Making Choices for Success

Whatever dreams you decide to go after, whether it is a family or career goal, you must consciously decide that it is your life's mission.

Benjamin Disraeli said, "The secret of success is constancy of purpose."  You must go at it obsessively and set high standards for yourself along the way.

There is no room for compromise when you are charting a course for your life or your career.

How to Seek Excellence

All of us would like to do well. Some people, however, set higher goals and eventually achieve more than others.

What explains the difference? In his book Live Your Dreams, Les Brown offers a blueprint for success that starts with high expectations. Although he was born into poverty, adopted and raised by a single mother, and at one time was labeled "educable mentally retarded," Les Brown became a disc jockey, a three-term Ohio legislator, and an acclaimed public speaker. He energizes audiences around the country in professional seminars and on television, sharing his dreams and summarizing his strategies for success.

He recognizes the difficulties faced by many, but passes along George Washington Carver's advice that we should judge people not by what they have but by what they have had to overcome to succeed.