Resilience & Adversity
Persistence through setbacks, adversity, and hard times.
And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 12:24 · Harvard Gazette
12:24 of 23:51All quotes from this speech →
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
Verified sourceThe Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination · Watch at 14:00 · Harvard Gazette
14:00 of 23:51All quotes from this speech →
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 6:55 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
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And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?
Verified source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · Watch at 5:44 · Steve Jobs Archive on YouTube
5:44 of 14:26All quotes from this speech →
And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
Verified source2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas at Austin · Watch at 5:55 · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin
5:55 of 19:29All quotes from this speech →
If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.
Verified source2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas at Austin · Watch at 15:31 · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin
15:31 of 19:29All quotes from this speech →
As delivered If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest
What I'm asking for is hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don't matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.
SourceState of the Union address (January 2016) · via Wikiquote
The ways of Providence being inscrutable, and the justice of it not to be scanned by the shallow eye of humanity, nor to be counteracted by the utmost efforts of human power or wisdom, resignation, and as far as the strength of our reason and religion can carry us, a cheerful acquiescence to the Divine Will, is what we are to aim.
SourceLetter to Colonel Bassett · National Archives on Founders Online
My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than can be reasonably expected; but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty, and to your country, which you probably can never do under any other circumstances.
SourceWashington, encouraging his men to re-enlist in the army · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth New Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.
SourceLetter to Major General Philip Schuyler · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
SourceCNN interview (2011) · via Wikiquote
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
Source2005 Stanford Commencement Address · via jamesclear.com
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
SourceAs quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates · via Wikiquote
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
SourceAs quoted in The Story of Walt Disney (1957) · via Wikiquote
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
SourceSpeech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address. · via Wikiquote
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
SourceSpeech in the House of Commons (4 June 1940). · via Wikiquote
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
SourceThe Second World War (1939–1945) · via Wikiquote
Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.
SourceEarly career (1897–1929) · via Wikiquote
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
SourceThe Second World War (1939–1945) · via Wikiquote
Never give in - never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
SourceSpeech given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, October 29, 1941 · via Wikiquote
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.
Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say.
I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.
There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.
I really don't have much respect for the people who live their lives motivated by an exit strategy existing, being performed. There was no option that we were trained in that says, 'If it gets too hard, get up and leave.'
If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on.
Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,' he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. 'Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do.
Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can't stop marching. Even when they're turning the hoses on you, you can't stop.
So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you - and fight alongside you - until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.
With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I'm going to press on for equality. I'm going to press on for the sake of our children. I'm going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I am going to press on.
Through every victory and every setback, I've insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn't meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.
Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.
For all the supporters of Tesla over the years, and it's been several years now and there have been some very tough times, I'd just like to say thank you very much. I deeply appreciate the support, particularly through the darkest times.
You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.
The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to because if you're really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.
Good luck has its storms.
When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.
Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.
The very important thing you should have is patience.
There's an examination for young people to go to university. I failed it three times. I failed a lot. So I applied to 30 different jobs and got rejected. I went for a job with the police; they said, 'You're no good.' I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted.
The lessons I learned from the dark days at Alibaba are that you've got to make your team have value, innovation, and vision. Also, if you don't give up, you still have a chance. And, when you are small, you have to be very focused and rely on your brain, not your strength.
In the beginning I just wanted to survive. For the first three years, we made zero revenue. I remember many times when I was trying to pay up, the restaurant owner would say, 'Your bill was paid.' And there would be a note saying, 'Mr. Ma, I'm your customer on the Alibaba platform. I made a lot of money, and I know you don't, so I paid the bill.'
I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.
What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you - what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind - you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn't a strategy.
Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.
There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don't put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.
As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you - but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.
I'm not the type to pat myself on the back and all that, but somebody has to be lucky, right? When I got to Dallas, I was struggling - sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation.
Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn't smooth. You'll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don't believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don't give up.
It's, like, even in journeys like Facebook, we've had some very serious ups and downs.
So the pie isn't perfect? Cut it into wedges. Stay in control, and never panic.
Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.
If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
I hope the millions of people I've touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and persevere with a positive attitude.
I will not quit this game because of what the media has done to me.
Playing sick. That is so hard to do. It has to be a total mental challenge, as well as the physical challenge.
Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.
Every stumble is not a fall, and every fall does not mean failure.
The struggle of my life created empathy - I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.
If you go to Minnesota in January, you should know that it's gonna be cold. You don't panic when the thermometer falls below zero.
Your problems never cease. They just change.
Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.
My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you're moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.
I'm not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.
I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.
Believe me, my journey has not been a simple journey of progress. There have been many ups and downs, and it is the choices that I made at each of those times that have helped shape what I have achieved.
In our business, things look like a failure until they're not. It's pretty binary transitions.
If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration.
If anything, you know, I think losing makes me even more motivated.
I've had to learn to fight all my life - got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.
I'm definitely not at my best. Honestly, I'm under 50 percent. But I've won stuff under 50 percent before.
I decided I can't pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.
I'm not used to crying. It's a little difficult. All my life I've had to fight. It's just another fight I'm going to have to learn how to win, that's all. I'm just going to have to keep smiling.
I've always been a fighter and I've always fought through things my whole life.
I don't know if I've had my share of drama, but I've definitely had my share of hard times.
My story isn't over... This is just a new part of my life. My baby is going to be in the stands - hopefully cheering for me and not crying too much!
I always have an optimistic view, no matter what it is.
I always have confidence, whether I miss four in a row or make four in a row, that the next one's going in. To a coach, sometimes that might not make sense.
We're not going to go 82-0 and blow everybody out. We are going to be challenged.
In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible.
There's no better way to test a person than to put them in the middle of a war. That's clearly going to show what kind of a character you're telling a story about.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!
Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.
You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help the team win. I think you have to take the good with the bad.
I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'd play one year in the NFL, and now I'm going on my 17th year.
To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it's digging deep, it's doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.
Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.
When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to swim.
I don't care who you are, life has challenges.
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.
The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.
Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.
Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent's pressure, and the temporary failures.
Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.
It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.
In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.
You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time. You know, all time is uncertain. I mean, it was uncertain back in - in 2007, we just didn't know it was uncertain. It was - uncertain on September 10th, 2001. It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn't know it.
Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We'll break out of it. It takes time.
We're still in a recession. We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.
When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.
We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Never, never, never give up.
Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to the speaker. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
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