed home to raise the children. Tammy's husband is active duty military with the Navy, and they are on their third tour in Pensacola. Ever since her transition into a healthier lifestyle, fitness and exercise have become a huge part of her everyday life and her main hobby.
• Bella: Tell us a little about your career(s) thus far.
• Tammy:I have worked at a deli/bakery, as a cashier, department manager at Wal-Mart and security guard/loss prevention personnel at the NEX on Yokosuka Naval base.
• Bella: What change did you make around age 40? What lit the spark?
• Tammy: Over the past few years, I've worked in the fitness field as a trainer and group fitness instructor.
My transition into a healthier and fitter life began at 40 years old after my doctor informed me that I had high blood pressure, my pulse was too slow, and that I was 45 pounds overweight. That ultimately gave me the drive and motivation to want to make a change in my life. I started out walking every day for an hour and a half. After about a month, I began taking fitness classes, such as kickboxing, spin, step and boot camp. Along with exercise, I also changed my eating habits. Eating healthier made all the difference in my transition. After about eight months or so, I had reached my 45-pound weight-loss goal, my blood pressure was lower, and I had a strong steady pulse.
From there, I decided to
• Bella: What advice do you have for women who are thinking about making a change at 40 — a job change, a new hobby, something else?
• Tammy: Continue to improve on myself and keep up the healthy lifestyle that I was living. I started taking weight-loss fitness classes and started conducting my own workouts to target key areas that still needed work. Throughout this whole process, I found a love for fitness and a career in it.
My thing is, a lot of people look at their age and believe they are too old to get where they want to be fitness-wise and, in general, with other things. That is so far from the truth. You can do anything you put your mind to doing. If you want it enough, go for it, and give it your all.
• Bella: What has been your biggest challenge in changing courses? And your biggest reward?
• Tammy: One of the biggest challenges anyone might come across in changing courses is finding that one person who inspires you, that keeps you motivated and focused on your goals. I know for myself, I found the motivation in me. Find the drive that will make you want to make the change, and then do it.
My biggest reward has been becoming a group fitness instructor and trainer so that I can inspire and motivate others, as well as helping my clients reach their weight loss challenges and fitness goals.
'Do not be afraid to reinvent yourself. Learning is a lifelong skill.'
"If I had to describe myself, I think the best phrase to capture me would be 'a work in progress.' I am ever growing and changing, and I love learning. I hope I never become a 'finished' product."

Susan McLeod, Academic Support Instructor
Susan McLeod was born in Pensacola, but she grew up in a small rural town in central Florida. Susan was blessed to have a stay-at-home mom, four siblings, and a Christian father who held bible study every morning before school. Susan attended The University of West Florida and graduated with a degree in education and a master's degree in Educational Leadership/Curriculum and Instruction. Susan has two daughters. Susan's hobbies include reading and spending time with family and friends.
• Bella: Tell us a little about your career(s) thus far.
• Susan: The women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s led me to begin a career in the banking industry. After my first daughter was born, I decided to return to school to become an educator. It was my first attempt to balance family and career. I have taught in public, private, charter, and online schools for over 21 years. Over the years, I have been an educator, lead academic coach, I have served on accreditation teams, as well as numerous educational boards and committees at the district and school level.
• Bella: What change did you make around age 40? What lit the spark?
• Susan: Actually, my change occurred in my mid-50s. I decided that I wanted to accomplish two goals in the last leg of my educational career. First, I wanted to work with students in an environment that I created, based on their academic needs, schedules, and goals. Second, I wanted more control over my work schedule. I was willing to work "untraditional" hours to achieve both goals. I started my own business as an academic support instructor. Within six months, I partnered with another instructor, and together "Academic Center for Testing," a company specializing in test prep skills for the ACT/SAT/PSAT, opened in May of this year.
I think the life event that sparked this change was none other than "the passing of time." I decided at the age of 55 that it was "now or never" to pursue my dream. I evaluated all aspects of my life, gave myself the approval to go forward, I gave my notice at work and 24 hours later launched into the small business/entrepreneur world.
• Bella: What advice do you have for women who are thinking about making a change at 40 — a job change, a new hobby, something else?
• Susan: My advice for women who are thinking of making a change, do not be afraid of failure. Do not be afraid to reinvent yourself. Learning is a lifelong skill. Do not be afraid to learn a new skill, hobby, or career. I do not believe that person is "locked" into a certain area or position. There are endless opportunities. I believe God's plan is always perfect and timely. Failure is just one step closer to success. I think all individuals should chart their own unique course. I would encourage women to clearly define what they want — be specific about their goals (write them down), then be ambitious, take risks, be bold and challenge themselves. "Dream the impossible dream," and go for it.
• Bella: What has been your biggest challenge in changing courses? And your biggest reward?
• Susan: My biggest challenge in changing courses was determining "the right time" to make the change. I kept thinking everything needed to be perfectly "aligned" before I made the move. I wasted time and opportunity with this thought process.
My biggest reward has been working with students and witnessing their enthusiasm to learn and their joy when they succeed. It is very rewarding to be a part of another person's educational journey. Watching someone move to the next level, move one step closer to success, is very gratifying.

I got an email from a reader last week with the subject line "How to Start Over." In it, the reader shared his personal story: being about 10 years into his career, balancing life with kids, a family, and a big corporate job, all while trying to establish his own digital platform and business—and feeling like it's time to break free and change things, but feeling overwhelmed by the idea of "starting over."
He brought up a point that I've been confronted with many times. I wanted to share my response to his email, with one overwhelming preface: You're never "stuck."
As much as it may feel like you can't get out of your current situation, as much weight as you put on the importance of maintaining your nine to five, as much fear as you have of disappointing your family—regardless of your current situation and regardless of your age, you're never ever stuck.
Here was my email response:

"…I think you bring up a point that folks are faced with time and time again. I always share the story of my dad and I playing golf last year. He's been an accountant for almost 40 years, and he's always been apathetic to his work and has always told me he's just "working to retire". When I asked him why he doesn't quit and do something else, his response was that he's been doing what he does for so long, and it just "is what it is," and that he doesn't know what else he would do.
Believe me, I can understand the sentiment, and it's hard to get into something new when you've been doing the same old thing for so long. But it was this conversation that inspired me and continues to motivate me to not waste a moment that I have to work on doing what I really WANT to be (and should be) doing. It's kept me humble and active in continuing to build my business and establish myself professionally.
The best thing I can say is that you're not stuck. You never are. It's not easy to break free and do your own thing, especially with the added responsibility of supporting a family. But if I, a [now] 27 year old with not a heck of a lot of experience, can get fired and start a business at [then] age 24, someone at age 35, or 50, or however old, with a lot more life and work experience, can certainly do it. It just takes creating a plan of action for yourself, and not being defined by your age or held back by your current situation.
Take things one step at a time. You don't have to quit TODAY and go "pursue your passion." Create a plan. Start working on your passions on the side (it sounds like you already are), and set yourself up to make an easier transition in the not-too-distant future. It also REALLY helps to set a deadline for yourself—a date to take the leap—and work toward that…"
We're afraid of disappointing our family. We tell ourselves that we're not good at anything else except what "we do." We're terrified of change. We convince ourselves it's "too late."
The only way you'll be disappointed is if you never try. The only way to know if you can't do something is if you give it an honest effort. It's only "too late" when you die.

Steps to Take When Starting Over Financially

Best Thing to Do When Starting Over? Take it One Step at a Time
Starting over financially can be tough, but you can do it.
It’s not easy to start over at any age. Feelings of frustration can take over. Just sweep them aside when that happens. Many have done remarkable things when forced to start from scratch. You just never know – it could be the best thing that ever happened to you.
Bankruptcy, divorce and unemployment are the biggest reasons those age 55 plus must start over. Regardless of the reason, here’s what you can do:

1. Find Work, Then Find Work You Love
Your first priority will be finding work. Your next priority will be finding work you love. This is far more important than you might think. Starting over means working longer. When you find work you love, you never work a day in your life. Think about what you are doing when you get so caught up in it that you lose track of time. Find work that uses those same skills. Finding work you love means you can work years longer without feeling drained.

2. Keep a Tight Handle on Expenses
Keep your required expenses down. You need to save as much as you can as quickly as possible. Get the economy car, and find low cost living options. You’ll find some great tips in Live Happily on Less, including some secrets from extreme savers.

3. Build Up an Emergency Fund
Don’t rush to invest. Build up a savings account that has at least six months worth of living expenses in it.
This is not optional. Establishing a savings account is one of the most important things you can do when starting over. Skip the extras, and instead find joy in watching that account balance grow.

4. Use Your Employer Match
If your employer offers a retirement plan and matching contributions, take advantage of it.
For example, some employers tell you if you put in 3% of your pay, they will put in 3% of your pay. This means you have instantly doubled your money. Be sure to contribute enough to get the match.

5. Consider a ROTH IRA
One type of account that can double as a retirement account and an emergency fund is a Roth IRA. You can always withdraw your original contributions from a Roth without taxes or penalty. Funds you leave in the Roth grow tax-free. If you are using your Roth as an emergency fund, inside your Roth put at least six months of living expenses into safe investment choices, such as a money market fund.

6. Do Not Take Big Investment Risks
It can be tempting to take risks with your investing decisions in the hopes that higher returns will make up for lost time. This is not smart. Slow and steady is the way to go. Learn how to measure investment risk. Then choose investments accordingly. Stay away from so called get rich quick offers, or investments that seem risky.

7. Buy a House? Maybe.
Buying a house can protect you from rising rents; it also comes with maintenance and upkeep costs. If you buy, keep your mortgage amount affordable, leaving you enough money left over to continue saving, and to cover upkeep costs.
Use a home warranty policy to protect against expensive repairs. Look for a place that is energy-efficient and has little lawn maintenance requirements. If you look for a patio home or condo, be aware of association fees that could go up, and assessments for public shared areas.

8. Do Not Take Social Security Early
Social Security provides inflation adjusted life-long income. If you wait until you are 70 to begin your benefits you will get far more income than if you collect earlier. This is why finding work you love is so important. When starting over at 55, you need to plan on waiting until 70 to begin your benefits. If you are married, or were married for at least ten years, you may be able to collect on an ex-spouse's benefit record. Be sure to look into all your options before you start benefits.

How to Disappear Completely and Start a New Life

We live in a dog-eat-dog world. Everyone’s doing what they can to stay afloat. As NSA whistleblower and gestapo “traitor” Edward Snowden has shown us, though, somewhere along the line, any of us could find ourselves in need of an escape route. You’ll have a lot on your mind, and disappearing takes discipline. You’ll walk a tightrope without a net, and you can’t ever lower your guard. Keep this page somewhere safe to use as a checklist in case shit ever hits the fan, and you have to disappear completely and start a new life…

Remain Calm…
A clear mind is always better than a cluttered one. Think about how your house is arranged. If everything is cluttered and things are in the way, you’ll have a harder time getting around, be less efficient, and get less done. Your mind works the same way: If you’re too busy dwelling on things that you can’t change (bills not currently due, a job you’re not currently at — anyone or anything that doesn’t exist in your physical present), you’ll miss opportunities in the present moment in which you’re able to act. You switch from P(roactive) to R(eactive) and your life begins to slide in reverse as your Spidey-sense loses that tingling feeling. I digress…
The point is, you need to have a wide open mind. Starting a new life is possible in many ways, but you have to decide both what you’re willing to give up and put up with. The reason for this life change will drastically impact the way you start a new life. Resetting your social circle, family makeup, etc. based on a voluntary career decision takes a different approach than escaping from prison and going underground in the modern surveillance state in which we live. You’re about to embark on a serious life decision, many steps of which can’t be undone.

Now Bug Out
You need a bug out bag. I keep several for different situations, but you don’t necessarily need to go that far — I’m just giving you choices. Create a bug out bag that works for you. A lot of this will depend on your financial capability and resources. I have a backpack and messenger bag. Each one has different necessary items that help in various situations. Having two styles of bags helps you blend into different situations. My backpack is a well-designed High Sierra that has a high storage capacity. It’s useful for carrying basic survival gear along with personal electronics (laptop, music player, cables) I need to survive. The messenger bag helps in urban situations. There are times when you may want to blend into a city or professional environment, and a backpack won’t help that.

Fill your bug out bags with universally necessary items. You’ll need at least a small amount of currency for emergency situations. Keep identification on you. People will tell you that you should destroy ID cards, but there are more reasons to keep them than discard them. Think of how many identification cards you’re given in your life at school, work, conferences, parking garages, stores, etc. You never know when you may need to recreate an ID for something, so keep them all. As a whistleblower, I spend a decent amount of my time conversing with law enforcement and security personnel as both a consultant and person of interest. What I can tell you from detailed analysis of extensive field training is that police officers and security guards often tend to be human beings with jobs to do. More often than not, pairing an ID with a cool head and friendly demeanor can get you out of tough situations. Not every encounter wit’ the po-po gotta end wit’ yo .44 makin sho all dey kids don’t grow. They look at a situation in terms of the amount of paperwork they’d have to do to contain you. There are plenty enough ways of beating the house rules, but that’s a discussion for another time…

Your bug out bag should also contain any of these survival basics: condiments, hygiene essentials, a water bottle, Camelbak, tea bags, spare stores of any medications you take (prescribed or otherwise), peanut butter, honey, chocolate, nuts, salt, trail mix, crackers, cookies, seeds, powdered drink mixes, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, sunscreen, a small mirror or compact, minor hand tools, writing utensils, a tape measure, duct tape, a sewing kit, cables (especially fax/telephone), chargers, batteries, a laptop (preferably sans wireless card…and I mean physically nonexistent, not turned off…), cell phone, several firestarters, vitamins, hand sanitizer, a flashlight, small umbrella, poncho, map, compass, eating utensils, radio, atlas, and almanac.
You want to have at least one bug out bag on hand wherever you are. You never know when you’ll find yourself in a survival situation. A few months ago, for example, I woke up in a hospital with nothing but a pair of bloody shorts (sans Australian accent), my iPhone 5, and a cloudy recollection of the chain of events that led me there. The point is, things sometimes happen, and you want to be prepared for the basics. What’s important is maintaining your sanity, surviving, finding comfort, and continuing to push on. If you don’t already have one, put together a bug out bag and keep it in a safe place. You never know what the future holds, and you never want to be left out in the cold with nothing.
Disconnect
If you’re starting a new life, hiding from the internet seems like the most logical move. That’s not necessarily so. We live in a society where you blend in by hiding in numbers and not sticking out. If a police officer stops you, and you don’t have ID, you stick out and require further scrutiny. Applying this principle to the internet, you’ll still need to stay abreast of our constantly updating and evolving society. The internet is like having an all-knowing deity in your pocket at all times. Depending on the individual circumstances surrounding your personal disappearing act, you may need to connect to the internet in more creative ways. Hiding from the government is different than hiding from your family. Either way, digital isn’t the type of disconnect I’m referencing.
In order to disappear, you’ll need to cut off connections to your family. In order to obtain a government security clearance, you’re asked a lot of questions about your family and friends. This is because your emotional connections can be used against you. Your enemies can tug at your heartstrings and torture you by opening wounds that have nothing to do with physical harm. I used to be a skip tracer for the banks. My job was to find you anywhere in the world you may be hiding. Carmen Sandiego couldn’t hide. Waldo couldn’t hide. You’re a three dimensional person, though. You have free will. You can take precautions. Disconnecting from your family and friends cuts off potential routes of finding you. If you’re seriously trying to start a new life, you can’t bring those connections with you, and checking them in is akin to returning to the scene of the crime.

As a side note to cutting off personal connections, I realize that this is difficult. The thought of it provides anxiety and fear. You’ll have to face these afflictions sooner or later, regardless of whether it’s in your new life or your old one. Know that if you do lose someone in your life, you can meet new people. Life will go on. It’ll take effort and work, and you may have sleepless nights of feeling like a failure, but the journey will make you stronger and more resourceful. There’s a brave new world out there that’s yours for the taking.

Hiding in Plain Site
One of the most effective defense mechanisms you can use is the tactic of hiding in plain site. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it works a lot better than it sounds on the surface. The most obvious way of hiding in plain site is by simply ignoring someone. If the reason you want to disappear and start a new life is to get away from someone, it may be possible to simply ignore them. To apply this concept to a different perspective, when I first blew the whistle on Bank of America, they retaliated with some brutal tactics. My lawyer advised me to keep my head down, but I was already in too deep with Anonymous by that point. I instead hid on the internet and eventually in the media. By hiding in plain site, I effectively defended myself against a lot of underhanded tactics used by a large machine against a single unknown.
Here’s another example: back in high school a, ummm… guy I knew… and his friend would test store security with some admittedly creative techniques. What… they… discovered was that the best way to circumvent security is to hide in plain sight. They’d test this theory out by walking into grocery stores at various “rush hours,” filling a cart, bagging it, and walking out without paying. The patterns were repeatedly tested in more and more brazen ways. Later on as an adult, one of those guys ended up testing the idea with various work badges and uniforms. The lesson to be learned from all of this experimentation is that the more obvious you are, the less likely someone is to believe they’re seeing what they’re seeing. If you want to disappear, tell everyone you’re invisible. Or just stand still until everyone just accepts that you’re there. Whatever you decide to do, own it. Reality exists at the intersection of perspective and perception. Learn to dance in the streets.

Starting Over In Life After Major Failures
Starting over in life happens to someone every second around the world. We often hear of how we need to take risks to get ahead, but seldom hear of the one’s who did and lost everything. Many of these people are labeled as failure, quitter or underachiever, but this is not even close to the truth.
Despite what others may say it’s never too late to recreate your life story, and start over with new beginnings.  Taking risks don’t always work out, in fact many have literally lost everything they’ve worked their entire life for from a risk.

Many of these people were motivated, smart, and made calculated preparations extensively before jeopardizing everything. Sometimes things happen in life that are not always in our control.
For example the economy, or the weather. Say you owned several agriculture stocks, and you lost almost your entire investment from an unexpected drought that year. It doesn’t matter how you lost money in many cases you will be labeled as a failure by others.

 On the other hand if there was no drought, (economy skyrocketed) and you make a lot of money people would consider you brilliant, and successful. Both  scenarios cause a perception of who you are based entirely on events completely out of your control. The moral of the story is to never allow what others say determine your personal success.
“Put your foot upon the neck of the fear of criticism by reaching a decision not to worry about what other people think, do, or say.” Napoleon Hill.

The economy, or weather do not determine who you are as a human being. Usually before any major breakthrough, or accomplishment, your character will always be tested. Many of us have had to face a choice in life to either start over, or continue down a dead end road that leads to nowhere

Starting over
For most of us starting over is unthinkable. Picking up the pieces after a failed marriage, business, or lost job is only a few of our worst nightmares. The good news is that it’s never to late for new beginnings. To start over with a fresh perspective on things.
What’s interesting is that many highly successful people have experienced major failure at some point in their lives. Most challenges we face are not what they seem on the surface. Sometimes our biggest failures are a blessing in disguise. When you have lost everything (or so it seems) because of poor decisions, and major failures you probably still have a lot more than you think.
“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure”. Napoleon Hill

People who are not willing to fail will never experience their dreams. When you’re not failing at something the chances are you’re not doing much. Failure is only practice, and practice makes those willing to fail much more likely to succeed. We become smarter, more efficient, and much stronger through failure than success. Failure is a great valuable teacher when we don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Through every failed action we do in life there’s a chance to start over, and do it right. To get a fresh perspective while gaining more self-confidence, and a sense of inner strength that wasn’t there before.

Make a comeback
Regardless of where you are it’s never too late to make a comeback, and shape your destiny for success. For example Henry Ford went bankrupt 5 times before the first Model T ever left the assembly line. His determination paid off, becoming one of the wealthiest most influential people of his day. Donald Trump was hundreds of millions in debt, but managed to make a comeback. He couldn’t even afford a taxi cab to a meeting with the banks he owed. That long walk in the rain to that meeting made Donald Trump a better Man. He learned from his mistakes, and became much more wealthier as a result.
These are only a few examples of people who had to start over in life. You’ve probably read stories of investors jumping out windows during the great depression. Most of them would have recovered their losses. Many others did, and got very rich. We should never focus on our failures as the final result. If you’re ambitious than you’ll make a comeback with better results than before.
“What’s so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you’re constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that”. Billy Crystal.

Realize how rich you are
Did you know that you are rich? As hard as it may seem to believe you are very rich. Compared to the rest of the world you’re living the dream life. The world is filled with people who have nothing. About 3 billion people live on less than two dollars a day worldwide. If you work at McDonald’s flipping hamburgers you make more than 75% of the world’s population.
No matter how much debt you’ve accumulated there are billions of people a lot less fortunate. You maybe drowning in so much debt that you don’t know what to do. But there is something you can do right now. You can start being grateful for everything you have. One of the best ways to change a bad situation is through a deep appreciation for everything you have. When you are grateful for small things big things begin to happen.

The opportunities are endless when starting over in life
Starting over in life is humiliating, and horrifying, but the opportunities are endless. I know because it happened to me. It was a choice I made to start over. The first few years were very difficult. I went from $60.000 per year to 12,000 the first few years.
Within 4 years I was making 4 times what I made initially at my old job.  I was determined to change my circumstance. I used every bit of my time to accelerate my life. Since then I’ve never looked back.
One thing I noticed during this time was a deeper appreciation for small things. Small things matter when you’re broke. Your whole attitude has to change when you’re starting over in life.
“Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over”. Guy Finley
Now days you don’t need a huge investment to make lots of money. Having a low risk business that generates a lot of money is not uncommon. For example network marketing, or an online website that generates unlimited passive income. This minimizes the risk factor. No space rent, No inventory, No employees, and no boss. You can literally make money while you sleep. This is a great opportunity for anyone starting over despite present circumstances.

How do I encourage myself to start over when I am in the most severe depression after losing everything and am all alone now? I failed and came home as the biggest loser I have ever met.
Inch by inch, day by day- push yourself out of the depression
This is the first principle that has helped me conquer every downturn in my life. And I am quite qualified to say this.

My life went like a rocket till the age of 34. Got into the top tech institute in the country (IIT) with a phenomenal rank. At work, within ten years, at 34, I became the youngest COO in the telecom industry in the country. My dream was to become the global CEO of a fortune 500 company by the time I was 45. that is when fate threw the curved ball. I was stricken down by an autoimmune disorder that crippled me. By the time I was 41, I could hardly walk, couldn’t even lift small objects with my hands, my fingers had become completely claws and had no movement in them, and I used to trip and fall regularly. The medications made me gain 15 kilos and I nearly lost my sight and had to have cataract operation. At the hight of my illness, I also lost my job.

How did I save myself?
The smartest thing I did was to try and focus my mind on finding solutions. Never on the problem. Because every time I let my mind dwell on the problems, I would burst into tears of self-pity. So one has to consciously focus on looking at positive things. Here is a daily routine I recommend…
Every morning, try and write down 2–3 things that you are grateful for (eg. the fact that you have been educated well) each day write down 2–3 new points not covered so far
Every night, write down 1 good thing that happened to you that day
Smile at as many people as possible.
Be kind to at least one person every day-make any 1 person happy each day.
Go for brisk walks. Start off with 5 minutes a day, slowly increase it to about 45 minutes a day (over 6 months)
Do 5 minutes of meditation each day. When you meditate, focus your mind on the feel of your breath, or the feel of each part of your body- do not analyse anything and when your mind strays, keep pulling it back. Basically, keep the mind on the present without judging or analysing anything.
With the above actions, you will be able to hardwire happiness into your brain.

Recruit a friend
To start off the above plan, first speak to a person you trust and ensure he/she is aware of your action plan. Confide your action plans and your achievements with him/her. Try not to be alone too much. If at all you are alone, focus on doing fun things like watching a lighthearted TV show or movie.

My story continued
Today, I am the most positive individual I have ever met. I managed to reinvent my life as an author of the motivational book ‘From Ouch to Oops’. I am a much sought after motivational speaker. I have found innovative solutions to my disorder and am about 90% better. I maximise every minute of my life - trying to help others. My aim in life is to touch a million lives positively.
Wish you all the best. I am sure you will overcome your depression and will discover, like me that every downturn is a huge opportunity and a stepping stone for success.
Mind is like a drunken monkey (Vivekananda). It never behaves rationally. The advise which will work 100% is to take care of your body. In a sound body, resides a sound mind.
Go physical. Work out will clear the toxins in your mind and your mind will stop shelling those negative thoughts to you. You will not realise the power of work out unless you try. Your mind will surely repulse the move!

Go out deliberately. Yes hang out with friends or may be alone. Take a picture of you daily and see the change in your persona. Mind believes 90% of things which it sees.
Write your heart out. You have already asked the question; hence 60% of your worries will melt away if you reread your question at least 2 times per day for one week. Mind is a machine (Organ) which always seeks reason for every thing (Confirmation Bias). When you reread your problems, it will seek different reason each time and ultimately will start seeking positives out of this.

Think long term: Research shows that thinking about long term goals always bring you out of present negative situation. Write down your long term goals and design a brief plan for it.

Smile and wear sunglasses: Again proven in clinical research that smiling often (May be deliberately) will signal your brain that every thing is fine. Same with wearing sun glasses. We wear sun glasses when we are in a light mood. It kind of rekindles the 'happy memories' of brain.

Music: Listen to the music from your happiest times. Rock (Pop, jazz, metal beat, fast) does wonders of mind health. The lyrics must be minimal and beats must be maximal. I don't know whether it will suit you or not, but the is my current favourite. Smile :)
I know that feeling. Hitting rock bottom and realising I have no more will power left to even try to get up. Its scary. Its lonely. But you know what I realised? We feel depressed less because of our failure and more due to the thought of what others would think about us. And the moment you let go of that thought, the moment you stop giving a damn about others, you recover 90%. You need to understand that people just entertain themselves through others' failures. Stop thinking about others and do what you really want to do with your life. You did a good thing leaving your job. There is no point in slogging without passion or satisfaction. Earning money is not the only goal in life. Being happy is. Share your problems with a confidant. They can also be your parents. Life is not about flying high. Everybody sooner or later see a low point. Its inevitable. The important thing is to get back up everytime. And thats how you safisfy yourself, not the world.
I hope i helped in some way :)

You should first see a therapist. It might be a clinical depression. And this isnt the end of the world. Go out. Make some friends. Start studying. It’s okay to fail. But its not okay to give up. There are millions of people who are dying, starving who would just give everything up to be in your place. And things happen for a reason. The emotion that breaks your heart is one that can heal it. So don't give up on love. You'll find it. Learn your lesson and move on.

Stop the pity party and the dramatics;
You are not "all alone,"you have your parents, and, I imagine some friends from college or high school;
You have not "lost everything" as no one has repossessed your car, your clothes, nor forced you into servitude to repay large debts;
You are not in "severe depression," for that is when relatives need to put you in the hospital for both counseling and intensive drug therapy.
I am not without sympathy, depression is not fun!  You might benefit from a doctor visit, as there are some remarkable anti depression medicines that can be very effective, especially if only needed short term.  More importantly, you need to know that you are not a failure, you are normal. If a job does not work for you and you find that you are in the wrong company or wrong industry, or that you detest big cities or being on the bottom rung, better to discover earlier than later, which makes you lucky and a winner, not a failure. Almost everyone I know went through this, but for some it took several years!

You need stability and discipline to overcome your present place, so start with a "fake it till you make it" philosophy, getting up at same time each day, get significantly more exercise than normal, eat regularly, read at least two hours for pleasure and two hours to engage in the professional or academic world, force yourself to spend time talking with people you trust, network at least one hour per day toward a future job, do something kind each day, and be grateful for your health, your mind, and the love of others, and do not assume that people are judging you. Do not even think about your former relationship, it says much about him and nothing about you, but since you will not believe the truth of that for some time, just do not think about it, you are better off and you will have future relationships, once you are healed.

Ask yourself what you now know about your career interests that you did not know before you relocated. Follow that advice! If it is that you hate being in a big company, do not stop until you find the right small company; if it is because the field is unethical, find another field; if the stress made you irritable, determine the primary stressors (sales goals, judgmental supervisor, unfulfilling role) and get help regarding that, or find a career that does not involve those stressors.   Happiness is a choice! It is absolutely true, you can retain your happiness through a divorce or the death of a spouse, and you can probably master that concept and put it into practice by reading one good book related to that subject. Michael Singer (The Untethered Soul) and Byron Katie (The Work Of) are a good starting point for many. It is your life and no one is going to live it for you.

Get busy!
It was a very difficult time together, but she told me that I am able to help her calm down still until this day, so let me share.
Acknowledge her feelings: I would say things like: “I understand why you feel like that”, “all your feelings are valid” and I would you continue to listen to what was triggering her.
Be near her: sometimes just being in the same room helped her let go of her feelings.
Distractions: This wasn't hard because whenever she felt this way, she always allowed me to take her out and get distracted. Things like reading, coloring, movies, walks, anything!
Breathing exercises: this helped a lot! Especially since it's something I could do over the phone with her. I would say “Okay, ready to breath?” Then we would inhale for 10 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and exhale in 7 seconds, these are random numbers.
Affection: hugging and telling her that I was there.
I always reminded her that it was her feelings getting to her and that she was amazing and loved.
Because in reality, we all are loved, we just get a little lost sometimes.
The expectation that everything will be perfect the first time verges on stupid. You have not failed, lost everything, or the rest of that. You have family, friends, and  a support system that will allow you to try again. Do so, but expect that everything will be perfect next time either. Learn from every step along the way. You are not more perfect than the next person, but your willingness to keep trying will differentiate you from everyone.
No one likes their first job. If you were unhappy, you should've started looking for a new one.

You essentially just gave up and moved home when things got tough instead of assessing your situation and taking charge of the outcome.

Your boyfriend cheated. Now you know he's a dirtbag and not worth your time. Opportune time to focus on you and your career instead if dwelling on a crap relationship you're lucky to be out of.

It was your decision to just give up and throw yourself a pity party.

Everything is not going to fall in place after graduation with the perfect job and perfect boyfriend with perfect new friends in the perfect life. You keep pushing and growing until you achieve what you want; not throw in the towel before you even start.

Move out of your parents house and back to the city. Conquer it head on.
Reach for something to get a little angry or frustrated about, even if it's yourself. Anger can feel like relief and empowerment when you're depressed, it's a good thing. This can give you the energy to take some kind of small but significant action on a daily basis which will move you in the direction of regaining your mental health. I stayed depressed for far too long several times in my life because I had judgments about feeling angry which made it harder to climb out of my despair. Of course you shouldn't remain stuck in anger, it's just a stepping stone towards hope and optimism.
Do what I do and say ‘if I was talking to someone else I'd say it is “because you're worth it”’
Jobs, relationships, opportunities come and go by the dozen in a life time, don't let them define you. What has happened has happened don't let the past dictate your future. Happiness of a lot of people around you depends on your happiness...stay hopeful.

"Courage is not about having the strength to go on, it's about going on when you don't have the strength"

Earlier heartbreaks and failures hurt so much more than subsequent ones. Your heart is new to these rejections and so much more raw. Learn from what happened and use it to choose more wisely in the future. If you are human (and I'm pretty sure you are) you will experience many heartbreaks and failures in your life and simply need to see them as temporary setbacks as opposed to complete devastation. You will need time to heal, but the more experienced you become, the faster you can bounce back (as long as you don't make a habit of getting caught up in the "why me?" and "that's not fair!" mentalities). Unfortunately life isn't fair and we tend to learn more from pain than other means sometimes.

I moved away from home almost a decade ago and had all the same things happen to you happen to me. Have you considered that maybe it was just poor timing (I moved in 2001), and now in 2019 the economy is just coming out of it's bad shape and it is challenging to find work as you are competing with more experienced people? Have you also considered that your BF was a weak jerk? No cheating BF will you being crying over, one day you will appreciate him for being a jackass and not wasting your time (trust me, I had one of those, he left me for a stripper, now every other year he calls hoping I will just answer the phone). Leaving behind your entire support system is often a leap of faith, please don't let this one experience define who you are.
Live by the mantra: One monkey don't stop no show! Broken? you are not, you had a home to return to. Loser - not even. You tried! How many others you know have tried and succeeded? Or didn't try at all. You stepped out on faith, you had/have big dreams and high expectations, not getting what you want/expect is part of being an adult. dust yourself off and try again.  If you have cried and licked your wounds for more than 3 weeks, that is plenty. Today is NEW day - get up and get some exercise, find you a new boo and shout out to the world - NEXT! Oh and when you can't sleep, pray or read your Bible, especially the book of proverbs, a bit of melatonin won't hurt either.

You have lost many things, but you have not lost most things. You still have your family, friends, (likely) otherwise healthy body, roof over your head, food to eat... Best of all, you're still alive. Life itself is a challenge, and as long as you're alive, your life can change for the better. This is a fact!

I would suggest first make a small schedule that emphasize on regular bedtimes, meal times, people company that can distract you, and maybe a couple of new physical or outdoor activities. Have a close person to you help you follow your schedule, maybe waking up/eating/going to sleep the same time as you.
Sleep: I know you have insomnia, but go to/get up from bed at regular times anyway. If you want to cry, cry all you want. If you find yourself thinking uncomfortable thoughts, and your face feels tense, try rubbing the spot between your eyebrows to help your face relax.
Physical/outdoor activities: Sunlight and exercise make you feel better because of chemical reasons (melatonin and seratonin, and dopamine respectively). I am mostly saying this from personal experience, but there are plenty of nice articles out there on these topics, feel free to look them up.
Meals: Having enough and regular meals will supply you with necessary energy to accomplish things. Not being productive will just feed into negative self confidence.
Social interaction: At the beginning, just talk about light things! Ask your close friends/family to not bring up career and love related topics for now. (Even feel free to stay alone, if you aren't comfortable with talking yet.) If you meet new people, a topic that will definitely come up would be how your current life is. I would personally wait a little bit until you can at least comfortably say, "It's not going very well right now, I'd rather not talk about it. How about let's talk about something else?" However, since it definitely is helpful (or perhaps even necessary) to interact with many new people to help your depression, picking up a new and interesting hobby will help. Try to choose something not very many people will commit to/do, but will sound interesting. Now you can say something like, "Oh I ran X many miles today, I'm working toward running a marathon in X months. Uphills are really tough.."

Soon you will start feeling productive. Then take up a few new activities. Find a purpose.
Romantic love: It is definitely wrong to cheat. However, accept that people could, and sometimes do, lose interest, especially when they spend less time together. (Long distance relationships are known to be difficult to keep.) Even you could lose interest too, and there is nothing wrong with that. Make sure both parties know likely/possible consequences of life choices. However, Don't worry about this part of life for now! Focus on regaining confidence in yourself first.
Confidence: If you're surrounded by people, confidence will be very dependent on how you compare how much other people have accomplished to what you have accomplished. Accomplishment here is key. Try out something that not many people do, but might still sound cool. That way, others definitely cannot compare to you at least in that category! While you're still building confidence, avoid people who flaunt their accomplishments while subtly diminishing yours. (For example, you want people that express interest in your accomplishment, like, "Oh really? That sounds cool! Did you get to/Was it difficult when you/How did you/Tell me more about..." instead of people that immediately divert the topic back to themselves, like, "Oh really? That's cool. But I've just done/But that sounds easy/But I bet I could...")
Physical appearance: Don't worry about this for now - just keep yourself neat and clean. You don't really have to worry about this until you start working on 'romantic love', which shouldn't be until after you've gained some self confidence. ;)

I know this is long, but there are many things you can and should do to make yourself feel better, and they are all interconnected. Please take care of yourself, because 'you' are the most important person 'yourself' can have.

Find another job, even as waiter or what, at least to pay your bills. Cut ties with any toxic people. Move somewhere new, if you still want too I called it restart new game. You choose your "new character", try everything from zero. Dont think too much about others' opinion, because this is just a "new game", the beginning of another chapter.

That is a great place to just let go from. Life really does want to bless our every moment but we get caught up in what we need to do to make it happen for ourselves. Which is ok so long as it is working for you. But since it obviously isn't working for you why not let go and see what life really has in store for you. It's the easiest and most difficult thing to do when caught up in society’s idea of what and how life should happen.

For myself I just decided one day when I was feeling like you are that I was done. I just quit. All I took with me was my understanding that I hadn't chosen or created a world where such misery was possible and a scripture I kept once I left religion, which was the one about me being more beautiful than the flowers and more special than the birds (my interpretation) and I decided if I had to be here then I wanted to prove that verse. That was 8 years ago and life has been very kind to me. I just go with the flow and enjoy the beauty in everything. I have only worked a job for 2 of the past 8 years and an occasional side job. Yet I always have something to give or contribute when the opportunity arises.

You must read the biblical story of Job (pronounced jobe). Short version: he looses everything but still keeps his faith... In the end he is stronger and all is restored to him. It is analogical to your situation. You say you are in a spiritual crisis, perhaps your faith is being tested.. Faith: That God will give you what you need in life even if it doesn't seem like it. Understand that you will be fine... End your sulking about the past. new possibilities exist for you at any moment. The past is gone and has no value anymore. Let go of the past and you will lighten your burdens. Hope this helps!

Therapy and possibly medication. Look to the future instead of to the past. Regain your confidence and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get back on that horse and ride away from your depression and negativity. You did not fail, you gained experience. You know that you don't want to do that again. Move on and stop feeling "poor me".

Start considering your life as more important than any other person/material value in earth...you have realized soon to come out of an attached happiness quotient. Few things I would suggests:

1. Read books
2. Join some foreign language classes
3. Have a goal of completing a certification before January
4. Spend time with your parents
5. Go weekend outing like trekking
6. Hit gym for an hour everyday

You will soon realize how life is exciting to live in present... Best of luck

You are almost alrighty only that seems you look down on normal person. So you are afraid of that you will be normal people when you fall sleep and so you are afraid of find out that having been turn into a normal people and never be back again when you wake up. That is because you need to know normal people are also very good at something and try to figure that out.

Looks like you have hit rock bottom. You can't go any lower than this. Which means the only way you can go is up... Get up, get started move on. Help is always there.

I am very much in your shoes these days. My career is nice and somethings to be proud about but still I am unable to.

I am in my late twenties male. And I was betrayed by my fiancée big time. However I still get the thoughts about what could I have done differently.

Currently I am seeing other girls and she has already found somebody else and things seem to be improving. However whenever I am about to make the next step I get filled with anxiety about heartbreak again.

Moreover head gets filled with weird scenarios in which I somehow make myself convinced she had true feelings and somehow I made mistakes and lost her.

I really don't have answer yet for how to come out of it. But I am now of the idea that finding someone would be a real positive change in my life.
I'm also depressed lost my taxi license and feel my world is upside down tomorrow is always a new day there is love and laughter out there it's just allowing yourself to be happy I'm trying so hard to be positive it's hard I know. Don't give up friend x forget about the stupid guy and stupid job. better you found out sooner than later. you just lost 3 months.....  some people lose YEARS before realizing it was wrong.

I've lost everything. How do I start over? I’m tired of the constant cycle of failure I see myself in.
In the year 2011, just like you, I had lost everything.
And by everything - I mean EVERYTHING.
But unlike you - I didn’t have the strength to get back up and fight again.
So I thought suicide was the only option
And I chronicled this journey of mine on video
Which after many years - I uploaded on YouTube
(I have posted the video link in the end)
Today, however, I have not only come back to where I was
I am in a much better place.
So how did I do it?
Here are few pieces of advice I can suggest.
You must be mentally strong and be determined to fight on
Keep in mind HOPE is NOT a strategy - Be practical, realistic, and responsible. The real world operates differently.
Make a list of all the reasons you failed and promise yourself never to repeat those mistakes again
Ask anyone and everyone you know for help
Take whatever people give you - big or small
Remember all those people who helped you and never forget all those who deserted you - especially when you needed them. The ones who stuck to you in bad times - keep them forever. The rest - get rid of them
Grab every opportunity to survive and succeed
Surround yourself with powerful thoughts, emotions and feelings - (social media only look at inspirational, motivational and powerful stuff)
Have a clear vision of where you want to go next
Make sure you take one step at a time - Just one step. And that is all that matters - and until you reach there - do not think of the next one
Celebrate every small victory but be very attentive about the failures
Every penny counts - save every bit of it
Ensure every action, every thought and every decision you take hence forth - contributes to your clear vision
Do not get into vices or bad habits - Drinking alcohol, being depressed or hanging around with negative people who only give you sympathy is not a solution
Keep a journal or video or pictures (or all) of these moments. Because one day when you achieve success - all these moments will not only inspire you - it will change someone else’s life too.
From a guy who was penniless on the streets of India in 2011.
In 2007-2008, I had pretty much everything. My business, at its best day, was making $2000 net profits a day. With the easy money, I partied hard.
 
Then came 2009. During that period, there was the recession. My business starts losing money. What made things worse was that I have no savings. If I had money, I would spend it myself or give it to others to help them. I was not only broke, but felt really stupid and defeated. I'm about to lose my business.
 
During that same year, a friend asked me to invest in his business so rather than using the money for the student loan payment, I put into his business. Turns out he ran away with my money. So now I was broke, in debts, and about to lose my business. I didn't even have money to pay the office rent.

It must have been the recession because my supplier took my money for my business the same year and didn't ship the goods as well. Times became so bad I decided to sell my business to a guy who turns out to be a fraud. This later turns out into a criminal case.
Just when I thought things wouldn't get worse, my mum asked me for some money. I don't have any money. I was so broke. And she said some nasty things to me. The next day I left the house, broke, homeless, with no money and a broken spirit. And yes, I was in debts and receiving harrassment calls everyday asking for repayments. I received lots of court letters too but I really have no money, what can I do? They can jail me and I still won't have the money.
 
When I read your story, it just teleports me back to that exact moment. I felt like dying is the way out... except it wasn't. The fact that I am writing you from a computer now proves that things can change for the better. But like you, back then for you, as you can imagine, I don't see that. I can't see any light but I can guarantee you things will change. I promise you that.
 
I still wasn't on talking terms with my family because during my darkest hour, the person I thought would be helping me up, stabbed me further in the back. So I completely understand how you feel. Again, I promise to you that things will change for the better (if you can see the humor, things will definitely change for the better because you're in such deep shit you know you can't go down any further). I know it because I've been through hell, but keep walking anyway, things will change. Nothing stays the same forever.
 
I wish I can help you but you know something... People built their character from setbacks and pain. Anyone can appear to be good when things are going cheery... it's when things are going bad, you get trained to become a stronger person. And you, I have faith in you. People are incredibly resilient.
 
The other thing I would do immediately is write down the things I am grateful about my life. If I was you, I would start like...
1) I am healthy.
2) I am young and plenty of time are ahead of me.
3) I live in a developed country where opportunities are everywhere.
4) I have 1 close friend.
5) I am educated.
6) I do not live in poverty.
The purpose of doing this is to change your perspective about life, from focusing on your negative stuff... to focusing on your amazing life and opportunities.
 
I hope things get well for you fast. Remember, I've been through hell and I know if you keep walking, you'll get past hell and reach greener pastures.
Everything you want will come to you at perfect time have patience


Live your life on your own don't listen to others and choose your happiness over everything.
Don't ever think about QUITTING that's never an option.
Break up are part of life I also has a break up recently and I loved that girl very much but something are never meant to be there in your life they will leave you because they don't deserve you they don't deserve your love that doesn't mean your life is over.

Learn from break ups and everything in life because everything happens for a reason.
And you must be having good friends hang out with them and if you don't have make some new friends and hangout with them have fun and forget everything.
HAVE A DREAM AND AIM IN YOUR LIFE AND WORK HARD TO ACHIEVE IT WORK WITH WHATEVER YOU HAVE AND YOU WILL FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE
never stop in life always keep walking
If you are going through hell keep walking

Listen to your heart and it will take you to the right way it will take you to where you really want to be.
Be passionate about the things you love to do and work on them as much as you can.

When I was in high school 4 years ago, I was so anxious to start my own life. I felt that I was trying everything I could to get the ball rolling but nothing was working. And of course, shitty things in life are happening.

Accept the things that are out of your control. There will always be things that are out of your control. You don't sound like you are a bad person, it just sounds like things aren't panning out yet. How old are you? Sounds like you have a bright future ahead of you.

I lost someone a couple of months ago. I'm not sure if he even knew my name. He was a fellow classmate, set to graduate with a high GPA in Chemical Engineering in just a few months. He shot himself because he felt isolated, like he didn't have anyone who cared about him. News fucking flash—EVERYONE is still devastated, including those he barely knew. He was needed here. You're needed here whether you know it or not.

I sometimes feel like I want to take a break from life. I get those “wake me up in 5 years” feelings. I see a counselor at school to talk about a lot of things. I feel like I should be tough and not need validation from others. My therapist took me down the hall and we asked any therapist with their doors if when life is shitty, do they need other people to sympahize with them? Absolutely. I sympathize with your situation. You must feel like you don't have anyone who can just give you a hug and tell you you're right, things do suck. If therapists with PhDs ALL need validation sometimes, so do we.
Please don’t kill yourself. You are needed here whether you know it or not. I’m sorry if you're not being shown the love you deserve but there is plenty of life ahead of you for that.

What is everything?
I lost my health, my marriage, my job, my savings, my house and my credit though not all at the same time. I've had to declare bankruptcy twice in my life and have been married three times. Yup, that's everything. How did I start over? Not easily.
You start over by getting very upset, not believing this is happening. You get angry, try to bargain with your boss, your spouse, your God, anyone to get you out of this mess. Get depressed and finally accept that it is what it is and move forward.

Yes, it's the same as the stages of grief. A way of learning to live with what we lost and like grief, they don't all happen at once or in that order. Identifying them is a way of dealing with what we're feeling. Helping us get through what's happened.
There is no timeline, no deadline. But knowing this does make it easier to deal. We need to give ourselves time and permission to grieve for our losses.
Each time I lost what I thought was everything I somehow managed to regain what I lost. Well, except for my health and savings and house. Okay, not a great example but life is a struggle.
I lost a husband, remarried, had to declare bankruptcy and lost another husband. The last time almost committing suicide. With help I got over it, got a new job, regained my credit, bought a house and was living a relatively happy life.

Then I lost my job, lost my savings and not that long ago wound up losing my house and had to declare bankruptcy losing my credit, again. I spent almost a year in bed, crying every time I thought of what I lost, especially losing my home. How will I start over again?
It's taken awhile but I'm getting better. You just do. Like the song, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. And like Dorothy you start at the beginning.
If you're young and healthy enough you find yourself another job. You start rebuilding your credit. You let friends and family into your life to help you live. But even if you're not young and healthy, like me, you still continue to rebuild. You work with what you have. Take each day one day at a time. Put one foot in front of the other and move on.

Losing everything just means you have everything to gain. Take chances, grab opportunities and open yourself to new possibilities. And also know that you're not alone. Many people before you have gone, are going and will go through the same thing. They managed, so will you as long as you make the effort. If you find you just can't do this, then seek help. Find a therapist. Talk to people. But don't give up.
That's the hardest thing. Making the conscious effort to pull yourself up. To get out of bed, get help, find an new job or new friends, a new life and learn from the mistakes you made before.
I am really sorry you are currently feeling so low and desperate. You have not lost everything, believe me. That may be how you are perceiving it at the moment, but it is not the case.
You are still very young. You cannot have had everything to have lost it all. Let us take some aspects of your subtext. Your boyfriend lied to you. You thought it was going well and then it was ‘gone’. Very difficult when there is a break in a partnership, especially when there has been cheating involved. But it is not the end of the world, and many of us have been down this route where romance has been found and lost. Time will heal. The fact that you know you were happy in a relationship once should not preclude you from finding love again. Not everyone lies and cheats.
You are unhappy with circumstances at home. You feel like a failure. You are threatening to end your life because you have had enough.
This all sounds very drastic and there is no quick fix or words or soundbites that can bring about the instant change you require.

The way forward would seem to be if you have not got anyone with whom you can place your trust in and talk over things, and it seems you have not, (even then if you are feeling that bad that may well not be enough), then I would strongly urge you to get some professional advice from a therapist if possible. See your doctor in the first instance, and he/she will assess if you are clinically depressed and will support you with showing you how you can progress from this negative dynamic, into something a bit more palatable.
I assure you, you have not lost everything.
There are alternatives to killing yourself, and if they don't work out you can always return to plan A later. Death is a rather permanent solution so consider some alternatives first. Think about this--wouldn't you rather be a bit happier. It sounds like maybe yes--you mention starting over and this means you see at least some hope-what if you had someone who cared for you really. What if you life had people or actions that mattered? All this is possible.

Can you work to these ends then. There may be times in your life when what you most need to do is pack a bag, hop on the bus, Gus-- try a new city try a new life. Is the time now--I truly can't say--can you check with others you trust--not the creepy boyfriend or your family, but someone who knows  what you have been through of late. If not a friend (you say there may not be anyone) may be a religious advisor--just get an outside perspective--from someone who can see your best. Alternatively, imagine you are that friend and give yourself that advice, as though from an outsider. What would you counsel someone in your shoes?
At very least you would have your friend make a to-do list of where to try, what to take, people to stay with, short term, employment possibilities etc. That list might include timing resources etc--so--make a new plan, Stan.

In any case and most importantly do not give up on that bit of perfection which is still inside you and which still shines so beautifully, even now--even when things look dark. Life is short enough without making it any shorter. There are second acts--and thirds--and for all we know some great encores as well

I went from being unemployable to being one of the top people in my field.
That sounds like my story, from the other side of the gender gap.
If you lose, they win.
That's why I wrote this.
Even in the deepest despair, there is potential for victory.
At onetime, immediate potential for homelessness, ill health, sour marriage, and un-employability, all ganged up on me at once.

I had tried everything, and bit by bit, my options had disappeared.
At one week to go before not being able to pay the rent, the Nichiren Method of Life Optimization appeared as an article about a youth peace festival in the SanDiego Sports Arena.
As soon as I had decided to look into it, my phone rang, and I was offered a good job.Three days later, when I had decided to try the method, a check for some real money showed up.
The next day, I joined the group, and sold furniture I had not been able to move for two years.
Suddenly,what I needed most appeared.
Then I learned about clearing poisonous ideas out of my mind, and helping others while I help myself.
I learned about cause producing effects, and about each person being unique, and an aspect of everything.
Even the specter of life's limited time became less painful when I accepted that lives change, yet Life goes on.
That was decades ago, and I haven't stopped learning, benefitting, or gaining happiness even in the midst of troubles.

Who controls you?
Oh boy, you have certainly reached a pretty dark place. I promise you that as terrible as everything seems right now, it will get better. It can't get that much worse, right?
What you need to do first is go see your physician. You may be suffering from depression and should get treatment including therapy. Then from there start taking each day one at a time. Go in baby steps.

Starting Over After a Catastrophic Loss
Even though you are confused and scared, there is a way out of this temporary cloud and onto a powerful bridge. You can help build this bridge to the future, and it can take you wherever you want to go.

How Losing Everything Can Give You Even More
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” ~Unknown
My parents passed down their values which I imagine is the same for a lot of parents who are fighting the good fight for their kids.
They taught me that material possessions weren’t going to make me happy, that I didn’t need to try to “fit in” to be happy, and last but not least, I was beautiful just the way I was.
That was great and it made sense to me until I started interacting with other kids. Particularly with kids who came from wealthy families.  Then it seemed that my parents had lied to me all along.
The messages I was receiving all around me were that I wasn’t pretty enough, that I had to change a lot about myself to be cool, and that I needed to start spending a significant amount of money on clothes.
I can only imagine it pained my parents to see me start to transfer closer and closer to my peer group. In college, I dyed my hair blond, started spending all of my spending money on clothes, and obsessed about what I weighed and who I was seen with.

I wanted to make sure everyone “saw” that I was fitting in.
After college, fitting in became secondary to the goal of proving that no longer was I just like everyone else. I was actually better. I would come home during holidays and cast judgment on my parents who continued to live a modest life, preaching the same values.
How dare they, I thought, try to tell me that the world is anything but a rat race to prove who is the prettiest, smartest, or wealthiest? They had lied to me, I was sure of it.
After college, I landed a status symbol job with a Fortune 100 company on the East coast, a nice apartment, and social circle that told everyone around me I’d made it. It was a life choice far from what my parents could understand.

The slippery slope of my choice is that people kept validating it. My coworkers constantly complimented my job, my apartment, and my clothes. The people in my neighborhood bragged about their high salaried jobs, their investment banker fiancés, and luxury vacations.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed wrong. I wasn’t enjoying my time in the upper crust social strata.

My breaking point occurred in my late 20s while I was working late nights and weekends. I had made a promise to myself that I would literally do anything for my job.
This meant that I was willing to forgo looking for a life partner and starting a family, refrain from hobbies that weren’t related to work, and spend less and less time with my parents.
I was willing to become a humorless work robot.
I pushed to get recognition for all the work I’d put into my company, but I did not get the promotion to management that I thought I deserved.

I left the company for a better job and then got fired from that one. It was a wrong fit from the beginning, but I ignored the warning signs. My pride and ego wanted me to succeed and to show everyone at my old company how fantastic my life was after I left.
But fate smacked me upside the head on the day I was let go.
The day I was told I no longer had a job my instant reaction was relief. I wasn’t going to have to get up the next day and go to work at a job that I hated that paid me a lot of money.
Then I panicked.

How would I pay my bills? Who would find out? Was I failure? Would I have to move back with my parents?
I spent one month thinking about where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be. And I was surprised to learn that I really liked myself despite not having a job.
It was a stunning realization to learn that I had wrapped up my identity with work but that I was someone really great when all of that distraction was gone.

Since then my life has gone on a journey of self discovery.  With my newly found free time, I started writing.  It was a hobby that I had ignored for many years.
Writing started a chain reaction of self reflection.  When you write about yourself you tend to focus on issues you may otherwise ignore. I started becoming more honest with myself and in turn others.
Despite my fears that I would end up broke and jobless, I met an industry leader who was bright and sharp. He liked my background and took a chance on me.  He asked me to take a leap of faith for his company and in return he would take a leap of faith on me.

Now I’m working for a boss I admire, with coworkers who support me.  I leave work at a decent hour. I’m taking writing classes and regularly contribute to my blog. I’m mentoring young female writers.
I’ve picked up yoga, stopped drinking as much as I used to, and have been seeking out spiritual guidance.
And as I sat down for dinner tonight I thought about the things that I believe at this stage of my life.
The people I love are beautiful no matter their outward appearance.  Trying to fit in doesn’t really do the soul any good. And material possessions are much less important than we try to make them.
Now I look at my parents lifestyle and am in awe of how truly wealthy they are and how lucky I am for their wisdom.

Fear and Strength (How I Found Success After Losing Everything)

Kindness starts with being kind to yourself. Tell yourself every, single day something good and loving about you. You deserve it.
Suffice it to say that November 2007 - November 2008 was not my year. I'm tenderhearted. I hate conflict. No, really. I H.A.T.E it. But in November, 2007, when my second husband left me, sold our car for cash and defaulted on our house payments, then left the country after "falling in love" with the daughter of a high school friend of mine, my world was turned on its ear. Add to that the fact that I'd just lost my brand, new, exciting job (thanks, recession) and there was a hiring freeze at my previous company (thanks again, recession) and, let's see, what else? Oh, yes. My sister lost her battle against breast cancer and, in the middle of all of those fun hi jinx, my first husband, an occasionally violent alcoholic who barely functions well enough to hold down his job as a developer at a well-known insurance company, took advantage of my struggles and kidnapped our daughter before working with his attorney in his small, central Illinois town to build a "case," stating that I was endangering our daughter's life by residing in the city of Chicago. You haven't lived until custody of your child, who's been required to attend a custodial court hearing, is transferred to your ex-partner and that child is pulled from you by having their fingers pried, one-by-one, from your arm as she's sobbing, "Mama, no! Please don't make me go live with him! Please, Mama! Please, no!"
Even though it's several years behind us, my stomach still twists into horrible knots at the memory. I spent so many days in court that holding down a job was next to impossible. Trying to survive on $500 per month in unemployment insurance was also a stretch. I couldn't keep up with my rent and I was evicted from my apartment. On the street with two suitcases full of clothes, a handful of photographs and children's artwork, an ancient laptop, and my dog. I had to leave my cats behind because nobody would take them in. I, a writer, can't dredge up the words to describe how frightened I was, standing on the streets, choking back sobs so no one would see me cry or know, God forbid, that I was now among the ranks of the homeless.
I wandered around a while, wondering what the hell I was going to do. After the sun went down, my tears flowed freely. Wordlessly, I dragged my suitcases down Division Street, wheels scraping, laptop bag slung over my shoulder, my sweet, faithful dog at my side. As I slowly made my way toward Ashland Avenue, I saw that there were a few coffee shops that offered free wi-fi and made a mental note. I wandered around and let the tears stream down my face. What was I going to do?? I'll tell you this much: I've never felt so scared and alone in my entire life and I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.
I saw, of course, many other homeless people as I wandered around. I had one, driving goal: what could I do to keep people from knowing I was now homeless, too? I who used to wear Ferragamo stilettos. I who used to live in a five bedroom house on a lake. How could this be? I was afraid to fall asleep so I walked and walked and walked. The next morning, I walked, bleary-eyed, back to one of the coffee shops I'd noticed the night before, tied my dog to a tree, went in, bought a cup of coffee, sat down at an outside bistro table and turned my laptop on (fun fact: there are many active outlets in public places all around the city, if you know where to find them so keeping my computer charged wasn't too difficult). I logged into Facebook - strange choice, I know; I think I just needed to feel a shred of normalcy in this nightmare - and I saw a letter my lifelong friend, Mia, had written to the recession. A letter to the recession. What?? Yes, she did, and here is what it said:

Dear Recession,
Nothing personal but you suck and I reject you.
Love, Mia
What?? "You can't write that - the recession is a thing, not a person! And it's happening to all of us!" I said to her. "I can, I did, and I meant it," she fired back. "The recession's only going to 'happen to you' if you let it. And I reject that. You can, too, sweetie!" I should note here that Mia, had just launched a business and it seemed to be teeming with success. "Well, huh," I thought, and I finished my coffee. Slowly, I packed up my laptop, walked to the trash can and threw my cup away, then gathered my things and began walking with my dog. "When will I start smelling sour?" I wondered with a sigh as I looked around, trying once again not to cry. But then I looked up and saw high rises. Lots of them. All occupied. I looked around. I saw families walking down the street pushing babies in strollers. I thought, "hm." There was a hiring freeze in my field but people were still having babies. And now, more than ever, that meant child care was needed. In that moment, I suddenly decided to become a nanny. My path as a mompreneur suddenly became clear.
I'd like to say the process was smooth. It wasn't. I had to find someone who didn't mind dogs who was willing to let me couch surf. And have access to a shower. Thanks to Craigslist (yes, I know, not the preferred method, but desperate times call for drastic measures), it wasn't long before I was sleeping on a sofa bed while I hunted for nannying gigs. I found a job - it didn't offer much pay but it was a job and I took it. From there, I worked up to being able to afford partial rent in an apartment with three room mates (we're friends, to this day). Then, a new job, higher pay and my own apartment.... waaaaaay on the edge of the city but it was mine.
Eventually, month by month, year by year, I moved up in the ranks of professional nannies. I'm now a highly successful nanny certified via the International Nanny Association and the proud co-owner of Sharp Mamas - a thriving baby concierge business that teaches new parents, parents to be, extended family and nannies how to work together to raise children with confidence. We've partnered with world-renowned physicians and experts, creating innovative ways to educate new families on a wide variety of subjects. I love being an entrepreneur. I'm proud of my company's success and I'm very, very proud of the strength I've discovered within myself.

I've never forgotten how it felt to have absolutely nothing and I never will. It's a terrible, lonely feeling. And you want desperately for people - someone... anyone!! - to see you and to help you believe it's going to be okay. I'm glad I had the wherewithal to do what I needed to do. And my heart breaks for those who don't know how to find their way out of their own dire situations. Maybe I can't change their circumstances but I remember how it feels to be in their shoes. And I'll never forget. And so, I can't save the world but I can - and I always will - do what I can to help anyone, no matter what.

If you're reading this and life isn't going well, please, please be encouraged. Whatever it is you're going through, you'll get through it. Just keep going and know that, as long as you never, never give up, things WILL get better. Keep going. Keep fighting. Persevere. Find your path to success - it's out there waiting for you! And I hope you - yes, you... no really. YOU! - know I'm right here rooting for you.

How to Start Over When Your Life Feels Shattered
Several years ago, I was asked to help with the grand opening of a major health club in Boulder, CO. I was hired as the Mind & Body Coordinator. It was a beautiful 40,000 square-foot facility. I was honored to be a candidate for the position.
I had dreams for the club. I had visions for where I wanted to take yoga and Pilates on and off the mat in the city of Boulder. And so, after only a few short months, I had over seventy classes on my schedule and over thirty employees.

The programs ROCKED, if I do say so myself.
We were on the map. Every teacher wanted a class there. Every student wanted to practice there.
I had to give myself a pat on the back. I had done well. Life was good. I was happy.
But after a few years, my vision of how the program was going to develop began to differ from corporate. I did not want to settle for anything less than the best.

Always the entrepreneur, I had my designs in action. I saw teacher trainings in our future. I saw products aligned with our simple, green holistic lifestyle on our shelves. I saw workshops by celebrity teachers near or far in our studio every month.
But I felt stuck. I was being fought every step of the way. 
I knew it was time to move on, but I was scared to make a change.
My position had become my identity. The club had become my life.
I was paralyzed by fear. How would I reinvent myself as myself rather than as the position I had been holding? How could I make my dreams a reality?
One evening, after teaching one of my classes, my boss called me into her office and asked me to step down as manager. Just like that. I couldn’t believe it.
Apparently my visions were too big. They needed to keep it simple. Perhaps they, too, were scared of what I could become.
I felt like my life had just toppled out from underneath me. I didn’t know what to say. I was paralyzed. Devastated. Surely my life was spinning out of control. How would I ever move forward?
It took a few moments, but I finally took a breath. And suddenly, I realized what I needed to say: Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime.  
Thank you for the gift of freedom.  
Thank you for letting me go so I can reach out of my comfort zone and fly.

Life is fraught with unpredictability. At the drop of a hat, disaster can strike. Everyone encounters death, heartbreak, devastating illnesses, job instability, and financial crisis. Perhaps it’s a personal situation that arises and then knocks you down. Maybe it’s the stress of your job that keeps you up too late at night.
Whatever it may be, we all experience the whirlwind of unpredictability at times. And when it happens, you may feel:
            Consumed
            Shattered
            Lost
            A Total Mess 
            Devastated
            Like a Failure
And when our lives feel like they are spinning out of control, it’s not always easy to look at what may be secretly appearing on the brighter side. It’s difficult to feel hope or see the bigger picture.
And no matter how tough you are, it is very easy to feel vulnerable, confused, or lost.
When things go amiss, it is challenging to feel anything but the mass of heaviness on your shoulders with no peephole to help you see the light of day.

But when you’re down and life seems like it’s giving you a kick in the gut, please remember these four things:
Everything happens for a reason. Nothing has meaning besides the meaning you choose to give it. It’s up to you to make each incident empowering or disempowering. 
And it’s up to you to find the lesson in everything. For instance, if I didn’t step down from my management position at the club, I would not be where I am with my business today. Living my dream.
Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. You don’t have to suffer. It’s definitely a choice. Nothing lasts forever, including the pain you are in. So, experience it. Live in that moment. But then get out of the story you’re starting to create. There does not need to be any mental drama around it (i.e. “I will never find a job again.”)

As one of my mentors, Marie Forleo, says, “Make ISness your business.” Live in the current moment and know that’s the only moment you need to handle. Give it your full attention. It’s your reality. And when that moment is over, move to the next moment. Are you still breathing? Of course you are. Then, fabulous, you’ve just handled that moment. Are you ready for the next one that will bring you one step closer to engaging in your life again?
Take one day at a time. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s TRUE! Eat nourishing food. Exercise. Spend time with your friends. Do what has to be done TODAY—not tomorrow, not next week. I promise you that if you live one day at a time, you will secretly find yourself moving on!
Have you ever felt shattered or lost or had a problem getting back on track? What did you do to help you get out of your rut? 
Everyone who has ever accomplished anything of note has experienced failure, probably more than once or twice. Failure is always a real possibility when you step out to do something great.
Like a lot of people in this country, the crashing economy hit me hard, and about 4 years ago, I lost everything.
But, I started over; I made some remarkable discoveries; I did things differently. I learned valuable lessons from my mistakes and recently the company I founded after losing everything landed at #21 on Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest growing businesses in the United States.

So, how did we do it?
First, I think a little context might be helpful. At 21 I had moved to Florida and eventually started my own successful sales and consulting business with distribution channels and branches in the Southeast and in Latin America, but pretty soon I started investing in real estate. I really liked real estate investment more and more. In fact, I loved it. By the time I’d met my wife, Cadey, several years later, I was hooked. I began spending more time on real estate and focusing less on my other business. Cadey became a real estate broker and I got my mortgage broker’s license. Pretty soon I was investing full time, and after over 10 years of running another business and dabbling in real estate, I began to focus exclusively on real estate.
We bought everything. Condos, houses, multi-family homes—you name it, we bought it. If it was real estate, we were in. Whether in good condition or bad, we bought and sold them. Eventually we began buying and holding more and more. We were involved with over 180 deals in a 19-month period. But we weren’t speculators. We were conservative with leverage and worked hard at rehabbing each property to improve the values. We worked 16-hour days and 80-hour weeks.
Though we were wildly successful, there were signs of trouble on the horizon, but I chose to ignore them. Eventually, we ended up in bankruptcy court where I lost everything. I actually had to buy back my wife’s engagement ring from a trustee. This was as low as I have ever been.
At that moment it was pretty hard to imagine ever being successful again. Our immediate goal was simple: survive. But soon afterwards I came to a realization that would be transformational for me and Cadey: Our fate had been in our hands all along, always would be and still was.
See, during my bankruptcy I’d unloaded my problems on a good friend, Alan Waxman, and he gave me this very direct advice: “Alex,” he said, “You chose it. Now own it.”
I did exactly that, and here’s what I saw in my future:
I’d take responsibility for my mistakes and do things the right way going forward.
I’d commit to becoming more successful than I had ever been despite having to start from scratch (or less than scratch, really).
I’d learn to see through the myths that most of us buy into without thinking about the truths (or lack thereof) behind them.
I was going to do things a different way—the right way. I would take as much time as necessary and read as many books as it took to find what I believed to be universal truths about how to be successful in business and in life.

Congruency
Most importantly, I decided that I would align who I am with what I wanted to accomplish. Before bankruptcy, I was working for the wrong reasons, and had come to believe the myth of me: that I was indestructible. The myth of me led me down a path where I lost everything and put my family at risk.
Now I live my life by a concept I call “Congruency.” Congruency literally means “aligning at all points when superimposed.” Congruency equates to having your personal goals and business goals aligned, and walking your walk and talking your talk.

Why does this matter? Two reasons: First, Congruency equals passion. People who have aligned their work with their purpose are energized by what they do every day no matter how hard they work. And, you can’t fake passion, at least not for very long. If you’re passionate about your work your motivation is pure, it’s so much easier to have your work and life move in the same direction. Simply put, people who have found Congruency don’t have to resolve the conflict between their work and the rest of their lives because there’s not one.

Over the next few years, we would achieve our goals and more. And, it didn’t take long: from the time our bankruptcy was finally discharged to our building a near 10 million dollar business that hit number 21 on the Inc. 500 was 36 short months.
Encouraged? I hope so, because I have good news. You can achieve your goals, too. Yours are likely to be slightly different than mine, but trust me, no matter what your circumstances might be at this moment, they are all within reach if you simply commit and take the proper steps toward them.
Alex Charfen is CEO of The Charfen Institute, one of the fastest growing small businesses in the country. He is also a noted speaker and author. His new book about Congruency and the difference it can make will publish soon. You can learn more about Alex and The Charfen Institute here.
Maybe you knew him. He didn’t stand out in a crowd. A hardworking guy, in his mid-fifties, he long worked a steady job. Proudly he raised a family.
Then the bust came. He got downsized.
The losses came like dominos. First the job. Unemployment insurance went on for a while, but there was no way he and his wife could keep the house. He got some short term jobs. Then they petered out. Soon no one would think of hiring someone unemployed so long.
The marriage cracked. Then it cratered. Too much stress, too much anger, she said. She couldn't look at him.  Even the kids didn’t want to come by.
He took to drinking for a while, but not long. He couldn’t afford it. He decided he couldn’t afford living.
The choice was obvious – it was time to check out.

Quotes About Starting Over 

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old starting over quotes, starting over sayings, and starting over proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

At some point or another, we all feel a little bit lost in life. With so many decisions to make, so many unknowns making us question our existence, and so many responsibilities to juggle, our vision can sometimes become clouded. As humans, we want to know all the answers, but unfortunately, life doesn’t really work that way.
We simply have to do the best we can with what we’ve been given, and just try our hardest each day to live life according to our own principles and beliefs. Any time you feel like you’ve lost your sense of direction, refer to the following quotes below to get back on track.

“Hard is trying to rebuild yourself, piece by piece, with no instruction book, and no clue as to where all the important bits are supposed to go.”

“A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare
to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.”

“Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate.”

“The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go.”

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.”

“How do you restart something that had never been turned off?”

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late. - Lee Iacocca”

“The death of a dream can in fact serve as the vehicle that endows it with new form, with reinvigorated substance, a fresh flow of ideas, and splendidly revitalized color. In short, the power of a certain kind of dream is such that death need not indicate finality at all but rather signify a metaphysical and metaphorical leap forward.”

“Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven’s mouth.”

“Every relationship that has hit a crossroads has asked, “What is it that you want from me?”

“Instead of saying, "I'm damaged, I'm broken, I have trust issues" say "I'm healing, I'm rediscovering myself, I'm starting over.”

“Souls reconstructed with faith transform agony into peace.”

“Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.”

“Starting over can be the scariest thing in the entire world, whether it’s leaving a lover, a school, a team, a friend or anything else that feels like a core part of our identity but when your gut is telling you that something here isn’t right or feels unsafe, I really want you to listen and trust in that voice.”

“There is something beautiful about a blank canvas, the nothingness of the beginning that is so simple and breathtakingly pure. It’s the paint that changes its meaning and the hand that creates the story. Every piece begins the same, but in the end they are all uniquely different.”

“It's never too late to start over!”

“It hurts, because we wanted a different outcome, but then we make it hurt even worse by creating a narrative around what happened.

So, instead of creating that debilitating narrative, I think we're better served realizing that now, we have an opportunity to pivot - to take our life in a different direction.”

“Sometimes you’re left with only 1 choice: Take what’s yours and run for you life.”

“What you leave behind says as much about you as what you bring along.”

“It's interesting, isn't it, to watch this character attempting to reconstruct herself, quite literally, in the midst of this chaos?”

“Don't bore the universe.”

“The road my elders dictate is a narrow one, and I no longer believe it to be the road to wisdom. I choose my own road. I choose to do the right thing, as you call it. I would not choose another companion for that road, and should you choose to walk that road with me, it would be..," his voice faltered, unable to put words to Alain's feelings, but he met her eyes, trying to let his feelings show. Perhaps he succeeded this time, because once again Mari blushed and bent her head.”
“With each day that our huge ship was on the ocean, my sense of being further and further away from my loved ones, my home, and my environment grew stronger.”

“It's never too late to right a wrong.”

“I’m going to run away now,” says Gat. "Don’t take it personally.”
“Okay.”
“It’s better for the starting over if I run. Because walking will just be awkward.”
“I said okay.”
“Okay, then.”
And he runs.”

“Sometimes life requires more of you than you have to give & demands you plunge into the reinvention of yourself if you truly wanna live.”

“It’s amazing, really, how in one instant a wall can be torn down, or climbed over. Misconceptions can be shattered, illusions dashed, dreams irrevocably ruined. Given the right frame of mind, within a heartbeat, people can begin the business of starting over.”

“I didn't know until I licked the mocha buttercream from my third devil's food cupcake that this was the flavor of starting over- dark chocolate with that take-charge undercurrent of coffee.
I could actually taste it, feel it. And now I craved it.”

“You’ll never get a new ending if you keep starting with the same tired beginning.”

“We are worth fighting for,” we both whispered. Giving one another permission, into each other madness.”

“It isn't always a change of scenery needed to make life better. Sometimes it simply requires opening your eyes. Richelle E. Goodrich

“That last page turned is a perfect excuse to write a whole new book.
Toni Sorenson

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.
Meister Eckhart

“There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.     
Franz Kafka

“Don't worry about being worried. You're heading out on an adventure and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else.
Tracy Kidder

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.     
Martin Luther King

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
Joseph Campbell

“If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable.     
Richelle E. Goodrich

“If God closes a door AND a window, consider the fact that it might be time to build a whole new house.
Mandy Hale

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu

“Recreate your life, always, always. Remove the stones, plant rose bushes and make sweets.Begin again.     
Cora Coralina

“Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
John Dewey

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C. S. Lewis

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. Albert Einstein

“For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.     
T.S. Eliot

“Celebrate endings, for they precede new beginnings.     
Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
Lao Tzu

“Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.
Hubert Humphrey

“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Carl Bard

“Never forget, Today, you have 100% of your life left.     
Tom Hopkins

“The beginning is always today.
Mary Shelley

“Start by doing what's necessary: then do what's possible: and suddenly you're doing the impossible.     
St Francis Of Assisi

“If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.
Dolly Parton

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.
J. B. Priestly

“The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can.
Mike Dooley

“You raze the old to raise the new.
Justina Chen Headley

“Rather than turning the page, it's much easier to just throw the book away. Anthony Liccione

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.
Alan Cohen

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.
Plato

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
“If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.
Rumi

“A Sunrise is God's way of saying, "Let's start again.
Todd Stocker

“It's humbling to start fresh. It takes a lot of courage. But it can be reinvigorating. You just have to put your ego on a shelf & tell it to be quiet.     
Jennifer Ritchie Payette

“Sometimes, all you have to do is forget what you feel and remember what you deserve.
unknown

“Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be.     
Marsha Petrie Sue

“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
Socrates

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.     
Seneca

“You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
Joe Sabah

“Starting all over again is not that bad because when you restart, you get another chance to make things right. Ryan Ferreras
“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are.     
John Pierpont Morgan

“It's never too late - never too late to start over, never too late to be happy.
Jane Fonda

“Begin your life today, and again tomorrow.
Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.     
William James

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The distance is nothing; it's only the first step that is difficult.     
Marquise Du Deffand

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney

“Starting over can be challenging, but also it can be a great opportunity to do things differently.     
Catherine Pulsifer

“Making the beginning is one third of the work.
Irish Proverb

“You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, 'I release the need for this in my life'.
Wayne Dyer