| Ask any famous person that achieved greatness | | | | to take action. This will seperate you from everyone |
| what they did that was different - they would tell | | | | else - the majority of people live life day to day, pay |
| you they made their goals realistic and took action. | | | | check to paycheck with little or no action or planning. |
| The rest is history. Napoleon Hill stated "Whatever | | | | You can always find these people complaining about |
| the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can | | | | how bad the economy is, taxes are too high, etc... |
| achieve." He used a positive mental attitude and the | | | | The best thing you can do is find a mentor and |
| use of small, realistic steps to achieve greatness. He | | | | surround yourself with positive achievers and realize it |
| went from a poor beginning in a log cabin to one of | | | | will take a lot of effort. Lance Armstrong didn't win |
| the best selling authors and an advisor to | | | | the Tour de France 6 times by accident and battle |
| congressmen, presidents and so on. W. Clement | | | | cancer at the same time. He was driven, set goals, |
| Stone took $100 and with this same use of creating | | | | and took action on a daily basis. He also realized |
| realistic steps and taking action he built one of the | | | | greatness would not happen overnight. Greatness |
| largest multi million dollar insurance companies in | | | | didn't come overnight for Dale Earnhardt either. He |
| America. | | | | raced hard for many years, suffered crashes that |
| They may not have the current publicity or notoriaty | | | | would have kept most people off the track and |
| of Donald Trump, Dale Earnhardt or similar, but they | | | | faced fear head on. With his tanacity, fierce vigor |
| came from much humbler starts. Donald Trump was | | | | and drive he became the greatest Nascar legend of |
| born into a real estate magnate family. Dale Earnhardt | | | | all time. Now his son, Dale Jr., continues his racing |
| was born into a established race car family in | | | | legacy and awesome philanthropic and charitable |
| Kannapolis North Carolina. Now thats not to say that | | | | activities. If you take the effort to take action, use |
| Donald Trump and Dale Earnhardt are not great | | | | baby steps to attain goals and make realistic goals |
| people (Dale Earnhardt formed one of the largest and | | | | you cannot and will not fail. Failure will not be a word |
| winningest Nascar teams and was very philanthropic | | | | in your vocabulary. |
| and helped a lot of people through his charitable | | | | Now you know how to achieve greatness. Set goals |
| activities). What I am getting at here is that most of | | | | for yourself. Make them realistic and take realistic |
| us don't have magnates or millions in our families, but | | | | baby steps to achieve them. Take action - this will |
| that in no wy means we cannot achieve greatness, | | | | seperate you from 99.9% of everyone else. They |
| riches beyond our wildest dreams, etc... Napoleon Hill | | | | are afraid to take action and will never attain |
| and W. Clement Stone actually started with much | | | | greatness. What do you think Lance Armstrong said |
| less and in worse times and conditions than we have | | | | when critics said he could not win the Tour de |
| ever known (the great depression era). | | | | France, or that he could not do a repeat win of it? |
| What drove Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone to | | | | What do you think Dale Earnhardt said when the |
| greatness was two things. (1)They planned realistic | | | | critics stated he could not overcome his fathers |
| steps to reach attainable goals (baby steps). They | | | | shadow in racing? They went on to become the |
| didn't just wake up one day and say my only goal is | | | | greatest of their time. What will you do? |
| to be rich and retire tomorrow. They made plans and | | | | It is never to late to decide to take control of your |
| kept slowly raising the bar every time they would | | | | life and make something great of it. Look at Sam |
| attain one of their goals. (2)They took action. You | | | | Walton. He didn't like working with a Ben Franklin |
| wouldn't believe how many times I hear people state | | | | franchise and their rules. So he started his own |
| all the things they are going to do or would like to do. | | | | retailing company and became the largest retailer in |
| I recently attended a young Cornell Alumni meeting | | | | the world. If you make attainable goals, take action, |
| where the talk was mostly about grand future plans, | | | | and lay out baby steps to achieve these goals there |
| or what they would like to do but they don't have | | | | is no way you will fail and there's no telling what you |
| time, the conditions aren't right, etc... You have to | | | | can or will achieve. Some of our greatest achievers |
| start somewhere. If you take too big of a step you | | | | have come from the most humbling positions. I |
| will probably become defeated and not continue. It is | | | | wonder what greatness you can and will achieve. |
| better to take small attainable steps. Each time you | | | | David Maillie is an alumni of Cornell University and |
| attain one of these steps or your goal raise the bar a | | | | holds numerous patents including his recently awarded |
| little. It will slowly move you closer to your dream | | | | patent for headlight repair, cleaner, and restorer. He |
| and give you a great boost in self confidence. You | | | | can be reached at M.D. |
| have to plan out little baby steps and then you have | | | | |