Inspiration for the Masses Blog

Quote of the Day

2010-11-29T12:15:00.002+01:00

"The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going."

– Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.

His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became the advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-24T15:38:00.003+01:00

"Life begins when you do."

- Hugh Malcolm Downs (born February 14, 1921) is a retired American broadcaster, television host, producer, and author.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-24T02:56:00.002+01:00

"There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-22T05:18:00.002+01:00

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

- Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is considered one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century, and a cultural icon.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-19T02:57:00.003+01:00

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash."

- George Smith Patton, Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well-known for his controversial outspokenness

Quote of the Day

2010-11-17T04:12:00.003+01:00

‎"When you develop yourself to the point where your belief in yourself is so strong that you know you can accomplish anything you put your mind to, your future will be unlimited."

- Brian Tracy

Quote of the Day

2010-11-16T10:36:00.001+01:00

"Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed."

- Eileen Caddy 1917-2006, Spiritual Teacher and Author

Qoute of the Day

2010-11-16T02:08:00.000+01:00

‎"Don't open a shop unless you like to smile."

- Chinese Proverbs

Quote of the Day

2010-11-15T06:02:00.003+01:00

"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know EXACTLY what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it."

- Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-14T03:52:00.003+01:00

‎"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."

— John Sculley (born April 6, 1939) is an American businessman. Sculley was vice-president (1970–1977) and president of PepsiCo (1977–1983), until he became CEO of Apple on April 8, 1983, a position he held until leaving in 1993. Sculley is currently a partner in Sculley Brothers, a private investment firm formed in 1995.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-13T04:15:00.001+01:00

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

– Chinese Proverb

Quote of the Day

2010-11-12T04:52:00.002+01:00

"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game"

- Donald Trump

Quote of the Day

2010-11-11T04:58:00.005+01:00

"Those who never quit never lose..."

- Anthony Robbins

Anthony "Tony" Robbins (born February 29, 1960) is an American Self-help author and success coach. Robbins' books include Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within.

Quote of the Day

2010-11-10T15:34:00.002+01:00

“My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no one’s doing but my own. I am the force. I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice. My responsibility. Win or lose; only I hold the key to my destiny.” - Elaine Maxwell

Quote of the Day

2007-11-15T20:26:00.000+01:00

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious."

Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American football. He was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967: they won five NFL championships during his 9 year tenure. Following a one-year retirement from coaching in 1968, he returned as head coach of the Washington Redskins for the 1969 season. He owns a 9-1 record in the post-season.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-15T10:46:00.000+01:00

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Les Brown, a renowned public speaker, author and television personality has risen to national prominence by delivering a high-energy message, which tells people how to shake off mediocrity and live up to their greatness. It is a message Les Brown has learned from his own life, and one he is helping others apply to their lives.

Born a twin in low-income Liberty City in Miami, Florida, Les Brown and his twin brother, Wes, were adopted when they were six weeks old by Mrs. Mamie Brown, a single woman who had very little education and financial means but a very big heart. As a child, Les Brown's inattention to school work, restless energy and the failure of this teachers to recognize his real potential, resulted in him being mis-labeled as a slow learner. The label and the stigma stayed with Les Brown, damaging his self-esteem to such an extent that it took several years to overcome.

Les Brown has had no formal education past high school, but with persistence and determination he has initiated and continued a process of unending self-education, which has distinguished him as a resource on human potential. With his passion to learn and his hunger to realize greatness, Les Brown rose from a hip-talking morning dee-jay to broadcast manager, from community activist to community leader, from political commentator to three term legislator and from a banquet and nightclub emcee to premier keynote speaker.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-14T16:21:00.000+01:00

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance."

H. Jackson Brown, Author was born and still lives in Middle Tennessee. His numerous books are in 35 languages and read throughout the world claiming 158 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. It is sometimes noted that he graduated from a prestigious university and is the recipient of one of their most distinguished awards but, who knows? If you were to phone the administration office, they would probably deny that he ever attended. It seems hard feelings still linger regarding Mr. Brown’s insistence that the campus clock tower he pledged to help fund be in the shape of a 150 foot slice of pepperoni pizza. An image, he argues, all students recognize as the midnight fuel, GLORY, YES!, even the “sustenance of success” that nourishes and ensures the college’s continuing graduation of esteemed donation-loyal doctors, lawyers, clergymen and franchisees of south Alabama Dairy Queens. When contacted, the Campus What’s Appropriate Committee, or CWAC (pronounced SEE-WACK), stated that the pizza matter is “still under consideration, but don’t count on it. It’s a lot of dough.”

Currently, Mr. Brown writes in a remote log cabin high on Hatchet’s Ridge in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. There he retreats to observe, ponder, resharpen No. 2 pencils and train his parrot to squawk, “One more step and I’ll shoot.” Should you want to visit, get an early start. Take the gravel road east out of Crowell Corners to the end. There it becomes a dirt road switch-backing up the ridges. A hand-lettered sign nailed to a hickory tree teasingly identifies these last fifteen miles as Broken Axle Trail. The cabin is not the first or second on this dusty corkscrew but the third. You’ll think you’re almost there, but you’re not. And count the creeks. You’ll cross two. The first on a tricky two-plank bridge. The second, unfortunately, offers no bridge at all. Now look for the weathered tin roof and the trellised front gate crowned with honeysuckle. Pay no attention to the dogs Dan, Hoover and Hot Ticket asleep on the front porch couch. But be careful where you step. The copperheads, rattlesnakes, and wild hogs love this bit of heaven as much as Mr. Brown does.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-13T11:50:00.000+01:00

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.

Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar (born November 6, 1926) is an American author, salesperson, and motivational speaker. His latest book is Better than Good.

Zig Ziglar was born to John Silas and Lila Ziglar in Coffee County, Alabama as the tenth of twelve children. When he was four years old, his father accepted a management position at a Mississippi farm and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where Zig Ziglar spent most of his childhood. In 1932, his father died of a stroke (and his younger sister died two days later), leaving his mother to raise the remaining eleven children alone.

Ziglar served in the Navy during World War II. He was in the Navy V-12 Navy College Training Program, attending the University of South Carolina.

He later worked as a salesman in a succession of companies, during which time his sales skills improved and his interest in motivational speaking grew. In 1968, Ziglar became a vice president and training director for the Automotive Performance company, and moved to Dallas, Texas, where he still lives today. In 1970, he went into the business of motivational speaking full-time.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-08T14:49:00.001+01:00

"Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income."

Jay Abraham, Marketing Expert. The nation’s highest paid marketing consultant, he regularly works marketing miracles for his clients. During his 24 year career, Mr. Abraham has worked with over 5,000 individual businesses in 165 separate industries. He has consulted for businesses large, medium and small, from one person operations to some of the world’s largest corporations including Weyerhauser, Coldwell Banker, Prudential-Bache, Dun and Bradstreet, Citibank and Sears Roebuck & Company.

Mr. Abraham specializes in successfully identifying and ethically exploiting a company’s hidden, marketable assets to create windfall profits for his clients.

While he maintains a number of select clients on a contingency basis, Mr. Abraham also publishes a series of marketing reports as well as conducting marketing and business training seminars.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-08T14:49:00.000+01:00

"Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income."

-- Jay Abraham, Marketing Expert. The nation’s highest paid marketing consultant, he regularly works marketing miracles for his clients. During his 24 year career, Mr. Abraham has worked with over 5,000 individual businesses in 165 separate industries. He has consulted for businesses large, medium and small, from one person operations to some of the world’s largest corporations including Weyerhauser, Coldwell Banker, Prudential-Bache, Dun and Bradstreet, Citibank and Sears Roebuck & Company.

Mr. Abraham specializes in successfully identifying and ethically exploiting a company’s hidden, marketable assets to create windfall profits for his clients.

While he maintains a number of select clients on a contingency basis, Mr. Abraham also publishes a series of marketing reports as well as conducting marketing and business training seminars.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-07T10:48:00.000+01:00

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."

Abraham (Harold) Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. He is mostly noted today for his proposal of a hierarchy of human needs and is considered the father of humanistic psychology.

Maslow was born and raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of seven children. He was smart but shy, and remembered his childhood as lonely and rather unhappy. Maslow attended City College in New York. His father hoped he would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. While there, he married his cousin Bertha, and found as his chief mentor Professor Harry Harlow. At Wisconsin he pursued an original line of research, investigating primate dominance behavior and sexuality. He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies. He found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Freud's early followers.

From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. In New York he found two more mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Freudian psychologist Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both realms, and such "wonderful human beings" as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential. He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow became the leader of the humanistic school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, which he referred to as the "third force" -- beyond Freudian theory and behaviorism.

Maslow saw human beings' needs arranged like a ladder. The most basic needs, at the bottom, were physical -- air, water, food, sex. Then came safety needs -- security, stability -- followed by psychological, or social needs -- for belonging, love, acceptance. At the top of it all were the self-actualizing needs -- the need to fulfil oneself, to become all that one is capable of becoming. Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs lower on the ladder would inhibit the person from climbing to the next step. Someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen, as he pointed out. People who dealt in managing the higher needs were what he called self-actualizing people. Benedict and Wertheimer were Maslow's models of self-actualization, from which he generalized that, among other characteristics, self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside of themselves, have a clear sense of what is true and what is phony, are spontaneous and creative, and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.

Peak experiences are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, when a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such peak experiences.

Maslow's thinking was surprisingly original -- most psychology before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving this. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by Carl Rogers.

Maslow was a professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969, and then became a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California. He died of a heart attack in 1970.

Quote of the Day

2007-10-30T00:15:00.000+01:00

"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."

David MacKenzie Ogilvy, CBE (June 23, 1911–July 21, 1999), was a notable advertising executive. He has often been called “The Father of Advertising.” In 1962, Time called him “the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." He was known for a career of expanding the bounds of both creativity and morality.

David Mackenzie Ogilvy was born on June 23, 1911 at West Horsley, Surrey in England. His father was a Gaelic-speaking highlander from Scotland who was a classics scholar and financial broker. His mother was a beautiful and eccentric Irishwoman. At the age of 13 Ogilvy attended Fettes College, in Edinburgh, which was founded by Sir William Fettes (his great-uncle Lord Justice General Inglis, a notable Scottish advocate may have played a role later on). He won a scholarship in history to Christ Church, Oxford six years later in 1929. Without the scholarship he would have been unable to attend university because his father's business was badly hit by the depression of the mid-twenties. In the event, his studies were unsuccessful and he left Oxford for Paris in 1931 without graduating. He became an apprentice chef in the Majestic Hotel. After a year in Paris he returned to Scotland and started selling Aga cooking stoves door-to-door. His success at this marked him out to his employer, who asked him to write an instruction manual, The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA cooker, for the other salesmen. Thirty years later this manual was still read by Fortune magazine editors. They called it the finest sales instruction manual ever written. His older brother Francis Ogilvy, who was working for the London advertising agency Mather & Crowther, showed this manual to the agency management, who offered Ogilvy a position as an account executive. In 1938 he persuaded the agency to send him to the United States for a year.

Just after his few months in advertising Ogilvy did something that changed advertising forever. A man walked into Ogilvy's London agency wanting to advertise the opening of his hotel. Since he just had $500 he was turned to the novice - Ogilvy. Young Ogilvy bought $500 worth of postcards and sent an invite to everybody he found in the local telephone directory. The hotel opened with a full house. "I had tasted blood", says Ogilvy in his Confessions. This is also where he came to know Direct Advertising, his "Secret Weapon" as he says in "Ogilvy on Advertising".

In 1938, Ogilvy emigrated to the United States, where he went to work for George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. Ogilvy cites Gallup as one of the major influences on his thinking, emphasizing meticulous research methods and adherence to reality.

During World War II, Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington. There he wrote enormously, analyzing and making recommendations on matters of diplomacy and security. He extrapolated his knowledge of human behavior from consumerism to nationalism in a report which suggested "applying the Gallup technique to fields of secret intelligence." Eisenhower’s Psychological Warfare Board picked up the report and successfully put Ogilvy’s suggestions to work in Europe during the last year of the war.

After the war, Ogilvy bought a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and lived among the Amish. The atmosphere of "serenity, abundance, and contentment" kept Ogilvy and his wife in Pennsylvania for several years, but eventually he admitted his limitations as a farmer and moved to New York.

After working as a chef, researcher and farmer Ogilvy started his agency with the backing of two London agencies: S. H. Benson and Mather and Crowther, which was at that time being run by his elder brother Francis. The agency was called Ogilvy, Benson and Mather. Ogilvy had just $6000 in his account when he started the agency. He writes in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man that initially he had to struggle to get clients.

Ogilvy & Mather was built on David Ogilvy's principles: in particular, that the function of advertising is to sell, and that successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer.

But his belief was strong. He made best of whatever came his way. His entry into the company of giants started with several (to use the phrase du jour) iconic campaigns.

“The man from Schweppes is here” introduced Commander Whitehead, the elegant bearded Brit, bringing Schweppes (and “Schweppervesence”) to the U.S.

Perhaps the most famous headline in the car business – “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.

“Pablo Casals is coming home – to Puerto Rico”. Ogilvy said this campaign, which helped change the image of a country, was his proudest achievement.

Perhaps his greatest sales success (for which he is less recognized) – “Only Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream”. With this positioning, still being used 50 years later, Dove now outsells every soap in the U.S. and around the world.

He believed that the best way to get new clients is to do great work for existing clients. And he was right. Success of his early campaigns helped him to get big clients like Rolls-Royce and Shell. He created an avalanche of new clients. Ogilvy & Mather was an instant success.

In 1973 Ogilvy retired as Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather and moved to Touffou, his estate in France. While no longer involved in day-to-day operations of the agency, he stayed in touch with the company. Indeed, his correspondence so dramatically increased the volume of mail handled in the nearby town of Bonnes that the post office was reclassified at a higher status and the postmaster's salary raised.

Ogilvy came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as chairman of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in India. He also spent a year acting as temporary chairman of the agency’s German office, commuting daily between Touffou and Frankfurt. He visited branches of the company around the world, and continued to represent Ogilvy & Mather at gatherings of clients and business audiences.

In 1989 The Ogilvy Group was bought by WPP Group, a British holding company, for US$864 million. Two events occurred simultaneously: WPP became the largest marketing communications firm in the world, and David Ogilvy was named the company's non-executive chairman (a position he held for three years).

At age 75, Ogilvy was asked if anything he'd always wanted had somehow eluded him. His reply, "Knighthood. And a big family – ten children." (His only child, David Fairfield Ogilvy, was born during his first marriage, to Melinda Street. That marriage ended in divorce (1955) as did a second marriage to Anne Cabot. Ogilvy married Herta Lans in France in 1973.)
He didn’t achieve knighthood, but he was made a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) in 1967. He was elected to the US Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977 and to France's "Order of Arts and Letters" in 1990. He chaired the Public Participation Committee for Lincoln Center. He was appointed Chairman of the United Negro College Fund in 1968, and trustee on the Executive Council of the World Wildlife Fund in 1975.

David Ogilvy died on July 21, 1999 at his home in Touffou, France. Ogilvy remains one of the most famous names in advertising and one of the handful of thinkers (Raymond Rubicam, Leo Burnett, William Bernbach, Ted Bates) who shaped the business after the 1920s..

His book Ogilvy on Advertising is a commentary on advertising, and not all the ads shown in the book are his. In early 2004, Adweek magazine asked people in the business “Which individuals—alive or dead—made you consider pursuing a career in advertising?” Ogilvy topped the list. And the same result came when students of advertising were surveyed. His best-selling book Confessions of an Advertising Man is one of the most popular and famous books on advertising.

Quote of the Day

2007-10-29T09:46:00.000+01:00

"The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life."

-- Brian Tracy, Author

Quote of the Day

2007-10-23T09:04:00.000+01:00

"Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them."

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (September 9 [O.S. August 28] 1828 – November 20 [O.S. November 7] 1910) (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, IPA: [lʲɛv nʲɪkʌˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ tʌlˈstoj] listen (help·info)), commonly referred to in English as Leo (Lyof, Lyoff) Tolstoy, was a Russian writer – novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher – as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He was the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family.

As a fiction writer, Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. In their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of 19th-century Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of realist fiction. As a moral philosopher Tolstoy was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through works such as The Kingdom of God is Within You, which in turn influenced such twentieth-century figures as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quote of the Day

2007-10-21T15:45:00.000+01:00

"What matters is where you want to go. Focus in the right direction!"

Donald Trump (1946- )

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946 in Queens, New York) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, television personality and author. He is the CEO of Trump Organization, an American-based real estate developer in the real estate market and the founder of Trump Entertainment, which operates gambling casinos. He enjoyed a great deal of publicity following the success of his reality television show, The Apprentice (in which he serves as both executive producer and host for the show). He is the son of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer in New York City.