Diane Schuurs

I try to keep my ego at the right size. No matter what, I just do my best to live in an attitude of gratitude.

As far back as I can remember, singing was in my blood. My parents loved music, and I loved to sing. I was scatting at an early age.

Maybe the best is yet to come, but I’ve already had the best.

I wrote “Pilot of My Destiny” because of my love of flying. The fact that my brother is a pilot inspired me to write it. I call him pilot. He calls me copilot.

My career has been a combination of hard work and timing. Working with Stevie Wonder at the Kennedy Center Honors was timing. The Tonight Show was timing. Carnegie Hall, that was timing. My marriage was timing. I was ready, I wanted to know what it was like.

I met up with George Shearing about a year before my mother passed away. When I was 11 years old, Mama took me to the Edgewater Inn in Seattle and I was able to sit down and play piano for George and a lot of (the set list) was songs I had heard from the album, ‘Concerto For My Love.’ Then, after Mama died, my dad and I went to actually hear him perform at the Edgewater Inn when I was 12. Oh my gosh! It just really got me into playing piano.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

My life is a success – I am a happy man.

One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people-I categorize them as life’s losers-who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

I’ve always won, and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.

I really believe that being in the moment is the key to happiness and success, and being constantly glued to your phone can have a big impact on your relationship.

It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.