no one said it was easy

Life is difficult. this is a great truth, one of the greatest truths, it is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.


-M. Scott Peck. M.D.



When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as thought you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.


-Harriet Beecher Stowe






Learn by experience - preferably other people's.


Famous World War II general, George S. Patton Jr., was an avid reader and student of history. He wrote to his son in 1944: "to be a successful soldier, you must first know history. Read it objectively. . . . In Silicy i decided as a result of my information, observations, and a sixth sense that I have the enemy did not have another large scale attack in his system. I bet my shirt on that and I was right." His sixth sense ma very well have been formed by thousands of hours of reading history and both biographies and autobiographies.
Historical parallels were constantly on Patton's mind. When he observed the situation in Normandy on July 2, 1944, he immediately wrote Eisenhower that the German Schlieffen Plan of 1914 could be applied. A month later, an operation such as he had described brought about the German defeat in Normandy.
The book that perhaps influenced Patton most was Ardant du Picque's Battle Studies. Patton used it to help solve the problem of getting infantry to advance through enemy artillery fire. He recommended it to Eisenhower: "First read Battle Studies by Du Picque (you can get a copy at Leavenworth) then put your mind to a solution."
Most of the successful men in the world are avid readers, especially of biographies. If you are interested in being a success in life, immerse yourself in the life stories of successful people. You will learn from their mistakes and failures as well as their successes and triumphs.



"All these things happened to them as examples - as object lessons to us - to warn us against doing the same things." - 1 Corinthians 10:11