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Remember The Holiday Inns?
(by Gary Godfrey - October 24, 2011)
The late Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn motel chain, once wrote 20 tips for being a successful person.
1. Work only half a day; it makes no difference which half -- it can be either the first 12 hours or the last 12 hours of each day.
2. Work is the master key that opens the door to all opportunities.
3. Mental attitude plays a far more important role in a person’s success or failure than mental capacity.
4. Remember that we all climb the ladder of success one step at a time.
5. There are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree. One way is to sit on an acorn and wait; the other way is to climb it.
6. Do not be afraid of taking a chance. Remember that a broken watch is exactly right at least twice every 24 hours.
7. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
8. Eliminate from your vocabulary the words, “I don’t think I can” and substitute, “ I know I can.”
9. In evaluating a career, put opportunity ahead of security.
10. Remember that success requires half luck and half brains.
11. A person has to take risks to achieve.
12. People who take pains never to do more than they get paid for, never get paid for anything more than they do.
13. No job is too hard as long as you are smart enough to find someone else to do it for you.
14. Opportunity comes often. It knocks as often as you have an ear trained to hear it, and eye trained to see it, a hand trained to grasp it, and a head trained to use it.
15.You cannot procrastinate -- in two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.
16. Sell your wristwatch and buy an alarm clock.
17. A successful person realizes his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts himself because he possesses the key to his own egnition switch.
18. Do not worry. You can’t change the past, but you sure can ruin the present by worrying over the future. Remember that half the things we worry about never happen, and the other half are going to happen anyway. So, why worry?
19. It is not how much you have but how much you enjoy that makes happiness.
20. Believe in God and obey the Ten Commandments.
This week’s bottom line: Wilson was once quoted in saying, “"You can cater to rich people, and I'll take the rest. The good Lord made more of them."
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