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Good Afternoon. Here is a great thought for the day:

If you take 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, do you have any idea what will happen to those men and women by the time they're 65? These 100 people who all start even at the age of 25 believe they're going to be successful. If you asked any one of these people if they wanted to be a success, they would tell you they did... and you'd notice that they were eager toward life, that there was a certain sparkle in their eye, an erectness to their carriage, and life seemed like a pretty interesting adventure to them.

But by the time they're 65, one will be rich, four will be financially independent, five will still be working, and 54 will be broke.

So, of 100, only five make the grade! Why do so many fail? What has happened to the sparkle that was there when they were 25? What has become of the dreams, the hopes, the plans... and why is there such a large disparity between what these people intended to do and what they actually accomplished?

When we say about five percent achieve success, we have to define success. Here is the best definition I've ever been able to find:

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

If someone is working toward a predetermined goal, and knows where he or she is going, that person is a success. If they are not doing that, they are failures. "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal."

Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a wonderful book called Man's Search for Himself, and in this book, he says, "The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice... it is conformity."

Conformity - People acting like everyone else... without knowing why or where they are going.

In America right now, there are over 25 million people 65 years of age and older... and most of them are broke; they're dependent on someone else for life's necessities. We learn to read by the time we're seven. We learn to make a living by the time we're 25. Usually by that time we're not only making a living, we're supporting a family. And yet by the time we're 65, we haven't learned how to become financially independent in the richest land that has ever been known. Why? We conform!

The trouble is that we're acting like the wrong percentage group — the 95 percent who don't succeed.

Why do these people conform? Well, they really don't know. These people believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances... by things that happen to them... by exterior forces. They're outer-directed people.

A survey was made of working people and they were asked, "Why do you work? Why do you get up in the morning?" Nineteen out of 20 had no idea. If you ask them, they would say, "Well, everybody goes to work in the morning." And that's the reason they do it — because everyone else is doing it.

Now, let's get back to our definition of success. Who succeeds?

The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. He's the person who says, "I'm going to become this"... and then begins to work toward that goal.

Here's the best part. It's never too late. Ray Kroc was 52 when he opened the first McDonald's. Find your dream and live it!

Have a wonderful day.

"Each morning is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When the sun rises tomorrow this day will be gone forever, in its place will be something you have left — may it be something good. Follow your heart, it knows what to do."

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