Notes on the Common Denominator of Success by Albert Gray
In 1940, some guy named Albert Gray gave a jaw-dropping address at the National Association of Life Underwriters annual convention in Philadelphia. It is applicable to pretty much every human and you probably should read the whole thing. In the meantime, here are the quotes that punched me in the face:
The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.
Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don’t like to do. They don’t! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of life insurance salesmen.
Successful men are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods.
It is easier to adjust ourselves to the hardships of a poor living than it is to adjust ourselves to the hardships of making a better one.
Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. Men form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of man you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of man, and the only way you can change is through habit.
Any resolution or decision you make today has to be made again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and so on. And it not only has to be made each day, but it has to be kept each day, for if you miss one day in the making or keeping of it, you’ve got to go back and begin all over again. But if you continue the process of making it each morning and keeping it each day, you will finally wake up some morning a different man in a different world, and you will wonder what has happened to you and the world you used to live in.
Your needs will push you just so far, but when your needs are satisfied, they will stop pushing you. If, however, your purpose is in terms of wants and desires, then your wants and desires will keep pushing you long after your needs are satisfied and until your wants and desires are fulfilled.
There’s no courage in logic.
While you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender.
Thank you Mr. Gray, wherever you are.