Customer Reviews

Triumph from Failure: Lessons from Life for Business Success

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This book does one basic job and it does it well. It shows how to think about 10 areas of life that are essential to being happily successful in both work and personal achievement. If you think about these areas this way and behave in accordance with this philosophy, you increase your probabilities of accomplishment, contentment, health and prosperity.

This is a book of philosophical essays. The authors don't use stories, motivational anecdotes, how-to's or lists of resources for further study to accomplish their goals. (Although they include short quotations and examples.) However, you don't have to be an intellectual to read this. It is clear, simple and understandable to an average high school student. And the philosophies can be easily applied. Just be aware that the authors do not hold you by the hand and tell you the possible applications. They do not attempt to entertain you, but simply challenge you to think more effectively about important issues. They offer no cheerleading to spark your enthusiasm, but rather a rationale for thinking of issues in particular ways.

To enjoy this book, you have to appreciate the simple, unadorned imparting of wisdom.

Focusing on how to make happiness more readily available to anyone, this book covers the following features/chapters: kindness, rhythm (my favorite), beauty, eating, sleep, failure, understanding, success and imagination. The first seven are great in substance and well refined writings. An inspirational cleanser for the mind and heart. Recommended!

Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.

Our aches and pains conform to opinion. A man is as miserable as he thinks that he is. - Seneca pg xii

Kindness is the fuel of civiilization, politeness and courtesy its etiquette, its formalities, and dignity its aim. It is about responsibility for your own actions, and it is about tolerating other people's actions. One person trying to accept another's habits is the essence of civilization. pg 1

Struggle to preserve your nocturnal rhythm and do not change your habits. The time scale of your problem will be far longer than you expect. pg 17

You gain respect by allowing people to be who they are and who they are not and particularly not expecting them to be who you are. pg 19

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon which itself never makes its appearance but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself. - Goethe pg 31

Sitting a few feet away from a great celebrity in a friendly restaurant or club may well add spice to our existence; it is not, however, an existence in itself. To let yourself believe that something as these can be an existence or even an important part of that existence is an act of self delusion on a grand scale. pg 39

Tiredness is often the cause of mistakes. With tiredness comes the need to bring matters to a conclusion, however disadvantageous that conclusion may be. pg 47

The true art of success is learning how to cope with failure, and understanding its enlightening rewards. Approach the great chain of life one link at a time. - Churchill pg 60

Many well known people have pinned up a photo of a hero or actress on their wall and years later realized their dreams came true in connection with that hero by training the mind to focus on desire. pg 62