There is no point in sitting around thinking about getting started.  If you have not made up your mind already, promise yourself, you will do as soon as possible. Commit now, or leave your dreams behind. Begin now, or turn away.

On Humiliation.

Chances come to everyone in life, often on the most unexpected occasions, radiating risk and potential humiliation. Those prepared to stop what they are doing, analyse the risk, act in deadly earnest and bear possible humiliation – those are the “lucky” ones who, when the music stops, will find themselves holding a potful of things.

Anyone can stop what they are doing. A far smaller number develop the ability to analyse risk. And only a minute fraction are ready to bear the humiliation of being made to look a fool.

Common Impediments.

If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly and even catastrophically, you will never get far. If you care what the neighbour thinks, you will never get far.

If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry and concern to your family while you walk the narrow road, you will never get far. If you stay too long working for others, you will never get far.

If you have artistic inclinations and fear the search for wealth will coarsen your talents or degrade them, you will never be rich. If you are not prepared to work longer hours than anyone you know, you will never be rich. If you can not convince yourself that you are good enough to be rich, you will never be rich. If you can not treat your quest to get rich as a game – a silly game with serious rules – you will never be rich.

Start-up capital is just too precious to squander on physical purchases.

Compulsion trumps desire in two ways: intensity and longevity. Those who feel compelled are more likely to focus relentlessly and exclusively on the attainment of a particular goal. They are likely to shrug off repeated failure and return to the fray with pure energy.

Those who merely desire to achieve something, and then attempt it, risk not just failing, they risk undermining their self-belief.

Life is not a rehearsal. It requires a level of discipline and toleration of hardship which is damaging to what most people regard as the purpose of a fulfilled life.

Do not mistake the desire for compulsion. Only you can hear the song of your inner demon.

The fallacy of a Good Idea.

There is a fallacy rooted in the minds of many. Having a great idea is not enough. It is how ideas are executed that counts. Implementation will always trump sentiments, however good those ideas are.

Good ideas are like Nike sport shoes. They may facilitate success for an athlete who possesses them, but on their own, they are nothing but an overpriced pair of sneakers.

Sports shoes don’t win races. Athletes do.

In some instances, a fixation on a great idea can prove hazardous, distracting your attention from the perils and pitfalls you will inevitably encounter on the narrow road.

If you never have a single great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the incredible views of others, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. They do not have to be your ideas – execution is all.

When confronted with a great idea, your reaction should be to scrupulously analyse its commercial potential in the context of your ability to transform into triumph.

Don’t ask for permission before creating.

As Henry Ford pointed out if he’d asked his customers what they wanted before the first Model T rolled off the assembly line, they would have asked him for faster horses that ate less.

Notes read from The Rules of Life by Richard Templar.

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