The First Commandment of Success

Thou Must Labor Each Day As If Thy Life Hung In The Balance.

You were not created for a life of idleness. You cannot eat from sunrise to sunset or drink or play or make love. Work is not your enemy but your friend. If all manners of labor were forbidden to thee you would fall to your knees and beg an early death.

You need not love the tasks you do. Even kings dream of other occupations. Yet you must work and it is how you do, not what you do, that determines the course of your life. No man who is careless with his hammer will ever build a palace.

You may work grudgingly or you may work gratefully; you may work as a human or you may work as an animal. Still, there is no work so rude that you may not exalt it; no work so demeaning that you cannot breathe a soul into it; no work so dull that you may not enliven it.

Always perform all that is asked of you and more. Thy reward will come.

Know that there is only one certain method of attaining success and that is through hard work. If you are unwilling to pay this price for distinction, be prepared for a lifetime of mediocrity and poverty.

Pity those who abuse you and ask why you deliver so much in return for so little. Those who give less, receive less.

Never be tempted to diminish your efforts, even if ye should labor for another. You are no less a success if someone else is paying you to work for yourself. Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

Be grateful for your tasks and the8r demands. If it were not for your work, no matter how distasteful it may seem, you could neither eat so much, nor relish so pleasantly, nor sleep so soundly, nor be so healthful, nor enjoy the secure smiles of gratitude from those who love you for what you are, not for what you do.