How to Succeed in Life: Ideas and Principles They Don’t Teach in School - Softcover

Grossman, Ned

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0964871025 ISBN 13: 9780964871021

Publisher: Diamond Publishing Company, 2023

Synopsis

More than 40,000 copies in print . . .

Ned first wrote this book as a gift for his children. He also gave away copies to business associates, friends and acquaintances. He soon was besieged with requests:

• Psychologists wanted copies for their patients.
• Teachers asked for copies for their students.
• Company presidents requested books for their employees.

Over many years, How to Succeed in Life has been reprinted nine times and has been read, enjoyed, and shared by tens of thousands of people of all ages.

“This is a great book that every person starting a business or planning their business career must read.” — H. Ross Perot

“This book is a treasure chest of wisdom and insight on how to create a successful and fulfilling life.” — Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

“Books have been an important part of my life since early childhood. Now, at age 90, I read at least two new books every week … How to Succeed in Life is one I have just finished. It is great.” —Ruth Stafford Peale (Mrs. Norman Vincent Peale), Peale Center for Christian Living

About this title

About the Author

Ned Grossman has spent more than a quarter of a century studying and implementing the ideas and principles that have helped him achieve personal and professional success. As the owner of an employee benefits consulting firm with a client base that includes school systems, law firms and corporations, he believes that there are no shortcuts to success. Throughout his adult life, Ned has made it a practice to jot down anecdotes, thoughts and inspirational quotations which he believes can help make the difference between a life of mediocrity and success. When his children were in grade school, Ned started writing a book for them --- one in which he would share those thoughts, life experiences and words of wisdom --- one that could guide them on their own paths to happiness and success. Ten years later, with his daughter in college and his son in high school, Ned presented his children with the long-awaited book. He did it for himself and his children. But when he gave the book away to friends and acquaintances, an avalanche of letters and requests for more copies encouraged him to print additional copies for national distribution. A steady flow of letters and requests from business people, educators, parents, psychologists and students keep on coming. Ned has lived his entire life in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. A baseball enthusiast, he considers himself fortunate to have lived to see one of his fondest dreams come true --- a championship baseball team in Cleveland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way." CHRISTOPHER MORLEY What a beautiful, simple, meaningful thought. If you are doing what you enjoy, what makes you comfortable, what makes you feel good, what makes you happy, then you are successful. Success does not equate to wealth or status. It has nothing to do with what other people think about you or your actions. Success has only to do with your own opinions of yourself and what you are doing. If you can get to the point where you can take each day that you are alive, enjoy it fully and make your life work on your own terms by cultivating your own sense of purpose and your own sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, what more can you ask for? How much more successful can you be than enjoying your own life? Henry Thoreau said, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. "Note carefully the phrase: "In the direction of his dreams"---not your parents' dreams, your spouse's or your friend's dreams, but your own dreams. Live the life which you have imagined. If you are not doing what is right and comfortable for you, how can you expect to "be right" for your parents, your spouse, your kids, your friends, or your colleagues? Trying to put yourself into a mold created by someone else will lead you to nothing but frustration, anxiety, tension, pressure, and failure. You can not have a sense of purpose and a sense of accomplishment by leading your life to please others. You only achieve internal satisfaction from your own achievements, not from what anyone else thinks. Nothing is more important to you as a human being than having your own daily sense of purpose and mission. Running guru George Sheehan says, "Success rests with having the courage and endurance and, above all, the will to become the person you are, however peculiar that may be. Then you will be able to say, 'I have found my hero and he is me!"' We all want to feel special, significant, and important. We cannot do it by living in the past or waiting for the future. It is living today, now, this moment. Give yourself the freedom and the opportunity to enjoy this moment. It is not your money, prestige, power or awards, but your thoughts, feelings and emotions that give you a sense of purpose. Success is what you feel inside and how you evaluate yourself as a human being. Whatever personal definition you have for success, it is imperative to understand that success is not an accident. It is absolutely predictable and can be earned by anyone. Success begins inside you---it is a state of mind. It is a function of your character and personality. You carry it with you everywhere. It is as much a part of you as your arms, legs, eyes and ears. You must equate yourself with success. Success is not due to luck or the breaks or circumstances or the environment. Success is a matter of finding yourself and building upon what you find. We can all become successful, if we will build upon our greatest assets, our own natural resources, the powers that lie within us all. One excellent definition of success is, "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. "This concept means that people working daily to achieve something they consider realistic and worthy are successful. People with dreams in their minds and hearts that they are actively pursuing are successful. With this very simple definition of success, wouldn't you think that everyone would be successful? Obviously, they are not. Ninety-five percent of us are not successful because we do not know the rules for success. We have no road map, no specific objective, no goals. We are like ships sailing the seas with no specific destination. We just float along and never reach any worthwhile port. People who really achieve greatness create a vision in their own minds of exactly what and who they want to become, and then they steer themselves toward that vision. Success does not lie in achievement; it lies in striving, reaching, attempting and growing. The only person who can be called a failure is someone who has stopped trying. If you want to be successful, you must learn proven success methods and techniques. One method is the law of attraction which says that whatever thoughts dominate your thinking, you will attract people and circumstances with similar ideas. Our success, or lack of it, can be influenced by the people with whom we associate. If you associate with positive, successful people, you will pattern your actions accordingly. Success is a matter of habit. We can develop successful habits, live them daily and master them. We can learn how and why other people have become successful and then adopt their habits and philosophies for ourselves. If there is a short-cut to success, it is to learn from others. Do not waste time re-inventing the wheel. Examine the life and behavior of everyone you encounter. Emulate the good. Reject the bad. Success is definable and predictable. Learning success is no different than learning cooking, engineering, knitting or golf. You must learn and know what success is and then: JUST DO IT! Become an expert at success. Take courses and seminars. Read books and, easiest of all, listen to tapes. Success frequently requires the discipline to delay short-term gratification in order to enjoy greater long-term rewards. Unfortunately, the natural human tendency is to get the things we want now, without concern for the long-term consequences of our short-term actions. There are two general groupings of successful people. The first group is "river" people. They have found an activity or a career that has fascinated them and have thrown themselves into it with passion, exuberance and abandon. They work and play in this "river" of interest and love every minute of it. Their work is play and their play is work. Life is a continual joy, a bundle of happiness. Because they love what they are doing, they do it easily, enthusiastically and successfully. What is your "river" of interest? What do you enjoy doing more than anything else? What can you see yourself becoming "the best" at? You do most often, and with the greatest ease, what you enjoy. If you do not like what you are doing enough to want to be the best, you should start doing something that you absolutely love. Life is too short to waste it doing something you do not enjoy. The second group of successful people is goal-oriented. They are happy doing many different things. Attaining their goals is important to them. They make up their minds what they want and keep their eyes and enthusiasm on those goals until they become reality. They enjoy life best by wrapping up one goal and starting right on the next one. For best results, try to find your "river" of interest and become goal-oriented. Can you imagine a more unbeatable combination? Success is a matter of complete mental fitness. It is a euphoric feeling of self-confidence, happiness, enthusiasm and a positive mental attitude that allows us to exist in our world and simply be the human being that we want to be.

Edition details

• Publisher: Diamond Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0964871025
• ISBN 13: 9780964871021
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 246