Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure
and the wounds of mediority. Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard
where there is fruit for all. Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest
and fullest vines in the vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession
who have come before me,generation upon generation. Today I will savor the taste
of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in
each and new life will sprout within me.The career I have chosen is laden with
opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those
who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast a shadow down upon all
the pyramids of the earth. Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now
hold the charts which will guide through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday
seemed but a dream.Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature
made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my
life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted
it as I accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which
will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far
beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides
will seem no more than my just reward.Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but
I have not the luxury of eternity. Yet within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience
for nature acts never in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required.
An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me.
Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesman.
And how will this be accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to
achieve the greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity.
The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary
knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge
and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated,
usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.In truth, experience teaches thoroughly
yet her course of instruction devours men's years so the value of her lessons diminishes with
the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore,
experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and
impractical tomorrow.Only principles endure and these I now possess, for the laws that will lead
me to greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls. What they will teach me is more to
prevent failure than to gain success, for what is success other than a state of mind? Which two,
among a thouand wise men, will define success in the same words; yet failure is always described
but one way. Failure is man's inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be.
In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have successed
lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits
are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all
others is --I will form good habits and become their slave.As a child I was slave to my
impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men. I have surrendered my free
will to the years of accumulated habits and the past deeds of my life have already marked
out a path which threatens to imprison my future. My actions are ruled by appetite,
passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these
tyrants is habit. Therefore, if I must be a slave to habit let me be a slave to good habits.
My bad habits must be destroyed and new furrows prepared for good seed.
I will form good habits and become their slave.