When I think about unsuccessful
people, I think of those
men and women who seem to
be at the mercy of forces over which
they seem helpless or uninterested in
influencing. I was raised as a boy in
such circumstances and came to know
them well. I watched people who
seemed helpless to do anything about
their problems. Their most serious
shortcoming was of course lack of education.
They took their cues from those
about them, which is the self-defeating
cycle of the poor — they're always following
the wrong group.
More than any other factor, perhaps,
the unsuccessful person can usually be
identified with a group that is at the
mercy of events. The unsuccessful person
has things done to him or her. The
successful person seeks autonomy and
makes his or her own plans and has
the self-esteem and inner excitement
and knowledge to know that those
plans can be followed, barring a
calamity over which he or she can
exercise no control. The unsuccessful
person tends to focus on the calamity
or ride with the punches. The successful
person gives; the unsuccessful person
takes. But since we cannot reap
more than we sow, the unsuccessful
person, sowing little, reaps little.
Have you ever heard someone say, "I
do no more than I'm paid to do." Sure,
we all have. And that person has stuck
himself in a no-win fix. Doing no more
than he's paid to do, that man can
never earn more than he's receiving,
other than just cost-of-living raises. He
is an unsuccessful man. His attitude
has got him stuck in a corner, and until
or unless something changes it, in that
corner, he's going to
remain.
There's nothing at
all that unsuccessful
people have or do
that successful people
do not have more
of and do better.
Unsuccessful people
are not stronger or in
better physical condition
than successful
people. They're
not better parents,
wives, or husbands.
About the only thing
you can say about
the unsuccessful is,
as the well-known
saying has it, God
must have loved
them. He made so many of them.
The word poor still applies to far too
many human beings in the United
States. I keep hearing politicians say
that we still have not reached the proper
distribution of income. But income
is not a factor of distribution; income
is earned by someone. If it is given to
the poor, as it should be, it's because it
was earned by someone else. A country
as rich as the United States should
have a level of subsystems below
which no one should be permitted to
fall. But what is needed most is the
kind of education calculated to help
people help themselves. And for those
who cannot help themselves, the old,
the sick, the incompetent, subsistence
and clean, healthful surroundings
should be one of our most important
national goals.
But the unsuccessful serve in one
important way. We need the millions
of unsuccessful people from whose
ranks we can recruit the successful
people of the future. Where do you
think successful people come from?
That's right, they come from unsuccessful
people. They are each an original,
never before seen upon planet
earth, with deep abilities and talents
just lying dormant, waiting for the fertilization,
the irrigation of good ideas
and enthusiasm to get them started
growing.
Even her Royal Highness, the Queen
of England, had unsuccessful ancestors,
if you go back far enough. As human
creatures, we all started even somewhere
in time. And for every successful
family, there was someone who had the
drive, ambition, and determination to
break from the crowd and start the ball
rolling ... to free himself from the ranks
of the unsuccessful and venture into
the camp of the successful.
To learn more about Earl
Nightingale and his all-time bestselling
programs The Strangest Secret
and Lead the Field, visit www.
AdvantEdgeMag.com/Nightingale
today.