success
The road to success is always under construction; share your equations for success — and learn some new ones.
The Epic Find
Sarah stared out the window over her coffee and thought, “This is a perfect day to go antiquing.” She hadn’t been in months and it was time to recharge her vintage battery and her store stock. She finished her coffee and toast, pushed herself away from the table and put her dishes in the sink. “I’ll tidy this up later,” she told her cat, Maggie. Maggie blinked and went to sleep. Gotta love cats.
By Shelly Barnes5 years ago in Motivation
Gateway To Our Future
My thirst for finding purpose in my life was not quenched upon my graduation from The Miami School of Business. Most of my friends went on to start their careers, however, I was not ready to take that leap into what I thought was the real world just yet. I decided to take time before committing my life to a financial institution to travel and try once more to find the purpose that seemed to escape me. I had just enough graduation money saved up for a ticket to The Gambia, East Africa. My older brother had visited this country on a mission trip and returned with a plethora of memories to share. Since then, I have wanted to visit for myself and experience a world outside of Ohio. Without having any real responsibilities, I booked my tickets, arranged to get all my necessary vaccinations and packed my bags in preparation for my trip to The Gambia. On the day of my departure, my older brother entered my room and handed me a small black notebook. He informed me that inside this mysterious notebook was a gateway to my future. I didn’t think anything of it at first, so I thanked him unceremoniously, quickly tucked the notebook into my backpack and hugged him goodbye. After bidding my family farewell, I got into my Uber and left to the airport.
By Zobaida Falah 5 years ago in Motivation
Virgil Tibbs, The Barber
I would like to honor a childhood friend, and black entrepreneur, Virgil Tibbs. I remember like yesterday the day I met Virgil, his brother James, who I only knew as Tank for several years, and his cousin Poodge, or Eddie. It was a summer day, at the neighborhood hub, “The Rec”, or Lake View Terrace Recreation center, in Los Angeles CA. All the neighborhood boys gathered here each summer for basketball tryouts. These workouts weren’t technically a traditional tryout, as the recreation center would not turn away any kid whose parents had money to pay the registration fees. It was more like a talent observation for the coaches to get a taste of the boys and their varying skill sets so that they can go behind closed doors and spread the available talent “evenly”, an annual event that made one wonder how the same coaches had success every year, and others weren’t so lucky. Either they knew the talent very well, or they found a way to game the system.
By Adam Ware5 years ago in Motivation
Always a Reason
Vivian was a local volunteer who was barely scraping by, but no matter how down on her luck, she never asked anyone for anything in return for her kindness. There would be days that she would not eat and sometimes also go without heat. Vivian was a very busy lady; she had a job but worked just enough to pay her bills, and sometimes that wasn’t enough. The thought of working two jobs had crossed her mind now and then, but she was too involved with volunteering. There was something volunteering gave her that working could not, and it was bigger than money. It gave her the self confidence that she needed in life. Though life seemed tough and often unbearable, she never let it get the best of her; she had a little black book that she wrote all of her troubles in. Vivian would write about the good, the bad, and even the sad things in her life – never thinking anyone could have gone through similar things in their life.
By Tamara slusarchuk5 years ago in Motivation
Are You Acting From Love or Fear?
Love and Fear Are Opposites Someone once told me that everything we do is done either out of love or fear. I wish I could remember who told me this so that I can thank them for this insight. It has helped me understand so much of what I see in this world. More importantly, it has given me a simple and powerful way to reflect on my motivations. I only need to stop and ask myself:
By Belinda Tobin5 years ago in Motivation
Ghost Writers
“I just feel like I’m in a good place, like I have a vision for my future,” Claudine told Valerie as they made their way back to the parking lot after a Saturday afternoon of wine, sunshine, and conversation on the green lawns of the park of Versailles, just outside of Paris.
By Claudine Audigé5 years ago in Motivation
Facts
Her palms were sweaty and starting to get prickly and itchy, a sign the anxiety was worsening. She would need to take her anti-anxiety medicine if she couldn’t steady herself. In her lap, sat her little black book. She started to rub it between her two hands like she was trying to start a fire with two sticks. A fire that would ignite and burn bright with her winning the quiz show’s $20,000 grand prize. In her book were facts. Facts seemed irrelevant and disregarded these days, but they all mattered to her. She’d been collecting facts her whole life. From the time she could toddle out to the backyard and study an ant hill, she’d obsessed over collecting information and storing facts. Each fact helped her make sense of the world, a place that had made her feel like a space alien all her life.
By Vicki O5 years ago in Motivation
And Then There Was Her
Shai was a young, beautiful, hardworking young lady. She worked as a caregiver and went to night school part-time for writing. Writing was one of her passions. One thing about her is that she had this intuitive nature that drew people to her. It was this aura of love she possessed for those who met her. Shai seen the beauty in others ashes and that’s what made her.
By Sharise Robinson aka SHE'RISES5 years ago in Motivation
"Dear Carlos Slim"
My Mother believed everything she was told. The credibility of the source was almost immaterial, allowing her the freedom to cheerfully accept, store, and carefully curate for future repetition, all of the wisdom she was offered. She was a product typical of her generation, where elders were respected and their axioms solemnly adopted, fixed like stars in her firmament of personal opinion. "When it's gone, it's gone", she would gravely declare, whenever my hard-won pocket money was accorded the light of day. In the frequent absence of even those meagre resources, she would lovingly attempt to assuage my callow chagrin, by helpfully noting "well at least you can't spend what you don’t have". Conversely, the hopeful offering "If you don't ask.." was made all the more powerful by its truncation, subliminally obliging me to complete the idiom, "...you don't get." inevitably planting seeds of hope and possibility in my soft, fertile head. With that in mind, I decided to drop a brief line to the richest man in the world.
By John Duffield5 years ago in Motivation
Address to Nowhere
Based on a true story. David was living the wrong kind of life. He decided this, all of a sudden, right as he was lifting his key into the hole of a tin mail box in his apartment complex. A group of rogue teenage boys were kicking something around on a lobby floor splotched with stains, laughing louder than they needed to. An elderly man carried his cane and his mail tucked under his arm as he left without saying hello. Everything was the same, and David couldn’t pinpoint anything that would suddenly motivate him to reevaluate his life. Maybe it was that sameness that finally got to him.
By Teralyn Pilgrim5 years ago in Motivation
The Roller Coaster Tycoon
P.1 GOOD-BYE, FOR NOW. The house is colder than usual today. Earlier this morning, I watched from the entrance of the airport's security cue as my wife and daughter went through it without me. I stood there for a moment, dreaming of the day I could afford to go away with them whenever I pleased. They had to go back east on bereavement; a justifiable domestic flight during a global pandemic. To make this trip worth the inherent risk, they will be out of town for a while. I intend to make the most of this time alone. Maybe I’ll start a home workout regiment or finish a couple of books I’ve been meaning to.
By Antonio Cordero5 years ago in Motivation
