It takes a strong man

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It takes a strong man to save himself, and a great man to save another

These walls are funny.
First you hate them, then you get used to them.
Enough time passes, you depend on them.
That’s institutionalized.
I guess it comes down to a simple: get busy living or get busy dying.
In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshark Prison.
All they found of them was a muddy set of prison clothes,
a bar of soap and an old rock-hammer damn near worn down to nub.
I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years
to tunnel through the wall with it.
Old Andy did it in less than twenty.

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Lay this brick perfectly

One summer, his dad tore down a brick wall in the front of his business
and told 12-year-old Will and his 9-year-old brother to rebuilde it.
A job they said was impossible.
It took them a year and a half, but they did it.
And he said,“now don’t you ever tell me there’s something that you can’t do.”

You don’t set out to build a wall.
You don’t say, I’m going to build the biggest,
baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.
You don’t start there.
You say, I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.
You do that every single day.
And soon you have a wall.

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Do what you need to do

I have a great time with my life, and I want to share it.
I love living.
I think that’s infectious, it’s something you can’t fake.
Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric elusive god-like fearture
that only special people possess.
It something that turly exists within all of us. It’s very simple.
This is what I believe, and I’m willing die for it.
Period.
It’s that simple.
I know who I am, I know what I believe, and that’s all I need to know.
From there, you do what you need to do.
You know.
I think what happens is we make the situation more complex.

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Sickening work ethic

The separation of talent and skill is the greatest misunderstood comcepts
for pelple who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things.
Talent you have naturally.
Skill is developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.
I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented.
And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic.
You know while the other guy’s sleeping. I’m working.
While the other guy’s eating. I’m working.
There’s no easy way around it.

No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled.
If you don’t study, work really hard
and dedicate yourself to getting better every single day.
You’ll never be able to communicate your artistry
to people the way that you want.
The only thing that I see that is distinctly different aboout me is
that I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill.
You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me,
but if we get on a treadmill together, there’re two things.
You’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die.
It’s really that simple.

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Bend your universe

Our thoughts, feelings, dreams, and ideas are physical in the universe.
If we dream something, if we picture something,
and if we commit ourselves to it –
that is physical thrust towards realization that we send out into the universe.
The universe is not a thing that’s going to push us around.
The world, people and situations are not going to push us around.

We are going to bend the unierse.
We are going to command and demand
that the universe become what we want it to be.
I studied the patterns of the universe.
There’s a redemptive power that making a chioce has.
Rather than feeling like you’re just affected
by all the things happening, make a choice.
Just decide what you’re gonna be and how you’re gonna do it.
Just decide.
From that point on, the Universe is gonna get out your way.

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Super hard

The first is you need to work, if you,
depending on how well you want to do.
Particularly if you’re starting a company,
you need to work super hard.
So what does super hard mean?
Well, when my brother and I were starting up our first company,
instead of getting an apartment, we just rented a small office.
And we slept on the couch.
And we showered at the YMCA.
We’re so hard up.
We had just one computer.
The website was up during the day, and I was coding at night,
seven days a week, all the time.
And I briefly had a girlfriend at that period.
And in order to be with me, she had to sleep in the office.
So I work hard like at every waking hour.
That’s the thing I would say particularly if you are starting a company.
And if you do simple math, say like,
if somebody else is working 50 hours, and you’re working 100,
you’ll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.

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Think different

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

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