Stephen R. Covey

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

Accountability breeds response-ability.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential. They experience synergy only in small, peripheral ways in their lives. But creative experiences can be produced regularly, consistently, almost daily in people’s lives. It requires enormous personal security and openness and a spirit of adventure.

People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally being lived. They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society.

I’d rather welcome change than cling to the past.

It might interest you to know that the 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary identifies the optimist in complimentary terms, but says nothing about the pessimist. The word ‘pessimist’ was not in our vocabulary at that time. It’s a modern ‘invention’ which I believe we should ‘dis-invent.’

My dream was to make $1,000 a week, have a Cadillac convertible and an apartment on Ocean Park where I would’ve thought that would be nirvana.

Dream won’t work unless you do.

Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Problems are often opportunities coming at us in packaging that isn’t what we expect or want.- Donald J. Trump

If you put that effort in, you’ll get what you want.

You’ll find out that nothing that comes easy is worth a dime. As a matter of fact, I never saw a football player make a tackle with a smile on his face. Never.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.

True success has more components than one sentence or idea can contain.

You’ve got to be before you can do and do before you can have.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt has been described as founder of the Bull Moose Party, the man who led his troops up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War, a big game hunter, family man, civic servant and a host of other things.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is what the majority of men do. That is why the majority is just ordinary.