We generally are where we are and who we are in life as the result of circumstance. It's usually not the circumstance themselves that are the cause of our condition—it's the choices we've made and the actions we've taken or not taken within the context of those circumstances that have created the "reality in which we live."

I'm not casting blame, nor am I ignoring the fact there are incredible challenges, disadvantages, hardships, and even cruelty in the world. Some of the conditions and situations people of the world have had to endure exceed my capacity to imagine or perhaps even cope. But for most of us, living in relative safety, freedom, and within the confines of civilized societies, there's more than simply "hope", there's the opportunity to create the life we can imagine.

--Spike Humer here

"I had to learn how to collaborate across disciplines, how to change gears when changing from research to development, how to make industry work - in short, how to be both effective and productive."

--Dr. James W. Black

Too busy? Can't spare the time? You are not alone.

Yet strangely enough, people can always find days, weeks, months and sometimes years to do things again – and again - after they get them wrong … but not the few hours it takes to find out how to do them right in the first place.

--Drayton Bird

Q. What are you trying to drive into people’s heads when you say, “It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s you.”

A. Look, what happened yesterday is now done. Tomorrow is a new day. I have to cut my costs viciously. I have to spend a great deal more time on my sales and marketing, and I have to stop whining and get to work.

--George Cloutier, founder of American Management Services
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/business/smallbusiness/11sbiz.html
http://www.amserv.com/

"I think that the successful Entrepreneur will continually create more opportunity and the unsuccessful Entrepreneur will continually give excuses for their challenges."

--Bill Glazer, GKIC

"If you improve by just 1 percent a day, in 70 days you’re twice as good."

[...]

"The good news and the bad news is that it takes only 1 percent a day, because while that sounds eminently achievable, it also denies you the excuse of volume, magnitude, and overwhelm. The sad reason that most people cannot make their dreams come true has more to do with procrastination than inability; delay rather than obstacle; lassitude instead of immovable objects."

--Alan Weiss in Thrive! Stop Wishing Your Life Away (http://bit.ly/auP7PJ)

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't as all. You can be discouraged by failure -- or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you will find success. "

-- Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (Founder and former CEO of IBM)