The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.

Wealth – any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one’s wife’s sister’s husband.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

Tourism provides employment to the poorest of the poor. Gram seller earns something, auto-rickshaw driver earns something, pakoda seller earns something, and tea seller also earns something.

My dad used to have an expression – ‚It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.‘

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

My interest in creating anything is that it be useful.

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

I wanted to get a job being creative, and I did.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

People want you to fail.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

Small aim is a crime.

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

What is once well done is done forever.

Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

Good planning is important. I’ve also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you’re in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you’re depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

If you want special results, you have to feel special things and do special things together. You can speak about spirit, or you can live it.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Finding good partners is the key to success in anything: in business, in marriage and, especially, in investing.