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Lack of Motivation

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I've been getting little emails every day with nice motivational quotes. Stuff like "What you think, you become" and "Success means doing what makes you happy" When you are an inventor like me, everybody is more than willing to give you advice -- most of it negative. I guess negative advice is the safest to give. Getting little emails each day makes me think of all the other folks who perservered. They keep me focused.

Lately I've been getting repeats. It started a couple weeks ago, when I got "Whatever you're ready for is ready for you."

I distinctly remembered hearing that one before.

The next Monday, I got "If you've had wonderful family relationships, you will be able to call yourself a true success in life no matter what else you've achieved."

Now I know I had that one before.

What's up? Are the guys at the motivational quote company sending me a hint? Should I have been paying more attention to being ready for things that are ready for me? And just what the heck does that mean, anyway? Sounds like something they would say on the old Kung Fu show.

"The grasshopper is ready for the things that are ready. He does not wait for readiness to arrive"

I never understood those bald guys in that Kung Fu show. Every episode, David Carradine would get into some kind of trouble, then he would remember some bald guy telling him about grasshoppers. At the beginning of the show, they had a bunch of bald guys throwing spears at him, which he deflected, making him walk over hot coals, and shooting arrows at him.

I don't think those bald guys liked David Carradine that much.

So in the interest of being self motivational, i thought I would put some quotes in here for you guys to think about. These are all quotes by respected and educated people about how silly some idea or another was. They were completely wrong. I'll just think of them as my old bald guys for this week.

I sure hope they don't have any guns.

And there's nothing at all in here about grasshoppers.

It's impossible

  • "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
  • "Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
  • "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

Even if it works, it's a dumb idea

  • "A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
  • "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
  • "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
  • "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.


2 Comments

"You may be whatever you resolve to be." Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. He was right, assuming prayerful consideration and resolution to accomplish the results of the consideration.

Thanks.

That's a good one.

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This page contains a single entry by DanielBMarkham published on July 19, 2006 6:10 PM.

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  • Daniel Markham: Thanks. That's a good one. read more
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