Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have read more

Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.

Opportunity comes in a once while, you got to see it, just like a shooting star.

Opportunity comes in a once while, you got to see it, just like a shooting star.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
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Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

You just don't luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, read more

You just don't luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities.

They do me wrong who say I come no more,
When once I know and fail to find you read more

They do me wrong who say I come no more,
When once I know and fail to find you in;
For every day I stand outside your door
And bid you wait, and rise to fight and win.

Yet he who grasps the moment's gift,
He is the proper man.
[Ger., Der den Augenblick ergreift,
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Yet he who grasps the moment's gift,
He is the proper man.
[Ger., Der den Augenblick ergreift,
Das ist der rechte Mann.]

The man who grasps an opportunity as it is paraded before him, nine times out of ten makes a success, read more

The man who grasps an opportunity as it is paraded before him, nine times out of ten makes a success, but the man who makes his own opportunities is, barring an accident, a sure-fire success

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

The actual fact is that in this day Opportunity not only knocks
at your door but is playing an read more

The actual fact is that in this day Opportunity not only knocks
at your door but is playing an anvil chorus on every man's door,
and then lays for the owner around the corner with a club. The
world is in sore need of men who can do things. Indeed, cases
can easily be recalled by every one where Opportunity actually
smashed in the door and collared her candidate and dragged him
forth to success. These cases are exceptional, usually you have
to meet Opportunity half-way. But the only place where you can
get away from Opportunity is to lie down and die. Opportunity
does not trouble dead men, or dead ones who flatter themselves
that they are alive.