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You Can Join The Real Success Masters By Developing A Positive Mental Attitude

By Brendan McKeogh

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 01Nov2009 Word count: 782 Viewed: 61 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Our modern world gives each of us fantastic opportunities that no-one could have even dreamed about a century ago.

Looking back to a time before the motor car was affordable to the working man, before the telephone was commonly available, before television even existed, never mind computers and the internet, it would seem that people's lives were very restricted compared to the luxuries that we enjoy today.

But some things have changed very little. Over a hundred years ago, Marden wrote:

"Everywhere we see people who have reached middle life or later without being aroused. They have developed only a small percentage of their success possibilities. They are still in a dormant state. The best thing in them lies so deep that it has never been awakened. When we meet these people we feel conscious that they have a great deal of latent power that has never been exercised. Great possibilities of usefulness and of achievement are, all unconsciously, going to waste within them."

And much more recently, Ed Foreman said:

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends too soon - but that we wait so long to begin it."

These two high achievers, born more than eighty years apart, achieved extraordinary financial success while still in their twenties. Neither inherited any wealth or position, but both were of the same mindset - "Live life to the full, on your own terms and with a smile on your face". Anything less and you are simply wasting your one and only lifetime.

Here's a little background on Ed Foreman. In the 1950s he was working as an oilfield hand on a drilling rig in West Texas, when he devised a unique and innovative method of drilling oil and gas wells faster and safer - utilizing an oilfield waste product.

Ed realized he needed to borrow $50k from the bank to develop his idea. His enthusiastic proposal convinced the bank so successfully, that he secured a loan for twice what he really needed - $100,000. This was one of his eureka moments:

"people will believe in you as much as you believe in yourself".

Using his idea, he launched a highly successful petroleum-related business which made him a millionaire by the age of 26.

But having creating this enormous wealth so rapidly, and at such a young age, Ed Foreman became the subject of an in depth tax investigation by the IRS - for a whole year!

His first-hand experience of the size and power of the federal government concerned Ed so much that he decided to go to Washington to change the situation.

He became the only person to be elected to the U.S. Congress from two different states. He has also served as an advisor to six U.S. Presidents.

He has since gone on to become one of the United States' most sought after motivational speakers.

Here are some of Ed's most famous quotes:

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got."

"Worry is nothing more or less than negative goal setting."

"Winners develop the habit of doing the things losers don't like to do."

"Life is primarily for laughing, loving, and living. It ain't for whining, worrying, and working!"

"There is no such a thing as a failure - just a learning experience"

Having the same "do it now!" attitude as Foreman, Marden wrote more than once about the pitiful trend for people to wait until things are "just so" before embarking on any change in career, lifestyle, a new business venture or relocation. He reminds his readers that life is passing them by - and that time lost can never be recovered (unlike money, property or business, which can be regained, given sufficient determination).

Marden also encourages with the reminder that there is no upper age limit for achievement:

"I have known several men who never realized their possibilities until they reached middle life. Then they were suddenly aroused, as if from a long sleep, by reading some inspiring, stimulating book, by listening to a sermon or a lecture, or by meeting some friend — some one with high ideals — who understood, believed in, and encouraged them."

The positive mental attitude and possibility-thinking of success masters like Orison Swett Marden and Ed Foreman have created the revolution in transport and communication over the past hundred years which we should all be grateful for.

And now it's over to you! Tell yourself that it's never too late to follow a dream. Your age, sex and geographical location are no longer the barriers they once may have been. All that really matters is what you do right now - and what you do next.

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