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From My Perspective: A Take on "Warfare" and the Reality of Ramadi Working as contactor Hey everyone, RIK Hambright here. Ramadi veteran, and one of the few who lived the chaos you just watched in Warfare . Let me break it down for you—not as a critic, but as someone who breathed that dust, felt those concussions, and still carries the weight of 2006. The "Call on Me" Hype Train Turns out, SEAL Team 5 was bunked next door. Coincidence? Maybe. But when I saw that same track open the movie? Let’s just say I side-eyed the screen. Did they steal our pre-game ritual? The world may never know. The Ugly Truth: Freezing, Fog, and Fury The movie nails the chaos—**especially the freezing**. You think you’re Rambo until RPGs start cratering the street around you. I froze solid for minutes after an IED hit my team. Time slows. Your brain short-circuits. The film’s sound design? Perfect. After an explosion, everything goes muffled, like you’re drowning in a murky lake. You don’t “snap back”—you claw your way up from that underwater haze, praying your limbs still work. Hollywood Flubs (Because of Course) Not gonna lie—the Brit FV432s posing as our Bradleys? C’mon. We’d never hang gear on reactive armor unless we wanted a BBQ. But hearing “Bushmaster” over comms again? Chills. Those guys were our lifeline. Why Didn’t America Care? Here’s the Hard Truth After Ramadi, Coworkers shrugged when I mentioned Iraq. “Cool, man. Want a coffee?” The war was background noise—no draft, no stakes for 99% of folks. But in Ramadi? We patrolled 300 days straight. If you weren’t bleeding, you were back out there. No downtime. No therapists. Just adrenaline and ammo checks. Final Verdict Warfare is the first film to grip the raw terror and tedium of those wars. But that 2-hour rollercoaster? That was our Tuesday . If you want the full, unfiltered story—the brotherhood, the breakdowns, the moments no camera could capture—grab my memoir, Where Cowards Go to Die . Half of it’s dedicated to Ramadi. Because some stories need more than a credits scene. Stay sharp out there. —RIK Hambright BLACK WATER

The T4 commitment to customer satisfaction has not wavered since we opened our doors in 2006.  We want your shipping process to be as seamless as possible from beginning to end.  The carriers we work with rely on our team to properly explain the process and update the clients during the trip and our clients rely heavily on us to properly qualify the carriers that will be hauling their shipment.  We make ourselves available for updates and any issues that may come up during transport.  T4 has spent years perfecting a system that fuses the best clients, the best carriers, and the highest level of customer service into a fluid process that make shipping easy.

Freelance Journalist and Photographer Recently, while in Juarez, Mexico, covering the recent increasing trend of cartel upon cartel violence, I stumbled upon an opportunity to see first hand, another side of that country’s war against drugs. The highly lucrative kidnappings, extortion, and in some occurrences, murder of innocent citizens and immigrants from Central and South America by these warring cartels has gut-wrenchingly become commonplace for cities like Juarez. The omnipresent threat of abduction by these cartels has created big business in private security and risk management firms. And for the foreseeable future, this dangerous business in Mexico will unfortunately only continue to increase in its demand. I was eating a late diner at the restaurant in my hotel while going over my notes from an interview with a local police captain held earlier that morning when I noticed two very serious looking, American gentlemen take their seats at a table adjacent to mine, and it was clear to me that they were not part of the press corps. As a freelance journalist and photographer covering conflicts in many countries such as Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Mexico, I have gleaned the ability to be able to depict the personal presence of U.S. military special operations soldiers in a room of people in many ways. Not because of the obvious differences in uniform, kit, or special gear, but as there is a notable difference in how they each carry themselves while amongst most other soldiers or sailors. With my curiosity piqued as to what these two guys were doing down here in Juarez, I struck up a conversation about the sultry good looks of our mutual waitress, and eventually, several beers and a few jokes later, I joined them at their table. It came to light that these two men (one ex-SEAL and the other, a former elite Army commando – they introduced themselves by first names only) were part of a four-man team that just several hours earlier, had completed a hostage rescue operation of a recently abducted Chinese business man. Evidently, theirs was only a three day operation because luckily, the business man had worn a watch with an internal GPS transponder that was somehow, not taken by the kidnappers. These men stated that they were able to locate the watch via GPS within minutes, but two days of surveillance and planning were required to pull off the operation with the least risk to the principal. Over the course of a two hour diner, the men stated that they were “Tier 4” operators for the Houston, Texas-based, private military firm Hambright Protection Services, and that they perform a multitude of operations in Latin America all the time. The types of operations they claimed to perform range from executive body guarding services, asset and personnel recovery, military support services, unto property risk assessment, planning, and mitigation. The latter of the four services intrigued me the most. An example given to me of that service was another story of a recent operation performed in Honduras by these two men and one other. Evidently, their firm was hired by an un-named, private, Houston-based investment firm to inspect for one of their clients, multiple hectares of land that was to be used for the cultivation and harvesting of teak trees. The team covertly entered the jungle enveloped property via sky diving operations, and while performing a preliminary reconnaissance of the property, came across marijuana cultivators, illegally squatting on their client’s land. The story went on to describe how they mitigated the threats of the illegal drug cultivators, and then performed a real-time analysis of the property, to include the manufacturing of hand-drawn, topographical maps, and ravine sounding and bottom topographical maps (in case the client wanted to use barges to take to market their lumber), and as well, an analysis of potential pools of labor from surrounding communities. I was amazed that jobs like this actually exist. I had never thought of these kinds of special trade demands, or that such a market for them existed. I was still in shock to see two white American faces in Juarez that didn’t have press cards clipped to a pocket or dangling from a neck lanyard. Then the former Army commando offered some more depth to the overall picture encompassing how it has become that these men do what job it is that they perform, and how so many others will come to do the same in the near future. He asked me a question. He asked if for 10 years I was in the special operations community in the military, and then after that 10 years had passed, I immediately retired from the military service to work the next 10 years for various private military firms (like Hambright Protection Services), performing for these firms and their clientele all of the skills gained and mastered over the course of the past 20 years, like so many, many other soldiers and sailors alike have done, when all of the wars come to an end, what skill sets do I believe I possess can be even remotely applicable in the civilian world? He also reminded me, that when Blackwater was still known as Blackwater, private military operators in Iraq and Afghanistan were bringing home anywhere from $500.00 per day in wages up to $1,200.00 per day. The lifestyles these operator’s families stateside obviously increased due to the large sums of remuneration earned, and now that Iraq and Afghanistan are both rapidly winding down, and the demand for professional soldiers is decreasing too, however, the costs associated with the lifestyles their families are continuing to maintain are not changing. Therefore, as rates for professional soldiers have dropped in some cases to $450.00 per day due to a lessening of conflict, these professional soldiers will migrate to where ever the demand for their skills presents itself; hence, the fact that I was sharing diner with two former U.S. special operations operators in Juarez, Mexico. I was told to expect to start seeing an influx of guys just like the two men enjoying their meal right before me, both of whom, just hours before were rescuing a man from kidnap and torture. Whatever happened to the kidnappers I did not bother to ask, nor do I think I even needed to. With our meal completed, the bill equally paid, and the exchange of handshakes and pleasantries of farewell and wishing them good luck on their next potential operation in some undetermined location in Africa, now hours past, I sat in my room and thought. I rummaged through my thoughts about the stories of the types of operations these mercenaries perform, and how global circumstances have created great oppression, in turn driving the exponential demands for the special skills these men and women bring to the table. It was, and still is, a daunting thought to me that with nearly no applicable commercial skill sets to enter the U.S. civilian employment market in any other level than that of a minimum wage entry position, some of these operators will remain highly trained soldiers for hire to the highest bidders out there. I am keenly aware that not all of these high bidders are our friends. In fact, only a mere fraction may be. Taking everything in stride, I had to remind myself that I had just met these two men and that basically, I was taking in everything I was being told by them in good faith. I did like these guys and their larger than life individual presences and forthright demeanors while talking to me, and their intentional withholding of specific information from each operation they discussed with me for the protection of their clients, while maintaining discretion, also impressed me very much. They never bragged and only painted enough of a picture so that I could see and understand their story. I believe them. And just for the record, two days later before leaving Mexico myself, I spoke to a Chinese embassy contact in Mexico City via the telephone, and it was confirmed that a few days prior to my phone call, a Chinese citizen living and working in the city of Juarez was recovered by forces other than Mexican State police or Federal troops, and has since, safely returned to his country. In the only article I could find about the situation at hand, the local Juarez newspaper El Diario, simply reported that 8 heavily armed, suspected cartel members died in an early morning firefight when the house they were staying in was raided by unknown assailants, presumed to be opposing cartel members. There were no other casualties, or any mention of a hostage or the Chinese business man rescued at the mutually confirmed location of the operation. One more notch for the good guys.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 ACTUAL DETAILED AFTER ACTION REVIEW REPORT (taken from blogsite of the mercenary company: Hambright Protection Services) I received this very detailed, well-written, lessoned learned article from my COO a few months ago, which he received from one of our operations directors. He couldn’t stop laughing about it and told me that it was a must-read. It definitely is. Below is the original version of the article. The version that has been entered into the company’s archives is an edited version that offers a more succinct message to our newer operators. However, the humor that is embedded in the original version is simply too good to let go missed. Although it was drafted in a sarcastic, long story response to an order issued for an in-depth report, we all at Hambright Protection Services enjoyed it immensely. At the time, the author found little humor in everything that happened to him on that particular operation (I remember listening him and his team members being debriefed), but now he can laugh about it all. Therefore, as I have received exponential demand to release it, and as I share a close, personal relationship with the operator who authored the original version, and have gained his permission to share it with all who may be interested, I have decided to post it on the HPS blogsite, minus of course, any secure/classified information the original article contained. Enjoy gentlemen.      Rik Hambright CEO, Hambright Protection Services Lessons Learned Article   Working for a private military firm has its benefits, and of course, it’s negative sides as well. Working for Hambright Protection Services (HPS) allows me to travel the world over and work with other people, all of whom are at the top of their professional game. Even though we at the Tier – 4 Operator level at HPS, are highly seasoned and proven operators, we are still prone to make mistakes from time to time. I guess the cliché: “To be human is to err,” has its merits.  So, from time to time, when a mistake is made, that error is highlighted in the lessons learned section of the operation after action review briefing so that everyone can learn from the mishaps and hopefully, not assimilate the same misfortune. This article encompasses a situation in which several mistakes were made while performing a geographical threat sweep and survey on a client’s remote commercial property in central Panama near the town of Aguas Claras. I was given a direct order to draft an in-depth report of the accounts surrounding this situation for the company recording of lessons learned for future operators who join the ranks of Hambright Protection Services. Personally, I’m no idiot. Even though this in-depth article is going to be archived for said future training purposes, I know damn well and good that for twisted comedic purposes, everyone at HPS will receive a copy of this (even the receptionist and admin staff). And, ultimately, to actually live this down it will take either a lifetime of monk-like repentance, or an act of such great deed, like saving a flame-engulfed bus full of orphaned, syphilis-riddled leper children from falling off an overpass, or perhaps just acquiescing and getting all the guys hookers and putting the cost of their services on my damned AMEX card. Either way, as directed, the following is the “ in-depth ,” actual account, first hand, of what happened during the 2011 Op near Aguas Claras. *Note: As HPS protocol stipulates the names of the operators, the client, and the actual operation name will be omitted for the purpose of maintaining operational security. During the planning phase of the Op, we could depict from the satellite imagery we were given, that over half of the property wasn’t developed and consisted of thick rainforest with triple canopy coverage. We were briefed that the other part of the property had been developed two or three years before our client purchased the property, and since the development, large swaths of razor grass had taken over. The previous owner had evidently run out of money to develop the entire property for commercial use, and in a jungle environment, if the development of a property is not perpetually maintained, the jungle reclaims the land at an astonishing rate. As well, with the flora, naturally comes the fauna, and being as remote as this tract of land was, the local wildlife population was booming, everywhere. Some of the local wildlife inhabiting this property happened to be half the crux of the situation of lessons learned. The other half embarrassingly, was borne of both my own, and my teammates,’ bone-headed stupidity. My three man team arrived in Panama City on June 13th, 2011 and it was pouring. The rainy season was in full swing with a vengeance. Within the three minutes that it took for us to exit the air conditioned airport and catch a waiting cab so that we can go meet up with our Panamanian agent-contact, all our clothes were soaked through with perspiration due to the insanely high humidity. It seriously looked like I had pissed my damn pants. The humidity was at 100% making the air thick; it was like breathing soup, and it was raining big-ass, hairy balls of rain, non-stop. I also knew that after a 25 minute train ride to Gamboa, we had a two-plus day hump to get to our Op location, half of it through and around the thick rainforest of the Soberania National Park. This was quickly summing up to be one of the Ops that represent the negative side of working for a private military firm. Yet, I had no clue as to exactly how much more miserable it was going to get for me. This Op played out for me perfectly as a dark comedy of errors, one right after the other. After meeting with our local contact in Panama City, receiving our “tactical security equipment” with ammunition and magazines, issued cell phone with water-tight case, train tickets, and handing over our personal identity documents and the city clothes we arrived in to be cached in his office, we boarded the railway and headed in an easterly fashion. The breeze through the few half cracked windows in our rail car helped a little with the humidity, but as the rain was still a torrential downpour, most people kept their windows closed creating an Indian sweat lodge-like environment. In no time at all, the inside of the rail car, with the commingling of profuse sweating, and deodorant-free passengers, smelled like a hygienically neglected petting zoo. Never-the-less, I needed to stock up on energy reserves for the long hump ahead, so regardless how aromatically-offensive the rail car ambiance was, for 50 cents U.S., I bought a sealed, quart-sized bag of cold water being vended out of a cooler that was toted from rail car to rail car by a few local kids, and I used that to wash down a few Granola Bars ( Mistake #1 ). Like clock-work, after 25 minutes the train came to a stop in the town of Gamboa and the three of us disembarked from the train. We waited in the covered portion of the outside station however, for a few minutes for the rain to let up before carrying on with our journey. We followed the train tracks for about two kilometers and the headed south-east on land. Once we passed most of the farming community, and potential prying eyeballs, we recovered our rucksacks, broken-down weapons, and other gear from the civilian bags we carried everything in and stored those bags in the bottom of our rucks. In about 20 minutes of walking the landscape drastically changed from sporadic farm land and patches of jungle to hardcore, dense jungle. We opted to follow the northern side of the offshoot of the Gatun canal river, paying close attention to the swelling banks and any signs of hungry caiman and South American crocodiles resting on them as well. To all our pleasant surprise, neither was ever seen.  After following the river and witnessing huge cliff faces and elevated embankments cave in and disappear into the ever-quickening river’s currents, we decided to deviate from our current course and cross into the Soberania National Park and approach our objective from the west south west instead of the original plan of from the direct south. This normally is no problem, however, in our current situation two obstacles will now be evermore present in comparison to the risks associated with our original plan of approach. Foremost, the hectare after hectare of surreally dense jungle comprising the Soberania National Park, that is principally the forthright land of the Embera Indians, is a protected land: obstacle #1. Nice enough people if you are in the non-sacred areas allowed to be travelled by the non-Embera. If you are found with your boots to be on other grounds, without the express permission of the Embera and the Panamanian government, a shit-storm could ensue. This is especially so, for armed foreigners moving tactically across this land. When it rains in Central and South America, sometimes large pools of water form in the depressions, valleys, and recesses of the land’s topography. This in turn is what constitutes obstacle #2. You see, while trying not to drown or become prey themselves, all of the jungle wildlife that doesn’t thrive in the overhead canopy of the forest escapes the rising waters via the same peaks and elevations of higher ground that we are using to travel. Losing over 40% of jungle floor to rising water helps one to rapidly understand just how much wildlife exists in a remote rain forest. To be fair to myself, at this point in this article I do want to demonstrate that although I have over 18 combined years of special operations experience from both the U.S. Army, and private military employment, the very vast majority of my experience has been achieved in the Middle East, West and Northern Africa, and in the Philippines (a VERY different kind of jungle). I did go to the U.S. Army Jungle School in Ft. Sherman, Panama in 1997 before it closed soon thereafter, but that was jungle experience was under very different conditions; more controlled if you will. Okay, enough said. By day 2 and 4 hours we approached the outskirts of our objective. As far as we knew we were uncompromised and still maintained the element of surprise should we encounter any hostile threat on the property. We geared up, covered and cached our rucks at the designated rally point, completed our com checks, and quietly advanced on the areas during our planning phases that we agreed would present the best opportunities for elements of threat to thrive. Although I had a loose stool or two in the two days past, little did I know, but mistake #1 was about to bite me square in the ass. The ½ hour of clandestine patrol toward threat point Alpha was unbearable. I had a pressure building in my intestines and bowels that was surreal. At one point I declared a 10 minute security halt for listening Ops while I expunged what must have been 10 times the amount of water than what I originally drank from that damned bag on the train. Always, within 15 to 20 minutes of evacuating my bowels of the most, rank smelling fluid imaginable, I would have the ever demanding urge to do it again. This shed light on Mistake #2 . Although I double ziplock-baggied the toilet paper, I presume that some of the tussling of my gear from train to ground, and shifting within my rucksack over land transit, caused a tear to form on the outer zip lock baggie, and the seam in the inner baggie to ever so slightly open in one corner. Never-the-less, the roll of toilet paper did its job and acted like a parched sponge that had been resting in the arid, open Sahara desert for years. When I reached into the top of my ruck, under the flap cover, to grab the zip lock package so that I could hygienically clean my ass, I pulled out a bag of cream of wheat-like mush. In utter humiliation I had to resort to tearing small strips from my undershirt, from the bottom up, and off of the sleeves. A very important point must be made for the audience reading this; those who are not private, professional soldiers themselves. If you are a professional soldier, at this point in your professional military career, you have been tested and proven many times. You should have a fluent understanding of the kit you personally require to perform an Op and therefore, you acquire it, carry it, and employ it as per your professional discretion. You are a mercenary. You no longer have the superb logistical might of the U.S. Government to simply resupply you with basic necessities (like toiletries) should yours become fouled. And another thing, due to this lack of bottomless logistical support, your teammates, although they would risk their own lives to protect you, are not about to loose a pound of their own shit paper and parts of their undershirts because you screwed the pooch and didn’t better prepare the waterproofing of your Charmin. On the flip side of this situation, your teammates will seize the silver lining in the proverbial clouds, and at great expense to your pride, will openly enjoy the great comedic site of watching you have to wipe your ass with your rapidly disappearing undershirt. There were four points of determined threat and we had already cleared three of them. The only signs of people thus far had been several worn trails of traffic either used by indigenous people transecting the property on foot while travelling, or by larger game (probably by both). However, with the intermittent heavy rains, the employment of tracking skills to define exactly what or who used these trails proved futile. It wouldn’t be until the day after tomorrow, in the most embarrassing way that I would find out what the trails appeared to be used by. By the time we were moving onto threat point Delta I felt like I had regained control of my bowels, even if it was by the power of my sheer will. I was on point and I motioned for another security halt 100 yards from the heart of the GPS X and Y of the objective. Just when things seemed like they were starting to turn around for the better, I heard the breaking of cover and heavy movement at about 50 yards to my 12:00. I gave the signal for absolute quiet and motioned for my other two team members to come up. When they were by my side I pointed in the general direction of the potential threat, and pulled out my small set of 10X game binoculars. Trying to spot movement on an uneven floor of a jungle is a bitch to state the least. Small hills and other elevations obstruct your field of view. Trying to rise and gain a visual vantage point though the dense vegetation at the waist or chest high level proves to be even more impossible. However, I actually found a break in the vegetation, gained a vantage point, and within a minute or two of quiet observation I saw something move. What appeared to be a natural-looking thatch cover of decomposing palm leaves and other various types of dead vegetation covering what appeared to be a small depression or hole in the ground, rustled aggressively. Something was definitely underneath that covering. I didn’t know if it was the entrance to a small subterranean drug lab, or a lookout’s spider hole waiting for someone to come along to ambush as its location was about 10 feet off of the path of what appeared to be a well used game trail. Either way, I couldn’t confirm the type of threat, but I knew what I saw. So, I remained on point with my teammates covering my flanks from my both sides of my 06:00, and with my M-4 at the ready, I openly aggressed upon the covered depression. I heard or saw no more movement from the coverage but I simply now sensed two unfortunate things: both a definitive threat from beneath the foliage cover, and the overwhelming urge to explosively blow more fluid from my ass. However, I am now committed to the threat, so when I got about 10 feet from the coverage I maintained a bead in the center mass of the patch of coverage and yelled: “¡Conio, afuera de agujero! Manos arribas, apurate!!” (Translation: Get the fuck out of the hole and put your hand up, fast!) This is where everything in my world went into slow motion. At first nothing happened. I figured whoever was in there was stalling and I was going to have to fire a warning shot, or neutralize one of them (if there was more than one) to establish dominate tactical control over the threat. Then before I could act,… oh shit then,.. what looked like a rabid fucking hippo shot out from under that dead foliage, hit me like a pro linebacker putting me flat on my ass, and kept on running through the thick underbrush like a raped ape on fire. If you have never seen a tapir before, they resemble a cross between a long snouted feral hog and a small land hippopotamus. This particular one was 600 pounds in weight if it was an ounce, and it was ¼ ton of scared shitless, fast-moving mass. As I lay on my back and realized that I wasn’t injured anywhere other than to my pride, and that there were no bad guys posing any threat to me or my team, staring up at the light rain falling through the jungle canopy, I took the next few seconds to replay in my mind what had just happened in slow motion. Giggling a little to myself on the inside, as to how scared shitless that poor, monstrosity of a tapir was, I came to the stark and humiliating realization that I couldn’t state the same about myself. When the tapir broke the cover of the foliage, I instinctively tensed my muscles for impact, let out a yell causing a furthering of inter-thoracic pressure, and inadvertently, I shat myself. When I finally stood up, the tell tale signs of earthy hues and tones that covered the seat of my light-colored blue jeans, and the upper part of the back of my right hamstring, only further fueled the comic relief session of my peanut gallery teammates. The hyena-like giggling that was being emitted from them in response to me being bowled over by the tapir from Hell erupted into a full blown hee-haw fest when they saw the soiled ass of my jeans. Because I was operating in the 100% humidity of the rainforest, and because of the bacterial Petri dish the jungle humidity can be, I don’t wear any underwear and go “commando” so that my nether region can breathe. Most operators I know do this. When you chaff in the jungle it can lead to very serious infections. Therefore, I had no “safety net” in place to capture the contents of the “mishaps.” Adding insult to injury, as I was operating in a jungle environment, and as is the law to keep the creepy crawlies out of one’s pant legs, my jeans were bloused into my jungle boots. As the seething, liquid humiliation adhered to the laws of gravity and travelled the length of my legs, the more constitute matter within it had nowhere to escape and simply pooled up around my right calve and shin. ( Lesson Learned #1: ALWAYS supply and manage your own water sources on third world ops. ) *Side Note: Mr. Montezuma sir,…. Fuck you… With both my oh-so professional teammates holding onto each other and laughing hysterically behind me, I declared all of the threat objectives clear so that we can begin the survey portion of the Op, believing wholeheartedly, that if I sink my entire energy and attention into the remaining work I will be putting this situation as far behind me as possible. The very first thing I needed to do was to get cleaned, get changed, and wash my soiled clothes as best possible, in one of the smaller pools of collecting rain water. Minus my city clothes cached with our agent back in civilization, for clothing, in my ruck were the 2 additional pairs of jeans, 2 BDU bottoms, 3 t-shirts, 2 additional BDU blouses, 1 long sleeve black work shirt, 6 pairs of socks, and the extra pair of jungle boots I had brought. We had two more days on site and another 2 days and 4 hours of hump time to get back to civilization, so I had to make what I had work for me. After finding a suitable pool of water, I stripped, washed myself and my soiled jeans and socks, dried myself, and got redressed. I stored my wet clothes in one of the waterproof bags I brought and had stored in my ruck, until a more suitable time arose where I could hang and dry them. I took the top 1/3 of the property and began my survey. About 2 hours into the topographical mapping it started pouring again. I made a lean-to out of fallen palm branches and some huge elephant ear leaves I found. While hunkering and waiting the squall out under my ad-hoc shelter, no longer my friend my bowels started having demands of me again. I had genuine concern for dehydration as I only brought 7 - 5quart canteens of water for me. In the jungle I will go through just about a gallon of water per day. I had a disposable water purifier pen and tube good for another 100 gallons of water, but still, I felt like I was expelling more fluids than I was taking in or carried with me to support the rate of expulsion. Either way, every time I expelled water I would drink some to off set any risk of loss of electrolytes and cramping. So far I was fine. I found a suitable hollow between the raised roots of a huge jungle tree to squat in and expelled the fluids demanding their way out. Luckily, in the same crevasse between raised tree roots that I was in was a 4 foot tall plant with large, oval-like shaped leaves that I could use to clean myself and keep from having to destroy this t-shirt as well ( Mistake #3 ). It appeared at the time that my luck might be turning back on track. FYI: it wasn’t. I wouldn’t find out until the team regrouped at our clandestine patrol base for the evening, but that the plant with the big leaves I used to wipe my ass with was actually a juvenile version of something called Gympie Gympie tree. Under normal conditions this wouldn’t mean a damned thing and I wouldn’t give a shit. However as it relates to this situation, the Gympie Gympie tree’s leaves have very fine nettles that if come into contact with bare skin, they embed themselves in the flesh and create an intense burning sensation. Normally, one can place a piece of tape over the affected area, and while pulling the tape back off of the skin, remove all nettles and rectify the problem once and for all. In my current SNAFU, I am soaking wet so even if I had brought any Gympie Gympie nettle mitigating tape, it wouldn’t adhere to my skin anyways. And, I actually placed a fistful of those leaves against, and aggressively stroked them again and again, across against my naked turd cutter. It took about 10 minutes to get the full effect, but once the time had passed I now gave that shit I earlier mentioned not giving had I been under other circumstances,. My butthole, inner butt checks, and even my damned gooch were on freakin’ fire. I can liken the sensation to closely straddling the sun while naked. It was like I had been putting out cigars with my asshole. It was unbearable. I sucked it up and took breaks sitting in pools of water every so often. When the team met back up I told them what had happened (while sitting in another shallow pool of water). One of the guys had spent a few years in 7th Group and had spent a lot of time in training and on Ops in Central and South America. He asked me to show him the actual plant I used. I took the both of them over to the location and this is where I learned (between fits of hysterical laughter from him) about the infamous Gympie Gympie tree. ( Lessons #2 and #3 Learned: ALWAYS triple bag your TP and bring a back-up supply also triple bagged. Don’t count on the local flora to be a viable source of your personal items of toiletry. ) After bringing each other up to speed on the surveys performed in each our sections of the property, we safely ascertained that no threats existed on the property, other than that of 600 pound rogue tapirs. Evidently, as it stipulates in my teammates’ corroborated testimony drafted in written report, and to their continuing delight in my humiliation, such a threat “can be simply mitigated by screaming at the hostile tapir in Spanish and then immediately, defecating on yourself. It appears that when you follow those steps in exact succession the most dreaded tapir will make a hasty retreat in abject disgust.” Assholes… We put up our tented hammocks encased with mosquito netting, built a fire and set in for the evening. I hung some of my wet clothes inside my hammock to dry over night, in an attempt to offset the risk of running out of dry clothing. As our clandestine patrol base was situated on some of the higher ground in the area of property with the triple canopy coverage, when we lost sunlight everything became pitch black without the light of the fire. From 22:00Hrs until 07:00Hrs we each took a 3 hour watch. The “unnamed teammate” from 7th Group gave explicit warning to tie EVERYTHING loose down due to the lack of light. I did not catch the direction where he was going with this advice. Never-the-less, I dummy-corded my M-4, my tac-vest, and my boots to my body and the rope supporting the roof of my tented hammock, and my ruck to the tree supporting the head of my hammock. I did have Vaseline in my ruck. (As a combat diver I have always relied upon it to create a superb seal on my mask whenever I had to grow facial hair, or to gap any seal leaks in my open circuit dive gear (non-O2 lines) o-rings, so in habit, I always carry some with me in my kit. In fact, I had some light sub-surface ravine topography mapping to do the next day and would need it.) As my asshole still resembled a space shuttle after burner, I smeared it down with the Vaseline and it helped immensely. One of the guys found some fresh mangoes in a massive tree a few yards away and I ate two with some citrus trail mix and a little beef jerky before bed (Mistake #4) . My watch started at 04:00Hrs. However, I got up at 03:30Hrs to once again, relieve myself of another massive amount of fluid. This is where Mistake #4 came to light. The acids from the fresh mangoes and the dehydrated pieces of citrus fruit in my trail mix commingled with the pepper in my beef jerky, in essence, rendered the once watery fluids erupting from my lower orifice, into some kind of unholy ghost pepper/habanero pepper mix hot sauce, that when it touched the already raw flesh of my butthole, inner-ass checks and grundle, caused outbursts of Turrets syndrome-metal scream-singing, muscular contortions, and grunt-speaking fluently in tongues I’ve never heard of. In turn, the combination of the nettles still in my flesh and the acids that continued to scorch my anus and surrounding undercarriage flesh caused the reaction of severe swelling. To which extent I wouldn’t learn about until later. In the meantime, I began stripping pieces of this new t-shirt now to wipe my ass because I sure as Hell wasn’t going to use so much as even the vein of a leaf to ever wipe my ass again. ( Lesson Learned #4: NEVER EVER consume highly-acidic and/or peppery foods when you have diarrhea. It melds with stomach acids and further burns and irritates the already sensitive flesh at the exit-orifice opening. ) By the time I found my way back to my hammock for my watch shift (and to lather more Vaseline on) another downpour started. A small flow of water entered the fire pit and we lost the fire. It was only about two hours until day light anyways. I finished applying the Vaseline (most generously) and getting my clothes situated when the downpour ended as quickly as it had started. Besides the sound of millions of droplets of water hitting the wet, dead foliage covering the rainforest floor, it appeared as if nothing else existed with us in this part of the jungle. Everything was dead quiet. This was very weird because all through the night, rain or no rain, there were constant sounds of jungle night birds, insects, and small mammals. I didn’t understand this until about 20 minutes later when King fucking Kong showed up to the party. There was no light and I couldn’t see a damned thing as we didn’t have a tactical reason to procure any NODs. I did have a white lens torch but, as the beam it puts out is so bright and will compromise our location to anyone who just might be out there, tactical regulation stipulates to never to turn it on except for absolute emergencies, or signaling ops. So sit in the dark I had. I was sitting there listening to everything around our base trying to pick up on any movement or sound out of place and trying not to think about having to take another flame thrower of a shit. That’s when it happened. Branches in the far canopy above and to the east of us started moving loudly and aggressively. It was about 04:30Hrs and still pitch dark. The branch movements stopped and then it started as a very low, unearthly howl/yell that could only emit from the vocal chords of a 1000 pound flesh eating jungle yeti, and ended up as an even louder scream a few octaves higher than the initiating low howl. Satan was absolutely real and that bitch lived in the Panamanian jungle canopy right over our heads. I turned my white lens torch in less than a nano-second, made sure that the round chambered in my M-4 for yesterday’s great tapir assault was still good to go, switched off my safety, and got my tac-vest on. Shit was about to hit the fan. All I could do was mentally picture that damned alien from the movie Predator in that El Salvadorian rain forest, forcing Arnold Schwarzenegger to cover his self in swamp mud; and then chasing him all over the place. Regardless of its bad-ass infrared and cloaking technologies, I was going to give it one Hell of a fight. Then, probably because of the beam of bright white light from my torch, more of these infernal things started that low howl turning into an unbelievably high screams right above our heads now. I didn’t have to wake anyone as they too heard these unholy beasts and saw the light from my torch. The teammate from 7th Group said he hoped everything was still tied down, not to worry and to turn off the flashlight, (which I did), that it’s cool, and that he was going back to bed. I was astonished, here we were the three of us, like the 300 Spartans against the million-man Persian hordes, and he was going back to bed. WTF? He must have known what I was thinking as he said kind of laughingly from under the cover of his tented hammock, “Dude, those are howler monkeys. Don’t stress.” In the pitch dark again, I thought Monkeys? …… MONKEYS?!? Those Sasquatch yells and screams never came from any monkey on the end of an organ grinder’s leash I’ve ever seen. He was right about the Gympie Gympie tree, and this was one of his old stomping grounds so I calmed down and waited, of course, with my selector switch still on semi-auto. It sounded like they were right over us for a while as small sticks and braches would periodically hit the tent covers to our hammocks. Then it dawned on me that they were here for the mango tree. This was a large troop of monkeys, big monkeys at that, and we had situated our patrol base smack-dab in the middle of their foraging territory. I watch the damned Discovery channel. All I could do was to wait for the relief of daylight to give me a different perspective on this situation, and an insight into the actual size of these monkeys because at the moment, they sounded like a bunch of silverback lowland gorillas up there. So I sat, listened, and waited, with of course, my selector switch still on semi-auto. By 07:00Hrs. We had good daylight, no matter how filtered by the jungle’s triple canopy, and we were up and breaking the base. He was right. There were a lot of monkeys moving around in the canopy and they weren’t in the least happy with us being in their territory. A couple of sticks were thrown along with a half eaten mango or two and that was the thick of it, so we didn’t pay any attention to them in hopes of them following suit. During the Op planning phase it was agreed that I would map out the seafloor of the small ravine that transected the upper northwestern corner of the property in case there was an expected commercial use of the waterway. Soundings and a topography map would have to be made. I would also take X and Y fixes on the highest two peaks in the razor grass field in case the principal wanted to use the area for helo-logistics and resupply. I would employ my pathfinder skills and pre-designate flight paths and establish a multi-bird LZ on the map as well, just in case. I grabbed my M-4, .40Cal., ruck and kit and headed off for the ravine, but before we each departed our own way we re-established com checks and agreed for a 12:00 rendezvous at the patrol base site for chow. Before we left I was having exceptional discomfort with what felt like exponential swelling in my ass. My other teammate opposite the guy from 7th Group was an ex-18D from 3rd Group. As embarrassing as it was, the swelling was so bad that I had lost a little feeling and I didn’t know if I had lost continence because I was already very damp from the jungle’s constant humidity. I asked if he would look at it and give me a prognosis. Of course there was a joke or two, as expected from these two yahoos, but still, I dropped my pants, bent over, opened the cargo door to put the door bundle on display, and waited for the verdict. I heard the sharp intake of breath between teeth and I knew that it wasn’t good news. He said I needed to be scrubbed to remove the remaining nettles, and I need a really good topical antibacterial with an anti-swelling agent. At lunch chow he said that he would dig the antibacterial and ant-swelling agents out of his medical bag, but that I was scrubbing my own ass. Okay, I said, but because it feels seriously weird, how bad does it look? His response couldn’t have been more medically professional. He actually replied with, “It looks like and angry crabapple. Or maybe the swollen, winking eye of a prize-fighting pig.”  WTF??... Where in the Hell do you learn what one of those looks like? Both he and my other teammate laughed at the joke but to this day I am still clueless as to how my painfully swollen orifice could be likened to a winking pig’s eye….. WTF?..... [ I know that you two are reading this so, n ow that some time has passed and the joke is over, I seriously wish you two would bring me up to speed on what that means… WTF? ] As I redressed and departed, the rain started again with a vengeance. I wasn’t so much worried about threats to me from the wildlife in the ravine. It wasn’t that large a body of water, perhaps 20 meters across at the widest point, with a max depth of 3 meters. My concern was the increasing current due to commingling rain runoff, and how it will eventually change the topography of the bottom over the course of the next few months of rainy season, rendering any map I create today, antiquated. It would suck major ass for some small barge captain to travel down stream from the main channel ferrying in commercial supplies, based upon my intelligence given, only to run aground where there is supposed to be substantial depth for marine vessel operability. Either way, that is an inherited risk of using small channel ways in a rainforest and I am confident that the barge captains in the area are more than adept at dealing with those risks. So, I pulled my fins from their webbing storage on the outer rear of my ruck, and got my mask out of the inside, my tac-board, my white chart board with grease pencil, grabbed my rapidly diminishing Vaseline and greased my face where the mask needed to make a seal, and I started my ravine survey. 3 hours later and I had finished. I was really lucky. Although the water was cloudy due to the mud from rain water run-off, the bottom was most rock and old coral deposit. At one time, this ravine was a small river, and salty, brackish water ran through it. However, today there were no signs of the mangroves that must have thrived on the ravine banks here, only, encroaching jungle. Although my report doesn’t state it, this ravine in the next 50 to 100 years will become extinct and unless constantly mitigated, the jungle will have bridged completely over. I am glad I was finished because my in my bowels again, were those ever-present high-pressure fluids that were knocking at the back door like Vikings of yore batter-ramming a castle’s drawbridge gate. So, I found a suitable place to handle my business. However, things have changed a bit since I last evacuated. My asshole and surrounding flesh had evidently swollen unevenly, and it hurt. I felt that if I pressed down with all the pressure I could muster, perhaps everything will just shoot out and be over with quickly. So, I dropped my pants and held them behind my knees, squatted, and when I was ready I pressed like I was giving birth to a 12 pounder. The good news was that as planned, the fluids shot right out like thickened, muddy river water with little pain. The bad news was that because of the unevenness of the swelling around my anus, everything shot 100 miles per hour out at an angle like I was firing a 10 pound shot chocolate pudding canon. I had just shit all over the back of, and the on instep of my right boot. All I could do was to sit there shaking my head, staring at my befouled boot in disgusted astonishment. The warm fluid sensation seeping into the canvass material of my jungle boot was simply just the newest assault on my dignity. At that moment, I came to the odd realization that for the first time in my life since I was 1 ½ years old, I have shat upon myself twice in a 24hour period. With an hour left until the rendezvous, and my asshole once again feeling like the business end of a burnt matchstick, I went and stood in the cool current of the ravine for a few minutes, and then when satisfied with the cleanliness of my once befouled boot and foot, I headed out to the razor grass field. I found the two high points again with no problem. Each was about 2 meters in height and about 30 meters in layered circumference. Luckily they were over 400 meters apart and posed no threat to the establishment of a viable, multi-bird LZ. I climbed up to the center of the peak of the first land mass and captured the true X and Y on my GPS. With that out of the way, based upon the closest wood line, the estimated tree height of that wood line, in reference to the location of the other land mass, I designated the LZ and directions of approach and take off of the lead birds. Then I headed over to the other land mass, which was significantly wider and easier to climb upon, and it had a wider peak as well. At its summit, I noticed that there were a lot of large, flat stones resting all over the place. I remember that striking me as being very odd because they were out of place with the rest of the geological geography there, and I couldn’t figure out how they had all gotten there. Either way, I quickly rolled myself up onto the peak to acquire its X and Y coordinates (Mistake #5) . As I prompted the GPS unit to capture the coordinates, I heard a very loud and getting increasingly louder, hissing sound. It resembled the loud rush of escaping of air from the initial cracking open of an open circuit tank’s first stage while under pressure. It was really loud. That’s when I took a closer look onto those flat rocks to my right. The biggest bushmaster snake I have ever seen was coiled and rapidly rising onto its tail. It was as thick as one of my calves and shins, and I noticed that it had pinkish hues to its brown and black diamond patterning, and as it got louder and raised higher all I could think was, “Aw shit….” Everything went into slow motion again. My M-4 was on a wolf sling and was easily accessible. I also had a tactical right thigh rig with my S&W .40Cal. I could try and secure, raise, aim and fire one my weapons, but this thing was pissed and was moving fast. Then it started coming at me, and really fast. I am 5’9” tall. This damned snake was a good 5 foot off the ground and moving like a pistol shot. I turned and went total Forrest Gump: “If I was going somewhere, I was running.” I ran like the wind but I could still hear it hissing and breaking through the razor grass and it sounded like it was gaining on me. I just turned up the heat and kept going. Now, it wasn’t far to the patrol base from where this whole chase started; maybe 150 yards. As I enter the wood line sprinting I still heard that hissing bastard behind me and I could also see my teammates 20 yards in front of me, one sitting and one standing at our rendezvous point. As I rushed at full speed into the jungle’s tree line, they looked up at me. It’s funny the minute details one can remember when something life-threatening happens. I can clearly remember the looks on their faces when they saw me sprint into the rainforest and head toward the patrol base at nearly a breakneck speed. They were looking at me with perplexed and confused looks on their faces like what in the Hell is he doing now? Then to shift around a large plant I side stepped to the left, and they got a full view of what was happening. Then I can clearly remember the looks on their faces changing when they saw that big bitch of a snake, five feet upright in height, coming just as fast, transitioning from the expressions of perplexity, to wide-eyed OH MOTHER OF GOD expressions. The 18D was now standing wide-eyed, waiving his hands and arms, and yelling Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! But I don’t think that had the desired effect on the snake he was hoping for as in the next second we three were side by side, thrashing through the rainforest vegetation like our friend the 600 pound tapir from the day before, at breakneck speeds of sprinting. We continued our path until the guy from 7th Group found his way up a tree and informed us of the bushmaster’s end of pursuit. We three sauntered back to the patrol base and didn’t say much of anything to each other, keeping one eye trained to our direction of travel and the other to our flanks. That was one really big and pissed off poisonous snake. ( Lesson Learned #5: And I already knew this one but became careless – ALWAYS look on before you step over, step on before you step over, and when in a rainforest, especially near water, flat rocks are a haven for reptiles like snakes to sun themselves. Note: These rocks as well, are a good source of potential food for you if the risk doesn’t outweigh the gains. ) Back at the rendezvous point we summed up what we had accomplished and what tasks remained to complete the Op. (I can’t possible express the elation I felt when I checked through one nervously squinting eye, whether or not my GPS unit captured the elevation location of Snakezilla’s lair, and found out that in fact it had!) Luckily my end of the Op was complete and I would help both of them with whatever needed to be performed in each their sectors. The 18D gave me the ointments and a small, plastic medical brush and the instructions I needed to begin the cleaning and healing process of my ass. As we ate our meals the troop of monkeys came back to where our patrol base was situated, moving around in the canopy about 60 to 100 feet above our heads. Everything was going well until things started dropping out of the canopy onto us. It started with the average assortment of half eaten fruit and pieces of branches. Then it graduated to larger branches, unto finally, monkey feces. To this point in the Op, I have had my fill with feces issues. As the monkeys were becoming increasingly agitated and bolder in their actions, I simply ended my meal, performed a com check with both my teammates, then took my chances with Snakezilla and strolled back through the razor grass field to the ravine to wash and follow the 18D’s medical instructions on how to fix my inflamed ass. I followed every direction to the proverbial “T.” The small, plastic medical brush that I was given to scrub my swollen under-area ended up feeling like I was scrubbing my ass with a sea urchin right off the BBQ grill. I was putting everything back in my ruck when I received word on the horn to get back to the patrol base A.S.A.P.  Evidently, while I was gone the monkeys became increasingly bold and one descended one of the trees and grabbed a waterproof note bag with the 7th Group guy’s notes from his end of the Op. This is bad because we need those notes to generate both field and final reports both in Panama City, and back in Houston for the principal. Well, when he saw the monkey hit the ground, head for his gear, and reach for the note bag he reacted by yelling and waving his arms sending the monkey in flight syndrome up the damned tree with the note bag in tow. Inside that note bag is a day and a half worth of work, that if we can’t recover it, we will have to re-perform his end of the Op on Hambright Protection Service’s dime. These types of Ops are normally quoted lump sum. With the monkey rapidly ascending the tree my teammate had to make an executive decision and fast. He readied his M-4, leading the monkey’s movement he aimed and fired once ( Mistake #6 ). Both the howler monkey and the note bag hit the ground at the same time. Now we did get the note bag back. However, the monkeys in the tree canopy started flipping shit; howling, yelling, and carrying on. I wasn’t too worried because we were the ones who were armed with something other than rancid monkey poo. At least I wasn’t worried until the howls and yelling of the monkeys overhead of us started to be answered by the howls and yells in response by an ass-load of other monkeys, and those responses sounded like they were getting closer by the minute. (Lesson #6 Learned: Treat troops of monkeys and packs of other larger rainforest animals with the same respect you would the large families of the Mexican culture. Because as the cliché goes: “You fuck with one of them, you fuckin’ with them all.” Diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. We should have enticed the monkey for a trade with food or anything else. We still need to be here another night and ½ day as pain-free as possible.) We picked our gear up and headed back toward the razor grass field, very fucking carefully might I add because Snakezilla undoubtedly dwells there. From the vantage point of the open field we could see one Hell of a lot of tree canopy in the distance moving and shaking and literally heading our way. We looked at one another and agreed to head to the ravine. It was as if all the monkey tribes were united by some unseen monkey king who wants a piece of our asses. I had a feeling that it was going to be a long night. That’s when another torrential downpour started again. At least the rain kept the monkeys calm, for the time being at least. With no sight of Snakezilla around we walked quickly, yet cautiously toward the ravine. At the ravine we figured out a way to get to the different areas of each their sections of the property still requiring inspections of topographical elevations and relief. It was decided that I would help my teammate from 7th Group who had more acreage to inspect. We performed another com check and moved out.  Between my 7th Group alumni and me, we each took our partitions of his section of property to inspect, established a rally point, and went on about our tasks. Finishing my last elevation point, I noticed a significant increase in rainfall. Under the rainforest’s triple canopy, the density of rainfall is indicative of the amount of rain bypassing all of the leaves and branches overhead, and by the additional small streams of rain run-off feeding into the rising pools of collecting rain water. The small streams of water commingled with one another to become larger, more forceful, faster moving streams of water, cutting and carving new dimensions into the elevations of the rainforest floor. The reshaping of the topography of the forest floor happened quickly as faces of minor cliffs crumbled while giving way to the pressure of the force of the new moving bodies of water. My teammate and I watched as small elevations disappeared into a muddy-colored, fast-running, churning stream of water that seconds before, didn’t exist at all. When these flash flood bodies of water struck there was no preemptive warning. They were the result of the combining of smaller streams of water a few hundred yards to the north of where we were, and the sheer force of their power when the hit could very easily knock you off your feet and take you for a wet and muddy ride until the land topography leveled out offering your foothold, some kind of purchase on the rainforest floor. I was standing on the precipice of such a small cliff, thinking about where I was going to go to next relive the pressure building in my bowels, when behind me came a rush of water and before I could react, I was falling down the 5 feet of the cliff face with the racing water that had seconds before, magically appeared. I slid down a newly formed stream, its bottom slick with mud carried for miles, and waterlogged, sulfurous-smelling, decomposing vegetation. The slope of the decline was perhaps 20 degrees, but the length, until leveling-out, was nearly 600 yards. I was in for a ride. I was wearing my rucksack on my back which made me even clumsier in my attempts to gain a foothold as the water was forcing its weight with that of my own down the decline of the hillside. Thrashing in the torrent of water currents, I aimlessly grabbed at roots, vines, and the trunks of plants and juvenile trees, with no luck. Within another 60 seconds the ride was over, I was covered in mud and dead leaves, as was everything inside my rucksack. The waterproof bag that contained all of my clothes, poncho liner, extra-large civilian travel bag for all of my gear, and other essentials had torn along with the rucksack cover when it came in contact with an end of one of the broken logs resting on the ground, at over 20 miles per hour during my jungle white water body surfing experience. I would have to hand-wash everything, create a roofed shelter, and dry everything over night. I had no choice. I would need at the very least, dry socks and boots for the hump back into civilization. At least I still had my M-4, my .40 Cal., and all my extra magazines of ammunition in my tac-vest, even if they were all filthy. While my clothes dried, I would assuredly be stripping, cleaning, and oiling my weapons.  My teammate was laughing hysterically again at the site of my water slide, when he too was struck by a similar wall of water and enjoyed an even longer ride down the hillside. Even though I didn’t laugh too hard, I enjoyed the show. Karma is a bitch. He, however, did not experience the damage to his rucksack. As our other teammate didn’t experience the same fate of water sports in his sector, so we later found out, I would be the only one doing laundry this evening. Knowing what was ahead, when we returned to the clandestine patrol base for the evening I constructed a 2 foot tall, 4 foot wide, by 6 foot long, pyramid frame out of juvenile sapling sticks and 550 cord gut, covered by a thatch roof made from palm tree fronds, elephant ear plant leaves, and other wide-ear plant leaves. I hung it from a low branch of a tree at the tail-end of the fire pit we designed the day before. The thatch roof was as well, hung with 550 cord at a 30 degree angle, the lowest end nearest the fire with the opposite end of the roof elevating the 30 degrees higher than the other end. The principal of engineering was to using the rising heat from the fire, and at an incline of 30 degrees, draw the heat across all of the wet clothes hanging on cross branches beneath the thatch roof, drying them all equally. At the highest end of the thatch roof the heat (and any smoke) could escape without impedance. The plan was simple. All I needed to do now was to strip down, and clean absolutely everything. My teammate from 7th Group took the dead monkey and buried him. We thought about barbequing the thing but we didn’t want any more trouble from King Louie and his minions. Tonight I’d settle for a can of raviolis and some trail mix, - no dehydrated citrus fruit, and definitely no peppered jerky. It was still early so both my teammates wanted to try their luck with ad-hoc fishing in the ravine with 550 cord gut and some survival hooks. After they gathered the wood for a fire, they left. There were plenty of pools of water to wash myself, my rucksack, and gear, and my clothes in. so, I got to it. Within about three hours the light was fading fast, and I was wrapping up getting all my clothes situated underneath the thatch roof to dry. With no luck at the ravine, the 18D was back at base and was starting the fire for both the heat needed to dry my stuff and so that we could have hot canned chow for diner. The engineering design of the thatch roof seemed to work. The only problem was trying to make a fire with small, wet firewood. Once the fire was going though, everything started coming together. Thus far, I was extremely lucky as the rain had been nearly non-existent. Only the sporadic drip here and there of the collecting rain water remaining in the canopy’s leaves served as reminder of the day’s earlier heavy rains. If I could see through the canopy I would have bet I would be looking at stars. Keeping one partial t-shirts remaining for toiletry use handy, from the light of the fire I rested nude in the shelter of my netted and roofed hammock cleaning and oiling my M-4 carbine and .40Cal. sidearm. Once one of the now half t-shirts in the front of the thatch roof being dried first, was finally dried, I put it on for some body cover as the combination of the wet earth three feet beneath me, and the cool air of the rainforest at night was beginning to chill me. I would have to wait another few hours for everything else to become dry enough to wear comfortably. As long as the fire kept up, by early morning all of my clothes and poncho liner should be as warm and dry as dessert sand. Because of all of the cleaning I needed to do of my ancillary gear, I took the first watch to capitalize on my time awake. Because I had to keep rotating my drying clothes under the thatch roof to get the optimization of even-drying I was not able to actually tie everything under that thatch roof down ( Mistake #7 ). My esteemed colleague from 7th Group was very clear about this security measure. However, he had the shift following mine, and the 18D following him, and they were both aware of the inability to follow this security protocol. They both stated that they each would devote additional attention to these items in the case that the infernal horde of crazed howler monkeys returned. With borrowed towels from my teammates, I finished the cleaning and drying of all of my ancillary support gear. Completed, I placed it all back into the dried waterproof bag that was my rucksack liner. Luckily, the tear in the bag was near the top of it, so I simply rectified the situation by levelly cutting off the affected area with my knife, and goose-neck tied the new top of the bag once it carried the contents requiring waterproofing. Although the bag didn’t have its original capacity, not everything I originally had stored in it needed waterproofing. So, encompassing what was pertinently in need of dry storage, received it, and everything else went into the rucksack shell. With my shift at an end, having emptying my bowels for the umpteenth time today, the waterproof rucksack liner finally full of clean gear and back in its place inside my rucksack (which was tied down to the tree supporting my hammock), and with my drying boots and a pair of already dried socks, my cleaned weapons (.40Cal in its holster), and tac-vest with ammo and magazines in the hammock with me, and my utter exhaustion from today’s events at an absolute zenith, I used one of the borrowed, damp towels as a makeshift blanket and promptly passed out. My sleep was both deep and peaceful.  Five hours later I abruptly awoke from a cacophony of aggressively loud sounds, each of which was part of a different story unfolding all around me. In between the 18D’s yelling commands for everyone to get the Hell up, the ever recognizable guttural yells and screams of the horde of monkeys, the violent slapping and scraping of their fur and flesh against tree wood and bark, the intermittent crashing of something recognizably heavy, crunchy, and leafy sounding, and in between these sounds, the pitter patter of fresh rain droplets falling on my hammock tent from the tree canopy above, all began to paint a mental image of what was happening outside my hammock. Heeding to the stress tones conveyed his in orders, I grabbed my M-4, ever-quickly making sure that my boots, .40Cal and holster were all secured to the rope comprising the top inside of my hammock’s canopy, I rolled out of my hammock in nothing but a half t-shirt to take on whatever fight was brewing. Even though my luck had taken a recent dive into Shitville, the one thing I still know how to do and do well, is fight. Bare-naked and within a split-second, I will aggressively turn on and up the heat on any and all threats, and within an extreme prejudice. All over the place were 2 ½ to 3 ½ foot tall (with equally as long tails) black monkeys, jumping to the ground, running back up in trees, yelling, screaming, and carrying items yet to be identified as the fire had burned down to a point where the light emitted from it was minimal and not brilliant enough to penetrate the shadows of the trees 15 foot above our heads. I had a clear view of 20 foot in radius around our hammocks and the fire pit. Before I reached into my hammock for the towel to wrap around my waist, I did notice that the thatch roof was on the ground, and positioned in three pieces about 10 foot to the right of the fire pit. The borrowed towel was a medium sized towel and barely wrapped around my waist. I had to really pull the ends to gain enough material to tie a square knot and secure the towel over my lower torso. As the towel only covered about 8 inches of my upper thighs, the only purpose it really stood for was in protection of whatever little dignity I had remaining in my poor soul. With the towel secured over my waist, I reached back into my hammock and grabbed my boots, socks, and .40Cal. Although the monkeys were all over the place, they were staying only at the edges of the light from the diminishing fire. With both my other teammates yelling at the monkeys   to drop things they had picked up and to get away, I took the opportunity to quickly put my socks and boots on. When I took a closer look at the thatch hut resting in a twisted three pieces, in abject horror, I finally realized what my teammates were yelling about. The howler monkeys had torn apart the ad-hoc thatch roof and snatched everything they could carry from beneath it and took to the trees with it all. All I was left with to wear was what I had on. My boots and sock (luckily), a t-shirt with the lower half of the midsection gone, my tac-vest, .40Cal with thigh rig, and a medium sized, O.D. green towel that barely wrapped around my waist, and that as well, only barely covered my groin and top 5 to 6 inches of my thighs when I walked. This towel wardrobe thing simply wasn’t working. With the fire beginning to subside in minutes from the onset of this fiasco, luckily, light began to filter through branches and leaves f the canopy overhead. This obviously illuminated my current situation. My clothes from beneath the thatch roof were strewn amongst the branches of the trees above us. Some items were 60 feet overhead, and the most were far above that. It was apparent that the monkeys had tried to take other things as well, but they were tied down and as quickly as the monkeys descended and tried to steal them, they gave up when the items proved immobile in the hands of the monkeys. I could see one of my extra jungle boots, two pairs of my BDU pants, several socks strewn were and there, a BDU blouse, my poncho liner (Dammit, I loved that poncho liner), and a half t-shirt roughly tugged through branches and snagged in tight canopy vegetation. The good news was that the engineering of the thatch roof looked like it had worked and everything from down there looked relatively dry. There was absolutely no way any of us could risk shimmying that high up a tree for these items as the risks of falling due to slippery bark or a monkey attack were too great. Over breakfast consisting of Ramen noodles, the guys expressed how terrible the situation was and how they were empathetic for me. The 18D especially, and as he tried to explain that this surgically precise monkey raid was so instantaneous and unpredictable, there was little time to react to anything. They were relentless, that they had to be trained in guerrilla/counter-guerrilla warfare Ops. In fact, he was sure that they were probably at that very moment, caching my other jungle boot and BDU bottoms in a secretive location to later recover and use against us in warfare. He further stipulated that this situation was nothing less than the employment of psychological operations by these monkeys, in an attempt to break our morale. I sat there on my rucksack listening to this ridiculousness, in my half t-shirt that two days before was whole, my damp towel haphazardly wrapped around my waist, offering no concealment of my junk as I perched atop my ruck, and my jungle boots. I was miserable and didn’t give one single shit. I just wanted to finish the Op. Feral fucking monkeys stole both my pride and dignity, and my asshole was so unbearably swollen; it felt like I was sitting on top of a tangerine. He looked at me and recognized my expression in response to his statement, and immediately said that he would loan me an extra pair of his pants when he returned from video recording and taking still shots of some of the higher elevation points for our principal’s construction engineers to review. The teammate from 7th Group said that he’d help him and that in light of my current disposition, suggested that I might as well stay and break down everyone’s hammocks and clear the patrol base until their return. No matter how bad I wanted to just accept the situation for what it was, I simply just wasn’t going to traipse around the jungle dressed like a third world country street hooker. ( Lesson #7 Learned: When in rainforest triple canopy, regardless the conditions, TIE EVERYTHING DOWN before night fall. Period.) I broke-down all of the hammocks, extinguished what was left of the fire and covered the pit with mud and wet vegetation, and removed any trace of us being there from the grounds of the patrol base. I couldn’t do shit about the trees. I was packing my 7th Group alumni teammate’s hammock into his ruck when I heard the mumbling of human voices. I was about 15 yards from the nearest game trail but the vegetation was so thick it was difficult to get both an audio and visual fix on where the voice were exactly coming from. I just knew two things, they weren’t coming from the direction of where my teammates were, and they weren’t speaking English. Then as quickly as I had heard them, the people emitting the voices appeared. They were a group of older indigenous people; three men and two women, none of them less than 55 years of age. The women were wearing colorful skirts and sandals, and were using sarong-type pieces of clothe draped across their foreheads, over their shoulders, and onto their backs to carry multiple plastic bags full of what must have been supplies. The men were wearing worn slacks, t-shirts and button-down traditional shirts worn un-tucked, and sandals as well. Two of them hand carried sacks full of supplies, and one had a back pack kind of frame made from manila rope he was using to carry sticks of firewood on his back. None of the saw me when I first saw them, but they were right upon me and there was no time to grab my M-4 resting on my rucksack, or my .40Cal inside of it, without causing a huge disturbance. There was no threat here so even though I could have gotten to my weapons, there was no need. I was the foreigner here and I didn’t want to spook anyone so I tried to look nonchalant and calm. I rested my right elbow on the tree trunk next to me, my right cheekbone against my right fist and bending my right knee, I crossed my right leg over my left leg supporting me, resting my right foot on the tip of its toes. When they got within 20 feet of me they slowed down, stopped talking and the man in the front of the column looked wide-eyed at first, and then looked at me if I was an extra-terrestrial from Mars and picked up the pace while whispering something to the people behind him. I looked at him, and trying to express my cool and laid-back demeanor, in a low and relaxed voice, I said; “¿Que paso?” As the second guy in the column passed me after the person before him had, he too looked at me as if I was the most out of place thing in the universe, and then followed suit with his predecessor by picking up the pace, intermittently looking over his shoulder at me with expressions of astonishment as if he were witnessing a train wreck happen. I just kept my position and looked at him, nodded my head upward in the universal gesture of acceptance, and in the same easy, cool, low voice, I said; “¿Como estas?” The women identically did the same as the men before them while whispering things I couldn’t quite make out. I just kept it cool, rested against the tree, nodded my head upward, and in the same cool and calm voice, I said; “Hola.” After passing me and looking over their shoulders a few times with weird expressions of disapproval and disbelief, the man bringing up the rear was wide-eyed the whole time muttering something in what became clear as being the indigenous tongue of the Embera Indians. He didn’t pick up speed to meet up with his companions until after he passed me, never changing the wide-eyed expression on his wrinkled, weathered face. I just looked at him as if the world had slowed down to island time. I slowly nodded my head upward to him as well, smiling, and said ever so calmly; “¿Que paso?” As soon as he passed me and disappeared into the jungle vegetation like those before him in his column, I heard both my teammates behind me totally loose it with hyena-like laughter. They were standing back there watching me the whole time. I didn’t understand why they didn’t say anything congenial to the passer-bys. (Hearts and Minds gentlemen…..get on the ball!!) These two were laughing so hard the 18D, who was leaning against a tree to steady him self, literally blew a totally noticeable snot bubble from one of his nostrils. I couldn’t figure out what the fuck was so damned funny. I was simply trying to diffuse a situation before it could start up, while being pleasantly congenial to our indigenous hosts. Maybe I over did it a bit, but the point was still evident. My colleague from 7th Group, who had tears running down his face, took advantage of my completely bewildered state, and quickly shot a picture of me standing there with our still photography camera and brought it over so that I could see the data image of myself. Without the ridiculously exaggerated pose on the tree, I still totally looked like a retarded man-prostitute. I had no underwear on, I was in a Daisy Duke half t-shirt, a pair of boots, and was barely covered up with a too-small towel. With the damned pose, well,…. Aw shit……. I was humiliated. How did I not see this coming???? What the Hell was I thinking? I was the one in the towel for Christ sakes…. Unreal. My teammates were having one Hell of a hoot. In reflection of my own sheer stupidity, I just repetitively asked myself; “How did this Op happen to me??” I must have done such terrible things in a past life. I don’t know. You know, karma is a bitch… After passing the camera back and forth and laughing their asses off for a while, the 18D gave me his extra, BDU bottoms. He was saving them for the next day and they were his last clean pair. The problem is that he is 5 foot 6 inches tall and a whole 150 pounds soaking wet. I am 5 foot 9 inches tall, very muscular, and I weigh 195 pounds. His BDU bottoms must have been a 29 inch waist with a 4 inch inseam. Squeezing my flesh into those things was sheer torture. I needed these pants to get back to civilization as at the very least, I couldn’t take a train back to Panama City in a flippin’ towel wearing no underwear! Shit!! It was like pressing knockwurst sausage getting my legs and lower torso into those pants. These pants were like some sadomasochistic contraption. I literally hand-pressed flesh into each pant leg, and I had to painfully manhandle my package into the crotch. The crotch in those pants was so damned small. (Poor bastard… J). Now I know for a fact they make these clothes in men’s sizes, but where the Hell did he get these pants??? Baby Gap? I got everything in though, and then it came time to button up the fly. I got the first two buttons, but the others were just too far apart. I wiggled and twisted, I tried to shift parts of mass from here to there, but all to no avail. Besides, the seam line of the pant’s crotch was playing havoc with my swollen bunghole. It was like straddling hot concertina wire. Not only that, but the constant pressure of the seam line against my swollen orifice kept making me feel as if I had to shit again. I didn’t know what to do. My teammate from 7th Group was a tall bastard coming in at 6 foot and 4 inches, and he easily weighed 230 pounds. (Like me he is a lot of solid muscle.) I didn’t want to have to ask him for pants as they sure as Hell wouldn’t fit. The shirt however, I would. We are not supposed to draw any attention to ourselves, what-so-ever, for many, many reasons. Now how in the Hell am I supposed to not draw attention to myself wearing a pair of pants that look like they have been painted on. Even the cargo pockets on my thighs were stretched tight. I probably couldn’t have crammed a quarter into either of them. Making matters worse, the pants in the front were unbuttoned down to the final two buttons and I had my privacy patch on a framed display. The obscenely detailed, giant moose knuckle outlined in the front part of the crotch in the pants was simply another giant neon arrow of a sign pointing and screaming; “ATTENTION!!!! ATTENTION!!!!” I looked as if I was ready to initiate a one-man Pride Parade. It was totally fucked. As I knew that I had to, (although I really didn’t want to), I bit the bullet, walked over, and showed the peanut gallery what exactly we were working with. I mean seriously, what did I do to get this Op? When both Hee-Hee and Ho-Ho actually stopped laughing, I informed my colleague from 7th Group that I needed to borrow a shirt and a pair of his jeans. There was no way that we were going to get past La Guardia troops on the train unnoticed, with me looking like I had stepped right out of one of RuPaul’s nightmares. After a few minutes of physically wrestling the damn camera away from him so that he didn’t take a picture of this ensemble as well, he conceded and retrieved for me an extra pair of his pants and a black t-shirt. The shirt was clean but the jeans were filthy to the Nth degree, and smelled like worn buffalo ass. He stated that he simply wasn’t giving up his last clean pair of pants. He wasn’t on watch when I got robbed by the Jane Goodall Gang. He was right. I don’t blame him, as I would have felt the same. I guess that I was headed back to the ravine for a quick wash of pants. Wet or not, I would wear them for the next two days hump back to Gamboa. Fuck it. I headed to the ravine for the umpteenth time, to clean the several pounds of funk out of these Jeans. After washing the jeans in the ravine I beat them against some rocks near the embankment, wrung them with my hands, and even twisted them around a small tree trunk until every drop of water I could muster out of the fabric of those jeans was out. I then put them on. My waist is 31” and the waist size of these jeans was 36”. The inseam probably had to be measured in yards as there were all kinds of extra length at the bottoms of the jean’s legs. Speaking of the legs, must have been an exceptionally relaxed fit of jeans and it felt as if I could have fit my entire body into one of the legs. I literally bounced around in them like a clapper in a bell. These things were 5 sizes too big. It was as if MC Hammer had designed his owl line of jeans and I was wearing the prototype. It looked like I was wearing clown suit pants. I had to take 550 cord to tie the waist down as I had no belt, and I had to roll the cuffs up about 6 or 7 times. I looked like a fucking idiot in these pants. It was if I was off to attend a Shriner’s Circus minus my ridiculously too small of a car. Weighing the levels of idiocy between the pants and the towel, I of course chose to continue with the pants; I had no choice. With the borrowed shirt perfectly covering up the makeshift 550 cord belt and obvious over size of the pants, and with no other incidents to report during the Op, two days later, with all of our gear broken down and placed in the civilian bags that were stored in our rucksaks, we boarded the train for Panama City. Arriving in the city I was amazed that I didn’t attract any noticeable attention from the authorities policing the trains. Either way, we were back in civilization and on our way to a hotel where our clothes would be waiting for us, with hot water, good food, a soft bed for the night, and accessible anti-swelling-anti-bacterial ointments. That night, with my ass-swelling beginning to decrease, and my intestinal tract near normalcy, we all went out for a good meal, a few drinks, and to experience the night life in beautiful Panama City, Panama. It was a lot of fun. The flight back to the States was miserable. Expectedly so, as trying to either sitting on top of a golf ball wedged in your ass, or shifting from cheek to cheek for five hours sucked. Intermittently shooting the rod at my two teammates who were sitting together two rows ahead and to the left of me, who kept turning around to watch me uncomfortably shift from cheek to cheek, and then giggle, smile, whisper and point, didn’t make me feel that much better, but it did help some. When I thought about it during the flight the sequence of events over the course of the past four days had been a combination of stupidity, lack of attention to detain, and exceptionally poor luck. In succession these things happened to me:          Ø      I first poisoned myself with bad water, giving myself a severe case of a viral gastrointestinal                infection (Montezuma’s Revenge), dehydration, and, Ø      I poisoned myself again via the assault to my rectum with the Gympie Gympie tree leaves, in turn, causing my asshole to surreally swell three times its natural size, Ø      I have shat upon myself within multiplicity, Ø      Via a stinky wall of water assault, I have fallen down the side of a jungle cliff covering myself, and everything I own in a sulfurous, noxious mud paste, Ø      I have been struck by rancid monkey poo several times (trust me, mangoes do them no favors), Ø      I have been chased across a field and through the jungle by a bushmaster snake clearly abusing anabolic steroids, Ø      I lost nearly all of the clothes I brought on the Op to a thieving horde of despicable, relentlessly miserable monkeys, resulting in: Ø      My self-humiliation in front of indigenous persons by dressing and appearing before them like a foreigner man-whore of the jungle, Ø      I was further humiliated by wearing in public what could only be described as blue denim clown pants. With all that has befallen me during this Op, I earnestly hope that at the very least, one new operator will take away from this article, a lesson or two that will keep him and his teammates alive. I don’t know of anyone who died from humiliation due to monkey poo assault violations and encrustation, or from excess humility yielded from embarrassment, but I have heard of many accounts where a person died from a poisonous snake bite that happened days away from proper medical attention. I have also heard of persons dying from dysentery and dehydration due to the consumption of tainted water. Therefore, it is my earnest intention, that through the safety message in this article, I might reach some of the younger, newer HPS operators, before they themselves, make similar mistakes in the field. You simply just can not live this stuff down, no matter long you may exist on this earth, nor how many awesome jobs you perform. So, as your job is tough enough as it already is, take the lessons in this article and learn from them at no cost to your physical or emotional being. This one is on me. Anyways, like I earlier said, working for a private military firm has its benefits, and of course, it’s negative sides as well. Posted by Omega7Red at 4:41 PM No comments: Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest An American Side to the War on Drugs inside Mexico By Karl J. Nøstvik Freelance Journalist and Photographer Recently, while in Juarez, Mexico, covering the recent increasing trend of cartel upon cartel violence, I stumbled upon an opportunity to see first hand, another side of that country’s war against drugs. The highly lucrative kidnappings, extortion, and in some occurrences, murder of innocent citizens and immigrants from Central and South America by these warring cartels has gut-wrenchingly become commonplace for cities like Juarez. The omnipresent threat of abduction by these cartels has created big business in private security and risk management firms. And for the foreseeable future, this dangerous business in Mexico will unfortunately only continue to increase in its demand. I was eating a late diner at the restaurant in my hotel while going over my notes from an interview with a local police captain held earlier that morning when I noticed two very serious looking, American gentlemen take their seats at a table adjacent to mine, and it was clear to me that they were not part of the press corps. As a freelance journalist and photographer covering conflicts in many countries such as Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Mexico, I have gleaned the ability to be able to depict the personal presence of U.S. military special operations soldiers in a room of people in many ways. Not because of the obvious differences in uniform, kit, or special gear, but as there is a notable difference in how they each carry themselves while amongst most other soldiers or sailors. With my curiosity piqued as to what these two guys were doing down here in Juarez, I struck up a conversation about the sultry good looks of our mutual waitress, and eventually, several beers and a few jokes later, I joined them at their table. It came to light that these two men (one ex-SEAL and the other, a former elite Army commando – they introduced themselves by first names only) were part of a four-man team that just several hours earlier, had completed a hostage rescue operation of a recently abducted Chinese business man. Evidently, theirs was only a three day operation because luckily, the business man had worn a watch with an internal GPS transponder that was somehow, not taken by the kidnappers. These men stated that they were able to locate the watch via GPS within minutes, but two days of surveillance and planning were required to pull off the operation with the least risk to the principal. Over the course of a two hour diner, the men stated that they were “Tier 4” operators for the Houston, Texas-based, private military firm Hambright Protection Services, and that they perform a multitude of operations in Latin America all the time. The types of operations they claimed to perform range from executive body guarding services, asset and personnel recovery, military support services, unto property risk assessment, planning, and mitigation. The latter of the four services intrigued me the most. An example given to me of that service was another story of a recent operation performed in Honduras by these two men and one other. Evidently, their firm was hired by an un-named, private, Houston-based investment firm to inspect for one of their clients, multiple hectares of land that was to be used for the cultivation and harvesting of teak trees. The team covertly entered the jungle enveloped property via sky diving operations, and while performing a preliminary reconnaissance of the property, came across marijuana cultivators, illegally squatting on their client’s land. The story went on to describe how they mitigated the threats of the illegal drug cultivators, and then performed a real-time analysis of the property, to include the manufacturing of hand-drawn, topographical maps, and ravine sounding and bottom topographical maps (in case the client wanted to use barges to take to market their lumber), and as well, an analysis of potential pools of labor from surrounding communities. I was amazed that jobs like this actually exist. I had never thought of these kinds of special trade demands, or that such a market for them existed. I was still in shock to see two white American faces in Juarez that didn’t have press cards clipped to a pocket or dangling from a neck lanyard. Then the former Army commando offered some more depth to the overall picture encompassing how it has become that these men do what job it is that they perform, and how so many others will come to do the same in the near future. He asked me a question. He asked if for 10 years I was in the special operations community in the military, and then after that 10 years had passed, I immediately retired from the military service to work the next 10 years for various private military firms (like Hambright Protection Services), performing for these firms and their clientele all of the skills gained and mastered over the course of the past 20 years, like so many, many other soldiers and sailors alike have done, when all of the wars come to an end, what skill sets do I believe I possess can be even remotely applicable in the civilian world? He also reminded me, that when Blackwater was still known as Blackwater, private military operators in Iraq and Afghanistan were bringing home anywhere from $500.00 per day in wages up to $1,200.00 per day. The lifestyles these operator’s families stateside obviously increased due to the large sums of remuneration earned, and now that Iraq and Afghanistan are both rapidly winding down, and the demand for professional soldiers is decreasing too, however, the costs associated with the lifestyles their families are continuing to maintain are not changing. Therefore, as rates for professional soldiers have dropped in some cases to $450.00 per day due to a lessening of conflict, these professional soldiers will migrate to where ever the demand for their skills presents itself; hence, the fact that I was sharing diner with two former U.S. special operations operators in Juarez, Mexico. I was told to expect to start seeing an influx of guys just like the two men enjoying their meal right before me, both of whom, just hours before were rescuing a man from kidnap and torture. Whatever happened to the kidnappers I did not bother to ask, nor do I think I even needed to. With our meal completed, the bill equally paid, and the exchange of handshakes and pleasantries of farewell and wishing them good luck on their next potential operation in some undetermined location in Africa, now hours past, I sat in my room and thought. I rummaged through my thoughts about the stories of the types of operations these mercenaries perform, and how global circumstances have created great oppression, in turn driving the exponential demands for the special skills these men and women bring to the table. It was, and still is, a daunting thought to me that with nearly no applicable commercial skill sets to enter the U.S. civilian employment market in any other level than that of a minimum wage entry position, some of these operators will remain highly trained soldiers for hire to the highest bidders out there. I am keenly aware that not all of these high bidders are our friends. In fact, only a mere fraction may be. Taking everything in stride, I had to remind myself that I had just met these two men and that basically, I was taking in everything I was being told by them in good faith. I did like these guys and their larger than life individual presences and forthright demeanors while talking to me, and their intentional withholding of specific information from each operation they discussed with me for the protection of their clients, while maintaining discretion, also impressed me very much. They never bragged and only painted enough of a picture so that I could see and understand their story. I believe them. And just for the record, two days later before leaving Mexico myself, I spoke to a Chinese embassy contact in Mexico City via the telephone, and it was confirmed that a few days prior to my phone call, a Chinese citizen living and working in the city of Juarez was recovered by forces other than Mexican State police or Federal troops, and has since, safely returned to his country. In the only article I could find about the situation at hand, the local Juarez newspaper El Diario, simply reported that 8 heavily armed, suspected cartel members died in an early morning firefight when the house they were staying in was raided by unknown assailants, presumed to be opposing cartel members. There were no other casualties, or any mention of a hostage or the Chinese business man rescued at the mutually confirmed location of the operation. One more notch for the good guys.

Category 4: Courage and Risk-Taking Quotes "Do one thing every day that scares you." — Eleanor Roosevelt Value: This quote inspires readers to step outside their comfort zones regularly, encouraging personal growth through bravery and action. "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." — Muhammad Ali Value: Ali’s words remind readers that risk-taking is essential to achieving greatness, motivating them to embrace challenges with courage. "Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear." — George Addair Value: This quote highlights that fear often stands between us and our goals, encouraging readers to confront their fears to unlock new opportunities. "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear." — Mark Twain Value: Twain highlights that courage isn’t the lack of fear but the ability to push through it, inspiring readers to act despite their fears. "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." — Wayne Gretzky Value: Gretzky’s quote is a powerful reminder that inaction guarantees failure, motivating readers to take chances and seize opportunities. "The only limit to our realisation of tomorrow is our doubts of today." — Franklin D. Roosevelt Value: Roosevelt’s words encourage readers to overcome self-doubt, showing that belief in oneself is key to achieving future success. "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." — T.S. Eliot Value: This quote motivates readers to push their limits, showing that extraordinary achievements come from taking bold risks. "Fortune favours the bold." — Virgil Value: Virgil’s timeless wisdom highlights that success often rewards those who act with courage and decisiveness. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage." — Anaïs Nin Value: Nin’s quote inspires readers to live fully and boldly, showing that courage broadens life’s possibilities. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did." — Mark Twain Value: Twain’s quote encourages readers to take action and risks, reminding them that regret often comes from missed opportunities rather than mistakes made. "In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take." — Lewis Carroll Value: Carroll’s words echo the sentiment of missed opportunities, inspiring readers to take risks and embrace the unknown. "You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." — Christopher Columbus Value: This quote encourages readers to venture into the unknown, showing that progress and discovery come from leaving comfort behind. "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" — Vincent van Gogh Value: Van Gogh’s quote challenges readers to imagine a life without risk or bravery, motivating them to take bold steps in pursuing their dreams. "Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'" — Mary Anne Radmacher Value: This quote reminds readers that courage often manifests as quiet persistence, encouraging resilience in the face of setbacks. "The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all." — Meg Cabot Value: Cabot’s quote inspires readers to embrace boldness and risk-taking, showing that a life lived too cautiously is one without adventure. "To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself." — Søren Kierkegaard Value: Kierkegaard’s quote motivates readers to take risks, suggesting that avoiding bold action leads to losing touch with one’s potential. "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." — Ambrose Redmoon Value: This quote shifts the focus from fear itself to what’s worth overcoming it for, inspiring readers to act with purpose. "Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." — Ralph Waldo Emerson Value: Emerson encourages readers to embrace life as a series of bold experiments, where courage leads to discovery and growth. "Success is not for the timid. It is for those who seek guidance, make decisions, and take decisive action." — José Silva Value: Silva’s quote shows that decisive action and boldness are required for success, encouraging readers to move forward with confidence. "Fear is temporary. Regret is forever." — Unknown Value: This quote motivates readers to confront their fears, showing that the pain of regret is far worse than the discomfort of fear. "You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore." — William Faulkner Value: Faulkner’s words inspire readers to venture into the unknown and seek out new opportunities, leaving behind what is familiar. "Courage is grace under pressure." — Ernest Hemingway Value: Hemingway defines courage as maintaining composure in the face of adversity, inspiring readers to stay calm and collected during challenges. "If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." — Dale Carnegie Value: Carnegie’s quote encourages readers to take action as the antidote to fear, inspiring boldness through doing. "If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." — Jim Rohn Value: Rohn’s words remind readers that extraordinary results come from taking risks, pushing them to step outside the ordinary. "Great things never came from comfort zones." — Neil Strauss Value: This quote inspires readers to leave behind complacency and comfort, encouraging them to embrace challenges and discomfort for growth.

Category 5: Failure and Resilience Quotes "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas Edison Value: This quote reframes failure as a necessary part of the process of innovation and success, inspiring persistence and experimentation. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." — Confucius Value: Confucius highlights resilience, teaching that true success comes from the ability to recover from setbacks, not from avoiding them. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." — Henry Ford Value: Ford's wisdom encourages readers to view failure as a learning opportunity, one that refines future efforts and leads to smarter decisions. "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." — Henry Ford Value: This quote reminds readers that failure is only a setback if it doesn’t lead to growth and learning. "It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up." — Vince Lombardi Value: Lombardi highlights resilience as the true measure of success, motivating readers to rise after each failure. "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." — Winston Churchill Value: Churchill's words encourage maintaining a positive attitude and determination despite multiple failures, showing that perseverance is key to success. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying." — Michael Jordan Value: Jordan inspires readers to see failure as part of growth, but highlights that not trying is the true failure. "Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." — Nelson Mandela Value: Mandela’s quote teaches that resilience, not just success, is what defines a person’s strength and character. "Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up." — Chinese Proverb Value: This proverb highlights the importance of bouncing back after failure, showing that persistence is what truly matters. "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it." — Johnny Cash Value: Cash’s quote encourages readers to learn from failure, using it as a foundation for future success, rather than letting it hold them back. "Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success." — Robert T. Kiyosaki Value: Kiyosaki’s quote reframes failure as an essential step in success, motivating readers to embrace it rather than fear it. "The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried." — Stephen McCranie Value: This quote emphasises that expertise and mastery come from repeated failure and learning, inspiring perseverance in skill development. "There is no failure except in no longer trying." — Elbert Hubbard Value: Hubbard teaches that true failure only occurs when one gives up, encouraging readers to keep pushing forward no matter the obstacles. "Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable." — Coco Chanel Value: Chanel’s quote inspires a fearless approach to challenges, suggesting that success comes from a refusal to dwell on the possibility of failure. "I never lose. I either win or learn." — Nelson Mandela Value: This quote reframes failure as learning, inspiring a mindset shift where every setback is a step toward growth. "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." — Albert Einstein Value: Einstein’s quote encourages readers to take risks and see mistakes as part of the process of growth and discovery. "The phoenix must burn to emerge." — Janet Fitch Value: This quote uses the metaphor of the phoenix to show that transformation and growth often come from overcoming destruction and failure. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston Churchill Value: Churchill’s quote makes it clear that neither success nor failure defines us—what matters is the courage to keep going. "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour." — Truman Capote Value: Capote reminds us that failure enhances the satisfaction of success, showing that setbacks enrich the journey. "When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel." — Eloise Ristad Value: Ristad’s quote encourages readers to embrace failure as part of the process, freeing themselves to achieve greater heights. "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." — Elbert Hubbard Value: Hubbard’s quote inspires readers to take action without the constant fear of failure, emphasising the freedom that comes from taking risks. "Failure is a detour; not a dead-end street." — Zig Ziglar Value: Ziglar’s quote reassures readers that failure is just a temporary setback on the road to success, not a permanent stop. "What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?" — John Green Value: This quote challenges readers to aim high and take bold actions, showing that failure is a small price to pay for a remarkable life. "Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try." — Jack Canfield Value: Canfield’s quote encourages readers to focus on missed opportunities rather than failures, inspiring them to take more chances. "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." — Napoleon Hill Value: Hill’s quote motivates readers to see the positive side of adversity, showing that challenges bring with them opportunities for growth and success.

he gym — try the following 32 hard-hitters we’ve compiled from around the web: 1. “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” ― Roy T. Bennett 2. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” ― Zig Ziglar 3. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl 4. “Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Anonymous 5. “He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right.” — Confucius 6. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ― Arthur C. Clarke 7. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life — and that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan 8. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” — Theodore Roosevelt 9. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — Adelaide Anne Procter 10. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn 11. “Opportunity is often missed because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Anonymous 12. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker 13. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” — Les Brown 14. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.” — Jessie Potter 15. “It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.” — Tony Robbins 16. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” — Michael Jordan  17. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey 18. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” ― Marianne Williamson 19. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy 20. “What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.” ― Maya Angelou 21. “Death is being alive and not knowing it.” — Anonymous 22. “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” ― Zig Ziglar 23. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Anonymous 24. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart 25. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky 26. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair 27. “There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized.” — Conan O’Brien 28. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.” ― J.K. Rowling 29. “You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it.” — Paulo Coelho 30. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” ― Arnold Schwarzenegger 31. “You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Use it! Do something with it! Get a reward from it. Allow your pain to push you to greatness.” — Eric Thomas 32. “There’s no excuse to not be the hardest worker in the room, whatever it may be, your job, the gym, your relationship. Your name’s attached to it, and that has to mean more than anything.” — Greg Plitt 32 Want some short, punchy quotes to motivate you to go after what you truly want out of life? Here are 32 brief but powerful quotes about persistence and finding success: 1. “I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” ― Herbert Bayard Swope 2. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” ― Herman Melville 3. “Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” ― Roy T. Bennett 4. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ― Truman Capote 5. “Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it.” ― Salvador Dali 6. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill 7. “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” — Anonymous 8. “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” — Coco Chanel 9. “What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” — Bob Dylan 10. “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” — Zig Ziglar 11. “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” — Roger Staubach 12. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Oliver Goldsmith 13. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey

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Quotes Short Inspirational Quotes to Fuel Your Day Posted by By Shrishti Last Updated: February 4, 2024 When you’re feeling unmotivated or stuck in a rut, nothing can be more uplifting than a few words of inspiration. In this article, we have compiled some of the best short inspirational quotes to help bring light into your life and brighten up your day. Read on and find out how these words of wisdom Quotes can give you the courage and strength you need to face any challenge. Short inspirational Quotes 1. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”  – Edith Wharton You will also enjoy our article on inspirational quotes for women. 2. “You do not find a happy life. You make it.” – Camilla Eyring Kimball You will also enjoy our article on Monday motivation quotes. 3. “The most wasted of days is one without laughter.” – E.E. Cummings You will also enjoy our article on the best inspirational quotes on life. 4. “Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.” – Hafez You will also enjoy our article on motivational quotes of the day. 5. “Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden You will also enjoy our article on inspirational quotes with pictures. 6. “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” – John Barrymore You will also enjoy our article on quotes for girls. 7. “Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.” – Jim Rohn You will also enjoy our article on funny motivational quotes about life. 8. “Life changes very quickly, in a very positive way, if you let it.” – Lindsey Vonn You will also enjoy our article on balance quotes. 9. “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” – Helen Keller You will also enjoy our article on motivational quotes for kids. 10. “Impossible is for the unwilling.” – John Keats Short inspirational quotes about believing in yourself 11. “No pressure, no diamonds.” – Thomas Carlyle You will also enjoy our article on motivational work quotes. 12. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt You will also enjoy our article on life is short quotes. 13. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote You will also enjoy our article on amazing quotes and sayings. 14. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot You will also enjoy our article on bob marley quotes. 15. “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” – Carol Burnett You will also enjoy our article on life advice. 16. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi You will also enjoy our article on quotes by famous people. 17. “Stay foolish to stay sane.” – Maxime Lagacé 18. “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs 19. “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln 20. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt Short inspirational quotes about perseverance 21. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius 22. “Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” – André Gide 23. “Dream big and dare to fail.” – Norman Vaughan 24. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.” – Maya Angelou 25. “You are enough just as you are.” – Meghan Markle 26. “To be the best, you must be able to handle the worst.” – Wilson Kanadi 27. “No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” – Demi Lovato 28. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein 29. “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” – T.S. Eliot  30. “No guts, no story.” – Chris Brady Short famous inspirational quotes 31. “Everybody stay positive no matter how negative life gets.” –  Juice WRLD 32. “Your mind must be stronger than your feelings.” – Andrew Tate 33. “Gotta keep my head above water, gotta make it through.”  – NBA YoungBoy, “Untouchable” 34. “Never break or fold, that’s what it takes to be major.”  – Kevin Gates 35. “I know that now, and now is all that matters.”  — Beth Dutton 36. “Life is all about the evolution” –  J. Cole ,  Change 37. “No matter where life takes me, find me with a smile.” – Mac Miller 38. “I am the smartest man alive!” – Billy Madison 39. “Once you really know yourself, can’t nobody tell you nothing about you.” – Megan Thee Stallion 40. “Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.” – Nipsey Hussle Cute short inspirational quotes 41. “Our future is our confidence and self-esteem.” – Tupac Shakur 42. “Don’t be scared to live your life without judgment.”  — Lil Durk 43. “Be kind to one another, even when it’s not requested.” –  XXXTENTACION 44. “I am my inspiration.” – Lizzo 45. “Look at the sky tonight. All the stars have a reason.” —  Lil Peep 46. “What a dog I got. His favorite bone is in my arm.” –  Rodney Dangerfield 47. “Only thing free in life is options.” –  Moneybagg Yo 48. “There is no way to happiness – happiness is the way.” – Thich Hat Hanh 49. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying.” – Jay-Z 50. “To lose your path is the way to find that path.”  — BTS, “Lost” Inspirational short quotes about life 51. “I will not let anyone scare me out of my full potential.” –  Nicki Minaj 52. “Peace is the absence of confusion.” – Wu-Tang 53. “Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon.” –  Pink Floyd 54. “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir 55. “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” ― John Proctor 56. “I work hard. But I play hard, too.” – Pitbull 57. “It’s never too late to get good at something.” —  Guy Fieri 58. “Wear your crown and go chase your dreams.”  — Summer Walker 59. “Life is what you make it, just don’t fake it.”– G Herbo 60. “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” – Socrates Short inspirational quotes for kids 61. “Even a blind man knows when the sun is shining.” –  Grateful Dead 62. “I don’t like people around me sad. I like making people happy.” –  Tyler, The Creator 63. “It’s okay to start over, let someone else love you the right way.” — Rod Wave 64. “There is no normal life, there’s just life. Get on with it.”  — Doc Holliday,  Tombstone 65. “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”  — Bertrand Russell 66. “Haters keep on hating cause somebody’s gotta do it.” – Chris Brown 67. “Keep your friends close, your enemies even closer.” – Sun Tzu 68. “I’m just doing me, and to me, that’s what got me this far.” –  Lil Uzi Vert 69. “I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.”  – Florence Nightingale 70. “If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow.” – Beyoncé Knowles Positive short inspirational quotes 71. “In life you always see the darkest days before the sunshine.”  ― Polo G 72. “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”  –  Alan Watts 73. ”Education and work are the levers to uplift a people.” – W. E. B. Du Bois  74. “Don’t wait for them to tell you. Tell them.” – 50 Cent 75. “There can only be one king.” – Pablo Escobar 76. “I paint flowers so they will not die.” –  Frida Kahlo 77. “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg 78. “If I have a platform and a voice, I should use it for my people.”  – Bad Bunny 79. “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 80. “Well, it’s hard to be yourself, it’s the hardest job there is.”  — Bill Murray Short funny inspirational quotes 81. “Decide how badly you want it and proceed accordingly.”  — Robin Arzon 82. “Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.” – The Weeknd 83. “Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.” – Kahlil Gibran 84. “Your river is strong. Let it flow.” —  Glennon Doyle 85. “Knock me down 9 times, but I get up 10.” –  Cardi B 86. “Damn right I like the life I live because I went from negative to positive.” – RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 87. “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato 88. “I found out that there weren’t too many limitations, if I did it my way.” –  Johnny Cash 89. “Nothing left to do but smile.” – Jerry Garcia 90. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra Short inspirational quotes about love 91. “Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.” – Edgar Allan Poe 92. “The harder I work, the luckier I become.” –  Terry Pratchett 93. “Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.”  – Ram Dass 94. “Sometimes it takes years for a person to become an overnight success.” –   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 95. “Luck is not a business model.” – Anthony Bourdain 96. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass 97. “Behind every successful person lies a pack of haters” ― Eminem 98. “Time is a wonderful storyteller.” –  Deion Sanders   Best Neji Hyuga quotes from Naruto Shippuden 99. “Yesterday don’t matter if it’  RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 100. “I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.”  — Al Capone Short inspirational quotes for women 101. “An intelligent woman doesn’t get sad, she gets pretty.” ― Maria Felix 102. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.  RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 103. “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”  – Mary Oliver 104. “The choices we make dictate the lives we lead.”  —   Danny DeVito 105. “The goal is timeless. Chase the moment, and you lose.” — Kid Cudi 106. “We’ve added years to life, not life to years.” –  George Carlin 107. “Fight with a happy heart and a strong spirit.”  — General James Mattis 108. “It doesn’t hurt to get more education.” – Donald Trump 109. “We can be heroes just for one day.” —  David Bowie, Heroes Happy short inspirational quotes 110. “You don’t get respect if you don’t deserve it.” – Snoop Dogg 111. “You must work in the dark for your light to shine.” — Russ 112. “I don’t need a lot, I just want to find my peace.” – Nathan Feuerstein 113. “Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne 114. “What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.”  — bell hooks 115. “Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world.” – Malcolm X 116. “If you learned a lesson it wasn’t a loss.” –  Lil Baby 117. “If you are not having fun you are doing something wrong.” –  Groucho Marx 118. “The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.” – Carl Sagan 119. “All humor is rooted in pain.”  – Richard Pryor 120. “Growth is in a series of mistakes. That’s the only way you learn.” – Steve Harvey Meaningful short inspirational quotes 121. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss 122. “You are not the opinion of someone who doesn’t know you.”  – Taylor Swift 123. “You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.” – Denzel Washington 124. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey 125. “Sometimes the heart is deceiving.” —  Halsey, “The Feeling” 126. “You must be the best judge of your own happiness.” – Jane Austen 127. “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” – Booker T. Washington 128. “Being realistic is the quickest path to mediocrity.”   – Will Smith 129. “Governments change… the lies stay the same.” —  Pierce Brosnan, GoldenEye 130. “My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.”  – Huey P. Newton Deep short inspirational quotes 131. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” ―  F. Scott Fitzgerald 132. “You don’t have to eat less. You just have to eat right.” –  Dr. Sebi 133. “Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.” –  Niccolo Machiavelli 134. “Good things come in good time.” – Wiz Khalifa 135. “The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.” –  Gabriel García Márquez 136. “Until death it is all life.”  ― Don Quixote 137. “Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams.” —  Christopher Columbus 138. “The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra 139. “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.”  – Wayne Dyer 140. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”  – Vincent Van Gogh Daily short inspirational quotes 141. “The only person that has power to put boundaries on your dreams is you.”  — Trent Shelton 142. “When you get hard work, you get success.” – Selena Quintanilla 143. “People can cry much easier than they can change.” ―  James Baldwin 144. “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel 145. “When you fail, you also learn how not to fail.” – Soichiro Honda 146. “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” ― J. R. R. Tolkien 147. “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”  – C. S. Lewis 148. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” – St. Francis of Assisi 149. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey 150. “When I perform my role well, I feel proud.” – Kim Namjoon Best short inspirational quotes 151. “Make each day your masterpiece“ – John Wooden 152. “Love truth, but pardon error.” ― Voltaire 153. “I think it’s important to hold a mirror up to society and yourself.” –  Ricky Gervais 154. “Luck is a word used to describe the success of people you don’t like.” – Paul Harvey 155. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”  ― Mae West 156. “I just want to teach people how to be comfortable. Stop being so scared.” –  Jaden Smith 157. “The only way you can know where the line is is if you cross it.” – Dave Chappelle 158. “Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision – the only decision that matters.” –  Thomas Merton 159. “I would not think to touch the sky with two arms.”  ― Sappho 160. “Laughter is the language of the soul.”  ― Pablo Neruda Powerful short inspirational quotes 161. “We humans are more concerned with having than with being.” – Morgan Freeman 162. “Nobody promised you tomorrow.” –  Marsha P Johnson 163. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” – John Lennon 164. “You have to realize that you are everything and more just on your own.” – Jhene Aiko 165. “I’m in control of my destiny, never in doubt.” – Drake 166. “Pain is never permanent.” – St. Teresa of Avila 167. “Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.” –  Thomas Aquinas 168. “A change of feeling is a change of destiny.” – Neville Goddard 169. “Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want.” – Aaliyah 170. “Knowledge is really confined to experience.” –  Aleister Crowley Short inspirational quotes for young adults 171. “You are your best thing.” –  Toni Morrison 172. “To use your head, you have to go out of your mind.” ― Timothy Leary 173. “Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.” – St. Therese of Lisieux 174. “Attitude is a choice. Think positive thoughts daily. Believe in yourself.” – Pat Summitt 175. “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” – Charles Bukowski 176. “Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell 177. “You can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution.”  – Fred Hampton 178. “Behind every beautiful thing, there’s some kind of pain.”― Bob Dylan 179. “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”  – Bill Gates 180. “I can’t feel my tongue. But I know it’s there because I’m talking.” – Moira Rose Short motivational quotes 181. “See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good.”  ― Hayao Miyazaki 182. “A dream is only a dream.. until you decide to make it real.” –  Harry Styles 183. “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” —  John Lennon 184. “For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless.” –  Wendell Berry 185. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” – Virginia Woolf 186. “Imagining something is better than remembering something.”  – Robin Williams 187. “In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first.” – Jimi Hendrix 188. “Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.”  – Jim Carrey 189. “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” – Immanuel Kant 190. “Good things take time.” — Gabriella Wilson (H.E.R.) Short motivational quotes on life 191. “Give me liberty or give me death!” — Patrick Henry 192. “You must let suffering speak if you want to hear the truth.”  — Cornel West 193. “A dream deferred is a dream denied.” – Langston Hughes 194. “Everybody marches to a different drummer.”  ― Hugh Hefner 195. “If you want more, you have to require more from yourself.” –  Dr. Phil 196. “Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.” – Colin Powell 197. “I will not be triumphed over.”   — Cleopatra 198. “Anyone who does anything creative is always gonna want to change.” –   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 199. “The death of contentment is comparison.” ― Steven Furtick 200. “Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”  — Steve Prefontaine Short inspirational quotes on life and death 201. “Everything that happens before Death is what counts.” – Ray Bradbury 202. “The more ways you can tell a story and paint a picture, the better it is.”  ― Ninja 203. “I see things that nobody else sees.” –  Melanie Martinez 204. “I want to build to that mogul, legendary level.” –  Lil Nas X 205. “A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.”  – Diogenes of Sinope 206. “If you really want something, you can figure out how to make it happen.” ―  Cher 207. “Nothing really scares me, to be honest.”  — Billie Eilish 208. “If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.” –  Thomas Hobbes   10 Steve Jobs sucess Quotes That You Need To Learn To Succeed 209. “Everything is practice.” – Pele 210. “Don’t give up at halftime. Concentrate on winning the second half.” – Paul Bryant Short inspirational quotes to inspire positivity 211. “To me, there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” –  Alice Paul 212. “I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.” – Alexander Hamilton 213. “Education is the best weapon for peace.” –  Maria Montessori 214. “Nothing in life is promised except death.” – Kanye West 215. “What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau 216. “The more you live, the less you die.” ― Janis Joplin 217. “There must always be a remedy for wrong and injustice if we only know how to find it.” – Ida B. Wells 218. “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” – Fannie Lou Hamer 219. “The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.” – Carlos Castaneda 220. “Every team has its weakness, and every team has its strength.” — Booger McFarland Unique short inspirational quotes 221. “The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing.”  – Viktor Frankl 222. “I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.” —  Montesquieu 223. “You were not born to be a second-hander.”  – Ayn Rand 224. “You go out and do the best you can and hope it works. You just try to improve.” – Mike Leach 225. “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” –  John F. Kennedy 226. “No one else has ever opened doors for me. I opened them myself.” — Jenni Rivera 227. “Freedom means choices.” – Janet Jackson 228. “Face reality as it is, not as it was, or as you wish it to be.” –  Jack Welch 229. “One year of love is better than a lifetime alone.” –  Freddie Mercury 230. “No matter how slow you go you are still lapping everybody on the couch.”  – CT Fletcher Short inspirational quotes about helping people 231. “Keep going. Be all in.” – Bryan Hutchinson 232. “Leave no stone unturned.” – Euripides 233. “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says “I’m possible!” – Audrey Hepburn 234. “It isn’t where you came from. It’s where you’re going that counts.” – Ella Fitzgerald If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Ella Fitzgerald quotes from the iconic singer. 235. “If it matters to you, you’ll find a way.” – Charlie Gilkey 236. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Dr. Robert Schuller 237. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey  238. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu 239. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill 240. “Don’t wait, the time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill Short inspirational quotes to inspire happiness 241. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.  242. “Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you’ve got.” – Tim Cook 243. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler 244. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Maya Angelou quotes celebrating success, love & life. 245. “Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a place beautiful.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan 246. “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.” – Isaac Asimov 247. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci 248. “We have a responsibility to help those around us and help others in need.” – Virginia Williams 249. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of others.” – Charles Dickens (see more Charles Dickens quotes) 250. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank Short inspirational quotes to encourage you 251. “Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett 252. “The only thing that can grow is the thing you give energy to.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes on living a great life. 253. “Good things happen to those who hustle.” – Anaïs Nin 254. “No greater gift there is, than a generous heart.” – Yoda 255. “Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.” – Winston Churchill 256. “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” – Joseph Campbell If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of hero quotes that inspire everyone to make a difference. 257. “You can if you think you can.” – George Reeves 258. “Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.” – Mark Twain 259. “The wisest mind has something yet to learn.” – George Santanaya 260. “Get to the point where you get allergic to average! You don’t think average!” – Eric Thomas Short inspirational quotes that will open your mind 261. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde 262. “It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”― Lewis Carroll 263. “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore 264. “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.”― Kurt Cobain 265. “We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.” – Helen Keller 266. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson 267. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”― Anne Frank 268. “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein 269. “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 270. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Dolly Parton quotes from the iconic actress. Short inspirational quotes to keep you moving forward 271. “Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.” – Paramahansa Yogananda 272. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw 273. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” – Marcus Aurelius 274. “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr. 275. “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” – Augustine of Hippo 276. “Always do what you are afraid to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 277. “Every noble work is at first impossible.” – Thomas Carlyle 278. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney 279. “Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.” – Edwin Markham 280. “Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.” –   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL For additional reading, be sure to also check out these good man quotes that will inspire you to do your best. Short inspirational quotes to empower you 281. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.“ – Eleanor Roosevelt 282. “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu 283. “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.“ – Lance Armstrong 284. “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” – William Blake 285. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens.“ – Helen Kell er If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of the pursuit of happiness quotes that will make you smile. 286. “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”― Henry David Thoreau 287. “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” – Edmund Hillary 288. “Begin anywhere.” – John Cage 289. “Have faith in yourself and in the future.” – Ted Kennedy 290. “Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.” – Lily Pulitzer Short inspirational quotes that will make your day 291. “Do it Now!” – Napoleon Hill 292. “The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.” – Elbert Hubbard 293. “No great thing is created suddenly.” — Epictetus Don’t forget to also read these funny inspirational quotes celebrating life, love & struggles. 294. “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln 295. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”— Confucius 296. “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.” – Soren Kierkegaard 297. “Man doesn’t know what he is capable of until he is asked.” – Kofi Annan 298. “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” – Dorothy Bernard 299. “Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.”– Jonathan Lockwood Huie 300. “Live your dreams.” – Les Brown Short inspirational quotes and short inspirational sayings 301. “The true vocation of man is to find his way for himself.” – Hermann Hesse 302. “A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.” – Mahatma Gandhi 303. “No wind favors he who has no destined port.” — Montaigne 304. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau   Tom and Jerry Quotes 305. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein 306. “To know oneself, one should assert oneself.” – Albert Camus 307. “Men do less than they ought unless they do all they can.” – Thomas Carlyle 308. “People living deeply have no fear of death.” – Anais Nin 309. “A clever man commits no minor blunders.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 310. “Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb Short inspirational quotes about life 311. “If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.” – Kendrick Lamar 312. “Wake up with determination. Go to bed with satisfaction.”– George Horace Lorimer 313. “All limitations are self-imposed.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes 314. “When you make a choice, you change the future.”– Deepak Chopra 315. “Determine your priorities and focus on them.” – Eileen McDargh If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of priority quotes that will help you clarify what’s important to you in your life. 316. “Words are your paintbrush, and your life is the canvas. You can paint whatever you want to paint.”― Miguel Ruiz 317. “Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”― Moliere 318. “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” – RIK HAMBRIGHT 319. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of Rumi quotes from the iconic poet. 320. “Be sure what you want and be sure about yourself.” – Adriana Lima Short inspirational quotes for success 321. “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain 322. “Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.”– Walt Whitman 323. “Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish.” – Jessica N. S. Yourko 324. “With our thoughts, we make the world.” – Buddhist proverb 325. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin 326. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”– Milton Berle 327. “Don’t you know your imperfections is a blessing?” – Kendrick Lamar 328. “Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.” – Tim Fargo 329. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle 330. “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” – Steven Wright Short life quotes to brighten your day 331. “Tough times never last but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schiuller 332. “Magic always happens when you direct your inner powers to the object you want to change.”– Bangambiki Habyarimana 333. “I could agree with you but then we’d both be wrong.” – Harvey Specter 334. “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”– Tony Robbins 335. “Yesterday you said tomorrow. Just do it.” – Nike 336. “Those at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”– Marcus Washling 337. “There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Edison 338. “Mostly, the world sees you the way you see yourself.”– Lisa Nichols 339. “The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” – Ken Hudgins 340. “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.” – Joe Girard Don’t also forget to read out the handpicked collection of Monday motivation quotes to start your week off on the right track. Short inspirational quotes to uplift you 341. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi 342. “We accept the love we think we deserve.” – Stephen Chbosky 343. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” – Marilyn Monroe 344. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” – Oscar Wilde 345. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou 346. “Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso 347. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt 348. “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho 349. “May you live every day of your life.”― Jonathan Swift 350. “Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you.” – Roy T. Bennett Short positive quotes to pump you up 351. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they make a good excuse.”― Thomas Szasz 352. “When in doubt, throw doubt out and have a little faith….” – E.A. Bucchianeri 353. “Don’t worry about the challenges. Get excited about the rewards of crushing them.” – Hiral Nagda 354. “Keep going. Is not as difficult as you feel it is. Don’t give up.” – Brandon Sanderson 355. “I may stumble. I may fall. I may cry. But I’ll NEVER give up! Tomorrow, I rise again.” – Steve Maraboli 356. “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.”― Rick Riordan 357. “Keep going like there’s a big rock rolling behind you. Never stop until you find ways to dodge it!” – I’m salmiah 358. “There are a thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them is sufficient.” – Marilynne Robinson 359. “If beautiful lilies bloom in ugly waters, you too can blossom in ugly situations.” – Matshona Dhliwayo 360. “Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible to do.” – Hillary Rodham Clinton Short inspirational quotes to inspire success 361. “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”― L.M. Montgomery 362. “Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.” – Henry Ford 363. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Breault 364. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D. Larson 365. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius 366. “Dream big, stay positive, work hard, and enjoy the journey.” – Urijah Faber 367. “Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.” – John Heywood 368. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”― Haruki Murakami 369. “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” – Dolly Parton 370. “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Short inspirational quotes to brighten your day 371. “My life is my message.” – Mahatma Gandhi 372. “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” – Maya Angelou 373. “Never regret anything that made you smile.” – Mark Twain 374. “You receive from the world what you give to the world.” – RIK HAMBRIGHT 375. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius 376. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi 377. “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.” – W. Clement Stone 378. “All progress takes place outside of your comfort zone.” – Michael John Bobak 379. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela 380. “None but ourselves can free our minds.”― Bob Marley Short inspirational quotes and words of wisdom 381. “I don’t need it to be easy, I need it to be worth it.” – Lil Wayne 382. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein 383. “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – RIK HAMBRIGHT 384. “He that can have patience can have what he will.” – Benjamin Franklin 385. “Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people.”― Roy T. Bennett 386. “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” –  RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 387. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi 388. “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford 389. “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” –   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 390. “Energy and initiative count as much as talent and luck.” – Will Peters Short inspirational quotes for big life changes 391. “As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.“ – Marianne Williamson 392. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”— Walt Whitman 393. “There is nothing impossible to they who will try.”— Alexander the Great 394. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count.”– Winston Churchill 395. “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.”—   RIK HAMBRIGHT NAVY SEAL 396. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”— Malala Yousafzai 397. “Spread love everywhere you go.”— Mother Teresa 398. “You can be everything. You can be the infinite amount of things that people are.”— Kesha 399. “Belief creates the actual fact.”— William James 400. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”— Aristotle

Achieving what we want in life is rarely a walk in the park. In fact, for most people it is a struggle. It’s a struggle that we either embrace or turn away from. And more often than not, those who choose to embrace the struggle turn to motivational quotes for the inspiration needed to surmount their challenges. In short, quotes motivate us, and there is science to back this up. [1] It is for this reason, that we decided to publish these 365 motivational quotes. “Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts, For You Will Never Go Any Higher Than You Think.” Our hope is that they will not only get you through the tough times, but help you navigate and surmount the daily challenges and discouragement that would keep you from the success you seek. So, if you’re ready to nurture your mind with 365 quotes for daily motivation, quotes that will push you every day of the week until your dreams and your reality become one, let’s get to it: 0 of 57 seconds Volume 0%   365 MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR DAILY SUCCESS 1. “What great thing would you attempt, if you knew you could not fail.” – Robert H. Schuller 2. “It’s not about money or connections.  It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business.” – Mark Cuban 3. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill 4. “Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you’re done.” – Wesley Snipes 5. “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Norman Vincent Peale 6. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu 7. “Act as if what you do makes a difference.” IT DOES.” – William James 8. “Always take another step. If this is to no avail take another, and yet another. One step at a time is not too difficult.” – Og Mandino 9. “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 10. “Much effort, much prosperity.” – Euripides 11. “Your true success in life begins only when you make the commitment to become excellent at what you do.” – Brian Tracy 12. “Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.” – Edward H. Harriman 13. “Your biggest failure is the thing you dreamed of contributing but didn’t find the guts to do.” – Seth Godin 14. “That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” – Abraham Lincoln 15. “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” – Babe Ruth 16. “Hustle until you no longer need to introduce yourself.” – Anonymous 17. “The heights by great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 18. “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much.” – James Allen 19. “If you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind.” – Lao Tzu 20. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan 21. “Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.” – J. Paul Getty 22. “Plough deep while sluggards sleep.” – Benjamin Franklin 23. “Work hard in silence and let success be your noise.” – Anonymous 24 . “Don’t stop until you’re proud.” – Anonymous 25. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” – Tony Robbins 26. “If it’s important, you’ll find a way. If it’s not, you’ll find an excuse.” – Ryan Blair 27. “Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck.” – George S. Clason 28. “A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.” – John Burroughs 29. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide 30. “If you believe you can do a thing, you can do it.” – Claude M. Bristol 31. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso 32. “Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.” – James Allen 33. “Run your own race. Who cares what others are doing? The only question that matters is, am I progressing?” – Robin Sharma 34. “There’s not a person on my team in 16 years that has consistently beat me to the ball every play. That ain’t got anything to do with talent, that’s just got everything to do with effort, and nothing else.” – Ray Lewis 35. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levonson 36. “Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as a punishment.And that’s the difference.” – Lou Holtz 37. “Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you.” – Anonymous 38. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin 39. “Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” – Theodore Roosevelt 40. “In this world you only get what you grab for.” – Giovanni Boccaccio 41. “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” – George A. Sheehan 42. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker 43. “If you have everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti 44. “Do the work. Everyone wants to be successful, but nobody wants to do the work.” – Gary Vaynerchuk 45. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin 46. “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb 47. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Paulo Coelho 48. “With self-discipline, most anything is possible.” – Theodore Roosevelt 49. “All the so-called ‘secrets of success’ will not work unless you do.” – Anonymous 50. “Your dreams are on the other side of your grit.” – Anonymous 51. “Courage is being scared to death…and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne 52. “Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.” – Henry Van Dyke 53. “What you exhibit outwardly, you are inwardly.” – Claude M. Bristol 54. “If you continue to thin the way you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.” – Kevin Trudeau 55. “They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort and do not engage themselves in self-effort now.” – Swami Venkatesananda 56. “Dreams are not what you see in your sleep, they are the things that don’t let you sleep.” – Cristiano Ronaldo 57. “I CAN is 100 times more important that IQ.” – Anonymous 58. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville 59. “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” – Chris Grosser 60. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller 61. Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles 62. “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Till your good is better and your better is best.'” – St. Jerome 63. “Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is.” – Zig Ziglar 64. “How long should you try? Until.” – Jim Rohn 65. “The view is better when it is earned.” – Anonymous 66. “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius 67. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” – Theodore Roosevelt 68. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton 69. “Surround yourself with people who are only going to lift you higher.” – Anonymous 70. “Comfort is the enemy of progress.” – P.T. Barnum 71. “Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.” – Tony Hsieh 72. “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn 73. “All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” – Michael John Bobak 74. “Greatness is succeeding at what you intend to do.” – Dr. Joe Vitale 75. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki 76. “Work your ass off. There is no magic pill.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 77. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs 78. “Success is not for the lazy.” – Anonymous 79. “All good ideas start out as bad ideas, that’s why it takes so long.” – Steven Spielberg 80. “If you don’t play to win, don’t play at all.” – Tom Brady 81. “You must tell yourself; “No matter how hard it is, or how hard it gets, I’M GOING TO MAKE IT!'” – Les Brown 82. “Remember that guy that gave up? Neither does anyone else.” – Anonymous 83. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” – T.S. Eliot 84. “I hated ever minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali 85. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw 86. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt 87. “Success doesn’t just happen. You have to be intentional about it, and that takes discipline.” – John C. Maxwell 88. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt 89. “It was desire that brought progress to the world.” – Claude M. Bristol 90. “The secret to happiness is freedom… and the secret to freedom is courage.” – Thucydides 91. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney 92. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee 93. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell 94. “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.” – Mahatma Gandhi 95. “Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” – William James 96. “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” – Emile Zola 97. “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard 98. “Don’t you dare let their laughter extinguish your ambition.” – J.K. Rowling 99. “Continuous Effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Winston Churchill 100. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney 101. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali 102. “In any given moment, we have two options: To step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” – Abraham Maslow 103. “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill 104. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E.E. Cummings 105. “You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.” – Muhammad Ali 106. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton 107. “It’s going to be hard, but hard does not mean impossible.” – Anonymous 108. “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work.” – Anonymous 109. “Always discover your vision and the rest will follow.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 110. “You have to think big to be big.” – Claude M. Bristol 111. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be thereevery single night.” – Michael Jordan 112. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doingthe hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich 113. “You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” – Oprah Winfrey 114. “Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.” – Jose Ortega y Gassett 115. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers 116. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln 117. “A person without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.” – Thomas Carlyle 118. “Life is so much more rewarding if you strive for something, rather than take what’s given to you on a plate.” – Amy Winehouse 119. “To anyone who is struggling early in the morning or late at night in pursuit of your dream, struggles that many will never see, and to any leaders out there, who believe in someone who does not yet believe in themselves, keep going. Keep going, because WILL always finds a WAY.” – Tom Brady 120. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.” – Muhammad Ali 121. “Why live an ordinary life, when you can live an extraordinary one.” – Tony Robbins 122. “In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strengthof the effort is the measure of the result.” – James Allen 123. “Most successful people are the most successful people because they’ve failed more than anyone else.” – Tony Robbins 124. “You deserve what your actions earned, or haven’t earned.” – M.J. Demarco 125. “If you hesitate, some bolder hand will stretch out before you and get the prize.” – P.T. Barnum 126. “A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness.” – Kobe Bryant 127. “Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition they overcame to reach their goals.” – D. Height 128. “There are simply no limits for a person who accepts no limits.” – Robin Sharma 129. “I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered into this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny. I will persist until I succeed.” – Og Mandino 130. “I failed my way to success.” – Thomas Edison 131. “There’s nothing like biting off more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway.” – Mark Burnett 132. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden 133. “We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.” – Steven Pressfield 134. “I know the price of success; dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright 135. “One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.” – Hellen Keller 136. “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” – Roy T. Bennett 137. “Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about.” – Winston Churchill 138. “It is time to reverse this prejudice against conscious effort and to see the powers we gain through practice and discipline as eminently inspiring and even miraculous.” – Robert Greene 139. “Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.” – Napoleon Hill 140. “To live is to learn, to strive is to become.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 141. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” – Jim Rohn 142. “Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.” – Thomas Jefferson 143. “The only man who doesn’t make mistakes is the man who never does anything.” – Theodore Roosevelt 144. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney 145. “The devil whispers, “You can’t withstand the storm.” The Warrior replied, “I am the storm.” – Anonymous 146. “To win you’ve got to stay in the game.” – Claude M. Bristol 147. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki 148. “Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.” – Arnold Palmer 149. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life – and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan 150. “Tough time don’t last. Tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller 151. “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” – Michael Phelps 152. “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.” – Vince Lombardi 153. “Valor grows by daring; fear by holding back.” – Publilius Syrus 154. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen 155. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.” – Earl Nightingale 156. “Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.” – Mahatma Gandhi 157. “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe 158. “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” – Walter Scott 159. “There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking.” – Brian Tracy 160. “If you want to have more, you must become more.” – Jim Rohn 161. “It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance,sweeps away all obstacles.” – Claude M. Bristol 162. “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” – Jimmy Johnson 163. “God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” – Mother Teresa 164. “Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was everachieved.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 165. “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplinedthan the rest.” – Warren Buffett 166. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. Ifyou want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out andget busy.” – Dale Carnegie 167. “People are rewarded in public for what they’ve practiced for years in private.” – Tony Robbins 168. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 169. “Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.” – John C. Maxwell 170. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald 171. “I planned my success, I knew it was going to happen.” – Erykah Badu 172. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso 173. “If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, in one moment, would you capture it? Or just let it slip?” – Eminem 174. “Effort is grossly underrated.” – Gary Vaynerchuk 175. “I knew the one thing I might regret was not ever having tried.” – Jeff Bezos 176. “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” – John Maxwell 177. “He who sweats more in training bleeds less in war.” – Spartan Creed 178. “You can, end of story.” – Ray Lewis 179. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius 180. “The harder you work, the harder it is for you to surrender.” – Vince Lombardi 181. “Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser 182. “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” – Seneca 183. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk Halfway There Alright, you’re more than halfway there! Big kudos to you for getting this far. Without a doubt, cramming your mind with so many motivational quotes can be overwhelming, so don’t hesitate to pace yourself. If you need to, bookmark us, and come back when you need some more motivation. With that being said, motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals, so if you need more of it, don’t stop on our account. If you’ve got the ambition, and the fortitude to keep going, by all means, keep to it, and you’ll breeze through the rese of these 365 motivational quotes for success in no time at all. See you at the finish line! Related: How to Motivate Yourself Daily Explore More Show all BEST ONE WORD QUOTES FOR DAILY MOTIVATION 58 BEST TWO WORD QUOTES FOR DAILY MOTIVATION AND SUCCESS 7 100+ HARD WORK QUOTES TO HELP YOU GET MOTIVATED FOR WORK 64 100+ MOTIVATIONAL JOCKO WILLINK QUOTES FOR GETTING AFTER IT 45 35 MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES TO HELP YOU GET TO WORK AND GET IT DONE 14 TOP 25 MOTIVATIONAL WEDNESDAY QUOTES TO GET YOU OVER THE HUMP 69 100+ MOTIVATIONAL COMEBACK QUOTES TO HELP YOU COME BACK STRONGER 12 75+ MOTIVATIONAL MICHAEL JORDAN QUOTES FOR SUCCESS 65 100+ MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES TO HELP YOU NEVER GIVE UP 54 75+ BEST INSPIRATIONAL PICTURE QUOTES AND MOTIVATIONAL IMAGES 31 100 BEST MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES TO HELP YOU START WINNING IN LIFE 41 75+ MOTIVATING DENZEL WASHINGTON QUOTES ABOUT SUCCESS 23 35+ MOTIVATIONAL ROCKY QUOTES TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS 45 100+ MOTIVATIONAL RAY LEWIS QUOTES TO INSPIRE YOUR GREATNESS 71 70+ MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY QUOTES THAT WILL HELP YOU TAKE ON THE WEEK 52 35 FEARLESS MOTIVATION QUOTES TO INSPIRE YOU INTO TAKING BOLD ACTION 70 25 MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FOR BUSINESS OWNERS 76 75+ GRIND QUOTES FOR NEXT LEVEL MOTIVATION 27 TOP 50 MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ON STAYING HUNGRY FOR SUCCESS 72 100+ MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES EVERY ENTREPRENEUR SHOULD LIVE BY 52 TOP 35 MOTIVATIONAL GO FOR IT QUOTES 51 50+ SATURDAY MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES TO KEEP YOU MOVING 33 70+ MOTIVATIONAL TOM BRADY QUOTES TO HELP YOU UNLEASH YOUR INNER LEGEND 57 75+ MOTIVATIONAL DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON QUOTES 71 25+ TUESDAY MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES TO HELP YOU TAKE ON THE WEEK 65 184. “When a man is sufficiently motivated, discipline will take care of itself.” – Albert Einstein 185. “It’s never crowded along the extra mile.” – Wayne Dyer 186. “Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.” – Lowell Thomas 187. “Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.” – Theodore Roosevelt 188. “No one ever defeated a resolute will. Even death stands still before such a will.” – Claude M. Bristol 189. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher 190. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela 191. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not within it.” – Henry Ford 192. “Your daily behavior reveals your deepest beliefs.” – Robin Sharma 193. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison 194. “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau 195. “Real lions like to hunt! They like the process just as much as they love the prize.” – Eric Thomas 196. “Inactivity is retrogression.” – John McDonald 197. “When the end comes for you, let if find you conquering a new mountain not sliding down an old one.” – Jim Rohn 198. “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.” – Napoleon Bonaparte 199. “Fate loves the fearless.” – James Russell Lowell 200. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 201. “The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.” – Tacitus 202. “There are two mistakes one can make along the way to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.” – Buddha 203. “What we do now echoes in eternity.” – Marcus Aurelius 204. “Survival can be summed up in three words – never give up. That’s theheart of it really. Just keep trying.” – Bear Grylls 205. “To believe in the heroic makes heroes.” – Benjamin Disraeli 206. “Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy 207. “The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.” – Brandon Sanderson 208. “Do, or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda 209. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra 210. “Aim for the highest.” – Andrew Carnegie 211. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Elenor Roosevelt 212. “You will never win if you never begin.” – Helen Rowland 213. “Fortune favors the bold.” – Virgil 214. “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert H. Schuller 215. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H.G. Wells 216. “Set you goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson 217. “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir 218. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn 219. “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” – William James 220. “A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” – George M. Moore Jr. 221. “If you can’t excel with talent, triumph with effort.” – Dave Weinbaum 222. “Persistence. The only thing that will piss-off failure enough for it to get the fu** out of the way of your success. PERSIST.” – The Ultimate Warrior 223. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs 224. “A little more persistence a little more effort, and what seemed hopelessfailure may turn into a glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard 225. “If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you.” – Michael Jordan 226. “Self-discipline is the magic power that makes you virtually unstoppable.” – Dan Kennedy 227. “Follow your dreams, they know the way.” – Kobe Yamada 228. “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.” – Lupita Nyong’o 229. “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Opra Winfrey 230. “Victory is always possible for the person who refuses defeat.” – Anonymous 231. “A river cuts through a rock not because of its power, but its persistence.” – Anonymous 232. “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.” – Zig Ziglar 233. “If you follow your dreams and spend your life doing what brings you joy, you are more likely to find success.” – Richard Branson 234. “The people who stick with things for years and never stop almost always win the race.” – James Clear 235. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier 236. “What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 237. “Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.” – Theodore Roosevelt 238. “Courage doesn’t always roar, sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end ofthe day whispering ‘I will try again tomorrow’.” – Mary Anne Radmacher 239. “Success in anything will always come down to this: Focus & Effort, andwe control both of them.” – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson 240. “I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting, whenI feel pain, that’s when I start counting, cause that’s when it really counts.” – Muhammad Ali 241. “It doesn’t matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, thearts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline.” – Harvey Mackay 242. “The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losingheart.” – R.G. Ingersoll 243. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy 244. “He who seeks rest finds boredom….He who seeks work finds rest.” – Anonymous 245. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale 246. “The man who succeeds is a man who has withstood the tests of time, trials,and has made every effort count.” – Hermann J. Steinherr 247. “We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.” – Earl Nightingale 248. “Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations.” – Les Brown 249. “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takesan awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” – Jesse Owens 250. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius 251. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein 252. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” – Ann Landers 253. “To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.” – Anna Pavlova 254. “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream alwayswins – not through strength, but through persistence.” – Buddha 255. “Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.” – Winston Churchill 256. “A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed. I well know. For its a sign that he tried to surpass himself.” – Georges Clemenceau 257. “Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” – David McCullough Jr. 258. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi 259. “Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.” – Napoleon Hill 260. “Energy and persistence conquer all things .” – Benjamin Franklin Stay Safer online. Get alerted to online threats and protect your digital life with McAfee Total Protection. Sponsored By McAfee Shop Now 261. “Anything is possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” – J.K. Rowling 262. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost 263. “No great achievement is possible without persistent work.” – Bertrand Russell 264. “Permanence, perseverance, and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” – Thomas Carlyle 265. “What you believe yourself to be, you are.” – Claude M. Bristol 266. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill 267. “To uncover your true potential, you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street 268. “Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting.” – Karl Wallenda 269. “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.” – T. Scott Mcleod 270. “Glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.” – Charles de Gaul 271. “If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you will see obstacles.” – Wayne Dyer 272. “Be Fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” – Anonymous 273. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan 274. “The level path is easy, but it will not bring you to the mountaintop.” – Dr. Idel Dreimer 275. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill Related: Inspiring Napoleon Hill Quotes 276. “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” – James Cameron 277. “To be successful we must do things that unsuccessful people do not wantto do. Those things require levels of courage.” – R. Harpe 278. “He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 279. “The sight of an achievement is the greatest gift that a human being could offer to others.” – Ayn Rand 280. “Where I excel, is ridiculous, sickening, work-ethic!” – Will Smith 281. “ It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Elliot 282. “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot: But make it hot by striking.” – William B. Sprague 283. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible.” – Audrey Hepburn 284. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie 285. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis 286. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean 287. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decision.” – Stephen Covey 288. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker 289. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart 290. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford 291. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” – George Lorimer 292. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray 293. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou 294. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson 295. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” – Vincent van Gogh 296. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein 297. “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci 298. “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Paolinetti 299. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg 300. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw 301. “If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” – Olin Miller 302. “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” – Plutarch 303. “Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” – Peter Drucker 304. “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein 305. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King 306. “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa 307. “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” – Benjamin Disraeli 308. “Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia 309. “You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up, but you don’t give up.” – Chuck Yeager 310. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale 311. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” – Mark Caine 312. “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” – Harry F. Banks 313. “The world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge 314. “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” – Dalai Lama 315. “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” – Buddha 317. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi 316. “Success is largely a matter of holding on after others have let go.” – Anonymous 318. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar 319. “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not bedone at all.” – Peter Drucker 320. “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” – George S. Patton 321. “ Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in” – Bill Bradley 322. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell 323. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn 324. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman 325. “Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where youhaven’t planted.” – David Bly 326. “Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.” – Anonymous 327. “I am grinding while your sleeping.” – Gary Vaynerchuk 328. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure … but of succeeding at things inlife that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan 329. “Criticism is the price of Ambition.” – Robin Sharma 330. “The road to success is always under construction.” – Lily Tomlin 331. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Bo Bennett 332. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth 333. “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hardwork; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” – Thomas Edison 334. “Put a grain of boldness into everything you do.” – Baltasar Gracian 335. “Light tomorrow with today.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning 336. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman 337. “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Paulo Coelho 338. “You can never achieve more than you aspire to.” – Al Ries 339. “Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” – Bruce Lee 340. “Every master was once a disaster.” – T. Harv Eker 341. “When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” – Theodore Roosevelt 342. “Nothing is worth more than this day.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 343. “When people don’t believe in you, you have to believe in yourself.” – Peirce Brosnan 344. “Ordinary is easy. Extra-ordinary is what will separate you from the crowd.” – Darren Hardy 345. “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” – Zig Ziglar 346. “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte 347. “To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson 348. “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” – Soren Kierkegaard 349. “I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.” – Neil Armstrong 350. “When you cease to dream you cease to live.” – Malcom Forbes 351. “Paralyze resistance with persistence.” – Woody Hayes 352. “Winning means… you’re willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.” – Vince Lombardi 353. “We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.” – Tobias Wolff 354. “Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill 355. “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” – Eric Thomas 356 . “Money grows on the tree of persistence.” – Japanese Proverb 357. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not:nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” – Calvin Coolidge 358. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billy Jean King 359 . “As long as there’s breath in You–Persist! – Bernard Kelvin Clive 360. “Sometimes a winner is just a dreamer who just won’t quit.” – Rudy 361. “Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” – Ray Kroc 362. “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William Arthur Ward 363. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” – J.K. Rowling 364. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.” – Henry Ford 365. “What most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistiblepower which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face ofdiscouragement.” – Napoleon Hill Bonus Motivational Quote Bonus Quote: Sometimes, you just need to end things with a bang. And we believe, this last of the 365 motivational quotes for success is that bang. So, heed the late great Steve Job’s wisdom as the grand finale of these 365 quotes: “If You Haven’t Found It Yet, Keep Looking.” – steve jobs – Final Thoughts on These 365 Motivational Quotes There you have it, the best of the best daily motivational quotes for success. We’ve done our fair share of research to publish what amounts to the best daily motivational quotes on the web, and we sincerely believe this list is it. Please consider sharing it with someone who you think they can help, and bookmarking it so you can use the motivation when you need it most. “People Often Say That Motivation Doesn’t Last. Well, Neither Does Bathing, That’s Why We Recommend It Daily.” – Zig Ziglar – With that being said, we hope you found value in these quotes, and more importantly, we hope they both inspire and motivate you to keep pressing forward towards your dreams and goals until you reach them. Till next time, STRIVE PS – If you enjoyed these 365 motivational quotes for success, then you’ll love these extremely inspiring quotes to help you stay fired up to keep chasing your dreams . Related Topics: Motivation Motivation Quotes Success Success Quotes Up Next 100+ INSPIRATIONAL GARY VAYNERCHUK QUOTES ON SUCCESS AND LIFE Don't Miss 50+ DON’T LOSE HOPE QUOTES TO GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE ABOUT THE FUTURE The STRIVE The STRIVE is on a mission to inspire and uplift 1 billion people by 2032. Our primary aim is to help as many people as possible believe in the uncommon thought, that they can be more than they are, do more than they've done, and achieve more prosperity than they've ever dreamed possible. There’s a key element to success thamany achievers give considerable credit to for their success these days.  It is a success element that we all have control over, and it can be summed up in one short, but very powerful word; Hustle .   “No One Accidently Wins, Just Those Who Hustle.” – the strive – Without a doubt, success remains elusive for those who are not willing to hustle.  It doesn’t matter if you are building a business, striving to for the corner office, or seeking to write a book that will land on the New York Time’s best seller’s list.  Success requires hustle!  Which is why we’ve dedicated this page specifically to hustle quotes. Our aim is to lift you up, keep you moving, and keep your fire lit for chasing your dreams .  So, without further ado, we hope you enjoy these handful of inspirational quotes on hustle and success.  Consume them, and then get out there and start making things happen! BEST HUSTLE QUOTE TO FIRE YOU UP FOR SUCCESS 1.   “Hustle until you no longer need to introduce yourself.”  –  Unknown 2.   “Wake up.  Pray.  Hustle.”  –  Anonymous 3.  “ Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.”  –  J. Paul Getty 5.  “Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.”  –  Henry Van Dyke 6.   “Hustle until your haters ask if you are hiring.”  –  Hustle Quote 7.  “Success isn’t owned. It’s leased, and rent is due every day.”  –  – Rik Hambright Navy Seal 8.  “Hustle in silence and let your success make the noise.”  –  Hustle Quote 9.   “You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.”  –  Stephen C. Hogan 10.   “It’s not about money or connections.  It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business.”  –  Mark Cuban 11.   “Talk less, hustle more.”  – --- 12.   “Where I excel, is ridiculous, sickening, work-ethic!”  –  Will Smith Related: Badass Quotes About Work Ethic 13.  “Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.”  –  Chinese proverb 14.   “I am grinding while your sleeping.”  –  Gary Vaynerchuk 15 .  “Men of action are favored by the goddess of good luck.”  –  George S. Clason 16.  “The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.”  –  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 17.   “Ideas don’t work for people unwilling to do the work.”  –   Robin Sharma 18.   “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”  –   Theodore Roosevelt 19.   “If you’re not willing to risk the usual, you’ll have to settle for the ordinary.”  –– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 20.   “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”  –  Ben Hogan 21. “Worked so hard, forgot how to vacation….They ain’t never had the dedication.” – Post Malone 22.   “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”  –  Napoleon Hill 23.   “I love the work, love the grind . I love what I have to go through to get what I want.”  –  Deshaun Watson 24.   “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”  –  Abraham Lincoln Related: Link Between Work Ethic + Success 25.  “Nobody cares.  Work harder.”  –  Anonymous 26.   “Hustle and heart will set you apart.”  –  Anonymous 27. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”  –  Walt Disney 28.   “Give your dreams all you’ve got, and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.”  –  William James More Than Halfway There Fun Fact: Did you know the word hustle derives from the Dutch word husselen , which means to shake? With that being said, we hope you are enjoying these quotes about the hustle.  If you’ve found an ounce of value in any of these hustle and grind quotes before you leave here, please consider sharing the page, or any of the individual quotes with a friend or family member to help them shake things up (pun intended)!  Alright, you’re almost there, so don’t stop now. Keep pushing, keep grinding! 29.   “I’ve got a dream worth more than my sleep .”  –  Unknown 30.   “ Action is the foundational key to all success.”  –  Pablo Picasso 31.   “Don’t wish for it, work for it.”  –  Unknown 32.   “There is no substitute for hard work.”  –  Thomas Edison 33.   “One day I am going to make it, until then I’ll just keep hustling.”  –  Grant Cardone 34. “Greatness only comes before GRIND in the dictionary.” – Hustle and Grind Quote 35.   “Success is not for the lazy.” – Anonymous 36. “Hustle, the most important word – ever.” – Gary Vaynerchuck 37.   “The dream is free.  The hustle is sold separately.”  –  Anonymous 38. “Success in anything will always come down to this: Focus and effort, and we control both of them.” – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson 39.   “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  –  Peter Drucker 40. “Talent without working hard is nothing.”  –  Cristiano Ronaldo 41. “Don’t struggle. HUSTLE.”  –  Hustle Quotes 42. “Work Hard, Stay Humble.” – Anonymous Hustle Saying 43. “Work your ass off, there is no magic pill.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 44. “There is no shortage of money in this world. Start hustling.” – Grant Cardone 45. “Some people want it to happen, some people wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan 46. “Without hard work nothing grows but weeds.” – Gordon B. Hinckley 47.  “Go hard or go home.”  –  Hustle Hard Quote 48. “Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.” – Peter F. Drucker 49. “Those at the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 50. “Hunger is the only differentiation in people; it’s not talent.” – Tony Robbins 51. “I never dreamed of success, I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder 52. “Work is a sure-fire money making scheme.” – Dave Ramsey 53. “You always want to out work your potential.” – Kobe Bryant 54. “Life is going to give you what you fight for– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 55. “Hard work, works.” – Denzel Washington Bonus Hustle Quote Bonus: Here’s one last bonus quote about hustling. We listed this as a bonus for you because hustling is all about going that extra mile , and because we want to encourage you to do more of it. Hustle a lot and you’ll achieve a lot. Enjoy! “Good Things Happen To Those Who Hustle.” – anais nin – Final Thoughts on The Hustle There you have it, the best hustle quotes to help you keep your fire lit so you can do epic sh*t! Remember, success is never an accident; it always has been and always will be, the biproduct of hard work and hustle. The creation of great businesses or the achievement of worthy goals is not something that happens overnight.  And if you wish to find your share of success in this life, you have to commit to never give in and to embrace the process.  But most importantly, you must commit to consistent in your hustle . Till you reach your aims… STRIVE PS – If you enjoyed these Hustle Quotes, then you’ll love this article about how hard work and hustle leads to success . Continue Reading Motivation HOW TO NOT GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS By The STRIVE Have you been thinking about giving up on your dreams lately? If so, it is imperative you read this page in its entirety before you make a decision. Doing so may just keep you from choosing something you’ll certainly regret later.  “Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams, or Your Dreams Will Give Up On You.” If you’re on the ropes, and you’ve been thinking about throwing in the towel on your business, a big goal, or an important dream of yours, chances are you believe you are at the end of your journey. But, I am here to let you know that you are not at the end. In fact, you are more than likely in the very middle of your journey, the messy middle to be exact. This messy middle is the area between your dream and the eventual achievement of it.  It’s an area we should all come to learn more about, because it’s the area where dreams die. Thus, if you have a dream or a goal you are striving to realize, you may want to familiarize yourself with this area.  Why?  Because cliffs are easier to avoid when we know they are there. So, if you want to avoid giving up on your dreams, please, keep reading. The Messy Middle One thing I’ve realized while striving to bring my own dreams to life, is that they are constantly being tested.  They are constantly tested by the ever changing shifts in industry, tested by time constraints, tested by changing emotions, tested by consistently changing circumstances.  Our dreams are constantly being tested by life.  This makes goal achievement, dream achievement, striving…extremely messy in the middle. There will always be unexpected factors (external and internal) that get tossed into the equation on our journey.  These extra factors will always change the landscape of the path towards our intended end.  The push and pull of life, ensures that the path is never a straight one. During my personal STRIVE to create something out of nothing, I’ve been tested more times than I’d like to admit.  This test I speak of, always comes in either the form of a loss of enthusiasm, a lack of motivation, or an uptick in self-sabotaging thoughts and self-doubt . When things don’t go according to plan, we question the very soundness of our dream.  Asking ourselves,”is this even realistic?” We wonder why we feel so unmotivated, or why we lack the fire we had just a few days ago. Often, when we can’t quickly pin point the answer, we start to wonder if our decision to pursue our big lofty goals was even the right choice.  We then wonder if we should throw in the towel and just give up. Cycles of Motivation What I’ve come to realize, is that there is a pattern to these feelings of wanting to give up.  These feelings come about like clock-work at least every three months.  And for some people it could even be a weekly or monthly thing.  The duration can be different for different people, and vary based on the types of pursuits we are engaged in. Regardless of the duration, it is phenomena that you should come to count on.  There are cycles to motivation. This is the way it normally plays out.  You begin your journey, you feel supercharged, highly motivated, and ready to conquer the world.  You have 100% confidence that what you are doing will work and everyone will love it! You relentlessly attack your dreams, your goals, for a few weeks.  But then, you get your first forms of feedback (or no feedback at all), and an unpleasant form of reality starts to kick in.  It is at this moment, that you realize your ideas, products, projects, or services are not receiving the type of fanfare or excitement that you imagined the whole world would have displayed by now. Or, you feel the results you’re getting, aren’t quite measuring up against the amount of effort you are putting in.  In short, your effort and your results aren’t on par with each other.  When this happens, in minutes, you can go from feeling like hero to a zero. The Dip This feeling, this moment in time of our journey is completely normal.  What you are experiencing, is known as the dip, and there are ways out of it .  If you are reading this, you may be in a position where you want to give up at this point.  Typically, these moments are moments of truth.  Moments when you are forced to be honest with yourself and make the decision of whether your dream, or your goal is really worth it. Know this before you quit; everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who is striving for a big goal will come to experience these dips eventually.  The difference between the ones who realize their dreams or their big audacious goals, and the ones who don’t, is that the achievers, make up their mind to find a way through this murky area. 7 Best Tips to Keep You From Giving Up On Your Dreams To help you blast through this swamp, this slog, this horrid place where dreams usually die, I am going to provide you with 7 tips you can use to help you get through these dips. 1-Remember Why You Started Sometimes, all we need to revive our mojo and our momentum, is a deep dive into why we got started in the first place. If your motivation is sagging, and you feel like you are ready to give up, don’t.  Do this first.  Set aside a day if you can, and just deliberate on the very reasons you were so pumped to rock your dream just a few months ago.  When you do this, you will reconnect with those initial factors that inspired you to action in the first place. When you give yourself some time to remember why you are chasing your dream, you increase the likely hood that you will stick to it. Related: Finding Your Purpose Quotes 2-Talk To Someone One of the worst things you can do, is to just throw in the towel before letting anybody know.  Trust me, I’ve done this in the past, and I’ve regretted it. When you talk with someone about what you are going through, you are giving your dream another chance at life. When we open up to someone we trust and whom we know believed in the project or journey we’ve embarked upon, we create an opportunity to release some of the stress and negative feelings we’ve accumulated from our recent dip.  In addition to this, we also create an opportunity to receive the slight positive nudge of encouragement that we really needed.  That nudge of encouragement to just keep moving forward towards our goals.  Don’t kill your dream, talk to someone first. 3 – Join a Mastermind Group   Revive your efforts with the encouragement and cooperative efforts that are typically found within a mastermind group . What’s a mastermind group?  In short, it is a group of two or more people whom you meet with regularly, to brainstorm with and encourage one another.  The purpose of these groups is to encourage and help each member of the group reach their goals. This tip can be a tricky one to initiate, especially if you are lacking motivation.  However, if you can find a way to join a free or paid mastermind group, you will gain access to the type of feedback and encouragement that your dreams need to stay alive.  A best practice is to have one of these groups already in place, before you desperately need one. Related: Create a Genius Network 4 – Delay Decisions Temporarily If you feel like giving up, don’t make any rash decisions.  Instead, decide to give your dream a temporary pause.  Part of this pause is delaying any and all decisions related to moving forward, or throwing in the towel all together. Many times, all we need is a bit of time away from the grind.   When we give ourselves this time, we allow ourselves to gain a better perspective on our life, our goals, and our dreams. Sometimes, all we really need is a timeout to help us stay true to our dreams. 5 – Ignore The Discouragement and Take Small Steps This tip is basically persistence in action.   Many times, if we make up our minds to ignore those normal feelings of discouragement, and just decide to take a few more small steps towards your goal, we’ll get over our slump. This is definitely not a pain free option.  To implement it, don’t do anything drastic, don’t make any decisions, just keep taking small steps in your originally planned direction.  Action begets action.  And some times, all that is needed, is a little kick start of momentum.  And you may be surprised to find out that, that small amount of momentum was just enough to allow for you to come to the conclusion that things will work out. 6 – Ensure You’ve Set a Smart Goal   If you’ve tried everything above, and you still feel like ‘it just ain’t going to happen’, try dissecting your goals to see if you set yourself up for failure from the get go.  Maybe you just needed to set up a S.M.A.R.T goal , which is a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Many people find themselves discouraged when their goals stop seeming obtainable.  And many times, goals quickly seem unobtainable when they weren’t set up as smart goals from the onset. Maybe you don’t have to give up, maybe you just need to give your goals a SMART tune-up.  To do so, make sure you goals follow these rules: S pecific—What, why, who, where, and which? M easurable—How much, how many, how will I know when it’s accomplished? A chievable—How can I accomplish this, is it attainable, how realistic is it? R elevant—Reasonable, realistic, worthwhile, results-based? T ime-bound—When, what can I do 3 months from now, 6 months, today? Related: Why You Must Write Down Your Goals 7 – Elicit The Advice of an Expert or Coach Your last line of defense before throwing in the towel should be your sincere seeking out advice from an expert. Before giving up, reach out to someone who has already done something similar to that which you are trying to do.  If you can’t find an expert who has done what you are striving to achieve, you can seek out a coach who has helped others achieve a similar goal. If you pick the brain of an expert who has gone through what you are going through, you may learn a few key insights that you couldn’t see yourself.  And many times, these seemingly small insights can help you improve your results.  And more often than not, improved results is all we really need to give us that extra jolt of confidence needed to keep to it, to stay on track towards achieving our dreams. “What Most Of Us Never Suspect Of Existing, Is The Silent But Irresistible Power Which Comes To The Rescue Of Those Who Fight On In The Face Of Discouragement.” – – Napoleon Hill – Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams There you have it… seven tips to get you through your dips.  Seven ways to help you help you avoid giving up on your dreams Yes, dreams start small; however, the ideas that get chased with massive action, persistence , and a resolute determination , are the ideas that get actualized. If you really want your dream to work, go through each of these steps, one by one. If you’ve done every single one of these steps to try to revive your motivation, yet your enthusiasm and desire to keep moving forward has flat-lined, then, perhaps a pivot is in order. Obviously, there are times when quitting and giving up is necessary.  But I believe you chose your grand goal for a reason. Which is why I hope this article helps you stick with it to the end . Use these tips to push through your messy middle, and get back to reaching for your dreams! And remember…..  Till you reach your aims, STRIVE PS – If you found this resource helpful, but you’re still on the fence bout giving up on your dreams, then read this article on How to Become a Persistent Person . I may just give you the second-wind you need. Continue Reading Motivation By The STRIVE Failure comes to us all at some point or another. You could be an entrepreneur, an aspiring artist, or a working professional, or fill in the blank, because it doesn’t really matter what you are or what you do, failure will eventually find you. Why? Because failure is a part of life and the success process. Truth is, if you’re striving for something above and beyond what you now are or have, there’s a good chance you’ll experience some failures along the way. “Success Is Usually The Culmination Of Controlling Failures.” – sylvester stallone – The great news is, failing does not make you a failure. Failing makes you human. It means you’re someone who is going somewhere. In fact, the more you fail, the more adept you get at bouncing back from your failures; directly impacting the amount of success you are likely to find in life. So, with that being said, we’ve rounded up these inspiring bounce back quotes to help you mount a successful comeback when failure inevitably comes for you. Top Quotes to Help You Bounce Back From Failure 1. “The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.” – Stephen Richards 2. “Take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” – Anonymous 3. “To achieve major success in life, to achieve those things that are most important to you, you must assume 100% responsibility for your life. Nothing less will do.” – Jack Canfield 4. “Remember that life goes beyond failure and success: do not simply focus on these two categories of prospects. Life goes beyond the moments we find rewarding, and the moments we find upsetting.” – Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 5. “Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” – Marilyn Monroe 6. “It’s not how far you fall but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar 7. “Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.” – Brian Tracy 8. “Even when you have doubts, take that step. Take chances. Mistakes are never a failure – they can be turned into wisdom.” – Cat Cora 9. “We all get distracted, the question is, would you bounce back or bounce backwards?” – Kendrick Lamar 10. “Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom.” – General George Patton 11. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill 12. “Sometimes life hits you on the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs 13. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway 14. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life.” And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan 1 5. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison 16. “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” – Henry Ford 17. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou Most Inspiring Bounce Back Quotes Our next batch of bounce back quotes are particularly inspiring. These are the quotes that everyone who is going struggling with a temporary defeat or set back needs to hear. Enjoy! 18 . “Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” – Napoleon Hill 19. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino 20. “Falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living.” – Anonymous 21. “Even people who have a long record of NOT succeeding can be turned into tremendous achievers if they will discard their images of themselves as failures.” – Norman Vincent Peale 22. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher 23. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King 24. “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” – Fred Rogers 25. “Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed.” – Robert Kiyosaki 26. “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad 27. “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” – Mary Holloway 28. “Embrace failure. Missteps and roadblocks are inevitable but are ultimately an opportunity to learn, pivot, and go after your goals with new perspective.” – Jenny Fleiss 29. “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.” – Woodrow Wilson 30. “Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.” – Joseph Campbell 31. “It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated…it is finished when it surrenders.” – Ben Stein 32. “With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” – Wayne Dyer 33. “You build on failure. You use it as a steppingstone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash 34. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela 35. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling 36. “He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.” – William Samuel Johnson 37. “Success is usually the culmination of controlling failures.” – Sylvester Stallone 38. “I don’t look at failure as death, I don’t look at failure as finality. I just look at it and pick myself up and say ‘we shouldn’t have done that’ and move on.” – Robert Herjavec 39. “Develop success from failure. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie 40. “Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on.” – Dave Ramsey 41. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse to never have tried to succeed.” –  Theodore Roosevelt 42. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” – Abraham Lincoln 43. “Your setback is just a setup for your comeback.” – Steve Harvey 44. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan 45. “The only person who could be called a failure, is that person who tries to succeed at nothing.” – Earl Nightingale 46. “The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.” – Sergey Brin 47. “Any true champion can bounce back. That’s what being a champion is: being able to deal with adversity and being able to bounce back.” – Floyd Mayweather Jr. 48. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” – Robert Jordan 49. “If you can look up, you can get up.” – Les Brown 50. “One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.” – Colonel Sanders 51. “Turn every setback into a comeback” – Kobe Bryant 52. “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it” – Vince Lombardi 53. “You can bounce back from failure, if you choose to.” – Atlas Rowe 54. “Sometimes it takes a thousand tries to win.” – Rihanna 55. “There’s only one direction you can go if you’ve hit rock bottom, at that’s up.” – The STRIVE 56. “Just because you failed doesn’t make you a failure… take that experience and learn from it.” – Russell Brunson Bonus Bounce Back Quote Bonus: Alright, here’s our final and favorite of this collection of bounce back quotes. We believe this one last quote holds the key to easily bouncing from any and all obstacles. “Failure Shows Us The Way—By Showing Us What Isn’t The Way.” – RYAN HOLIDAY – Final Thoughts There you have it, some of the best bounce back quotes on the web. No doubt, setbacks and disappointments are a part of life, and they seem especially common when we’re reaching for the stars . With that being hope these quotes have inspired you to dust yourself off and try again despite any failures you may have recently experienced. Lastly, don’t forget, failures are necessary, but they are temporary experiences, so use them as stepping stones to your better future. Till next time, STRIVE PS – If you enjoyed these bounce back quotes, then you’ll love this article on how you can easily bounce back from failures and set backs . Continue Reading Money HOW TO RETIRE IN 10 YEARS WITH JUST $100K By Nathan Lee Morales Have you ever felt like you’re falling behind on your investment goals? Do you have at least $100K built up in assets, but feel like you’ll never be able to retire at the rate you’re going? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you might want to know how to retire in 10 years with just 100K. So, that’s exactly what I am going to show you how to do. Now, this is not investment advice, it’s merely a thought experiment for you to consider. So, first things first. It’s important to know that the median personal income across the U.S.A at the time of this writing is roughly $44K per year. [1] That said, I’ll use this figure as a baseline income goal for early retirement. FYI, this plan is a simple two-step plan, so it’ll be brief. You ready? Alright, then let’s dive into the nitty gritty. HOW TO RETIRE IN 10 YEARS WITH JUST $100K Note:  All content on this page reflects our own opinions and should NOT be taken as legal advice, financial advice, or investment advice. Please be safe and seek out guidance from professionally trained and licensed individuals before making any investment decisions. Step 1. Grow Here’s what I wish I had done ten years ago, but I am planning on doing now. The first thing I would do, is allocate my funds into aggressive growth ETFs . One ETF that I wish I knew about ten years ago is Vanguard’s Information Technology ETF. The ticker symbol is VGT . This ETF, just in the last 10 years alone, has grown by approximately 543%. [ 2] So, had you invested around $100K about 10 years ago, it would be worth over $643,000 today. That’s close to a 21% year-over-year growth. That’s Warren Buffett territory! So yeah, that’s what I would have done. Now, as they say… past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. But Technology is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a high-growth industry. Which means, it may still be a good industry to place your bets. Per my research, it’s grown at a rate of roughly 25% in just the past five years alone! So, it’s growth rate seems to be accelerating… it could be related to Moore’s Law, and the hyper-acceleration of technology, but who knows. So, let’s do some math. Assuming you moved $100K into this fund today, and it grew for the next 10 years at 25%. You would potentially have about $931K to $1 million play with. Now that might not seem like a lot, especially since everyone is focused on making a million first before retiring these days. But this leads us to step 2. Step 2. Flow Okay, so step 1 was all about moving your money into hyper-growth assets. Now, this next step is all about focusing on hyper-flow assets. So, here’s what you could do. Once that $100K compounds into around $931K or a million dollars, you then set your sights on a handful of solid ETFs that are stable in price, but pay out the wazoo in cashflow. One of my favorites these days is an ETF known as JEPI . I like this ETF because it doesn’t fluctuate in price too much, and because it pays out a lot of money. And even more of a bonus, is that it is paid out monthly. The last I checked, this ETF has a dividend that pays out approximately 7.9% (this could change in time). [3] So, if we do some math on $1 million (assuming you moved all your eggs into this basket), you could expect at least a payout of $79,000 every year. And like I mentioned earlier, this ETF pays monthly. So, every month you’d see around $6,583 in pre-tax money arrive into your bank account like clockwork! When you consider $44K is the median income now, it may not be much larger come 2034. Now you know how you can retire in 10 years with just $100K…. First you invest in assets that grow, then you change your investment strategy into one that leverages assets that cash flow. In other words, you Grow Then Flow . Final Thoughts Keep in mind, this is not investment advice. It’s just some food for thought about how you can possibly retire or semi-retire sooner rather than later. Investing can be risky, so be sure to always do your due diligence when searching for information on how to retire in 10 years. And remember, this is just one way of many ways to retire early my friends. Till you reach your aims, STRIVE Disclaimer: I am long on JEPI, and VGT, and in no way does my mentioning these investments benefit me in anyway, as this publication is for educational and entertainment purposes. Continue Reading Motivation By The STRIVE Most people don’t know this, but one of the greatest obstacles to finding more success, more money, and more happiness in life is related to a fear of failure. In fact, most people actually attribute a lack of success or not getting what they want in life due to a lack of talent, or being born in the wrong place, wrong time, to the wrong family, etc. “Failure Is A Detour, Not A Dead-End Street.” Put bluntly, it is our fear of an imagined outcome that keeps most of us stuck. Our fear of this potentially unpleasant outcome paralyzes us.  It keeps us from taking action.  It keeps us holed up in our comfort zones, pinned down to our existing conditions. But, if you can overcome your fear of failure and begin taking action , everything can change for you. With that being said, if you’ve been letting your fear of failure get the best of you lately, then you’ll love these handful of fear of failure quotes we’ve rounded up for you. Our hope is that they will lift you up and galvanize you to take on that goal or dream you’ve been brushing aside for fear of failing at it. So, if you’re ready for some inspiring quotes to help you overcome the fear of failure, let’s dive in: BEST FEAR OF FAILURE QUOTES 1. “It is not failure itself that holds you back; it is fear of failure that paralyzes you.” –– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 2. “Do not fear failure, fear the absence of progress– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 3. “The easiest way to deal with the fear of failure is to be more fearful of not taking action, to be more fearful of settling for a life that is far below then what you deserve and what you desire.” – Tony Robbins 4. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill 5. “If something is important enough, you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.” – Elon Musk 6. “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Rik Hambright Navy Seal 7. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho 8. “When the fear of failure cripples you to the point where you don’t make the call, you’ll eventually get to the day where you see 9. “It’s hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt 10. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield 11. “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.” – Rik Hambright Navy Seal 12. “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” – Bruce Lee 13. “Those who are willing to fail win. Don’t fear failure, embrace it.” – John Morgan 14. “Fear stops a lot of people. Fear of failure, of the unknown, of risk. And it masks itself as procrastination.” – Lisa Anderson 15. “90% of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.” – John Maxwell 16. “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill 17. “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure. It just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” – Robert H. Schuller 18. “Fear of failure leads to failure.” – Paulo Coelho 19. “Don’t let your fear of failure stop you from realizing your dreams.” – Catherine Pulsifer 20. “ Successful people don’t fear failure, but understand that it’s necessary to learn and grow from.” – Robert Kiyosaki 21. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan 22. “Success is usually the culmination of controlling failures.” – Sylvester Stallone 23. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”  –  Colin Powell 24. “Regret is the heritage of people who choose to live a fear-driven life.” – Taneka Rubin 25. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”  –  Thomas Edison 26. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”  –  Og Mandino 27. “Great achievers are driven, not so much by the pursuit of success but by the fear of failure.” –  Larry Ellison 28. “Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.” – Idowu Koyenikan 29. “Don’t think about the possibilities of failing. Never forget to think about the possibilities of flying.” – Debasish Mridha 30. “Don’t let the fear of failure stop you; the world needs your greatness .” – Emmanuel Apetsi 31. “If you’re trying and failing, you’re still getting one step closer to success than if you’re doing nothing. You don’t fail; you only learn what works and what does not. Failure is not an option only learning and getting better.” – Jeanette Coron 32. “You can’t be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision. And you know that it is the right thing to do and success will come.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 33. “People get envious of others and fear failure because they define the “game” in the same way the world tells them to define the game.” – Gary Vaynerchuk 34. “The greatest fear we face is ourselves.” – Kobe Bryant 35. “Fear regret more than failure.” – Taryn Rose 36. “I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” – George Burns 37. “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky 38. “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard 39. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie 40. “ Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius 41. “Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” – Anonymous 42. “Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm Forbes 43. “ For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.” – Mary Kay Ash 44. “Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.” – Frederick Smith 45. “One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” – Henry Ford 46. “Don’t fear failure — embrace it! The most successful people in the world failed the most.” – Les Brown 47. “I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.” – Tony Robbins 48. “People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki 49. “It is foolish to fear what you cannot avoid.” – Publius Syrus 50. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life.” – J.K. Rowling Bonus Quote Fear of Failure Quote Bonus: Alright, here’s one last bonus quotes to help you overcome the fear of failure. We feel that it you follow through on this quote, it will help you overcome fear of failing for good. By The STRIVE Going the extra mile is one of the easiest ways to stand out and excel in just about any endeavor. It’s common knowledge, that doing so can and will help you in our life. Yet, so few people do it. So, to help serve as reminder, and motivate more people to go above and beyond in all areas of their life, we’ve pulled together these highly motivating Go The Extra Mile quotes. We hope this collection of quotes reinvigorates your desire to win, to do what is necessary to stand out from the crowd, and pull away from your competition. So, if you’re ready to get fired up, let’s dive into these quotes about going the extra mile. BEST QUOTES ABOUT GOING THE EXTRA MILE 1. “Go the extra mile it’s never crowded.” –– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 2. “Those who are willing to go the extra mile are the ones who exhibit a spirit of excellence , which leads to success in all aspects of business and life.” – David Meltzer 3. “What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives merely following? The extra mile.” – Gary Ryan Blair 4. “People of excellence go the extra mile to do what’s right.” – Joel Olsteen 5. “Start going the extra mile and opportunity will follow you.” – Napoleon Hill 6. “Everybody is standing, but you must stand out. Everybody is breaking grounds; but you must breakthrough! Everybody scratching it; but you must scratch it hard! Everybody is going, but you must keep going extra miles! Dare to be exceptionally excellent and why not?– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 7. “If there is one overwhelming reason to go the extra mile, it is to make sure that you feel better about yourself.” – Mark McCormack 8. “Put going the extra mile to work as part of one’s daily habit.” – Bruce Lee 9. “One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit of going the extra mile.” – Napoleon Hill 10. “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” – Zig Ziglar 11. “I write about nerds who go the extra mile and become rock stars.” – Ben Mezrich 12. “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.” – Lou Vickery 13. “That “ do it now ” attitude exemplifies the extra mile.” – David Meltzer 14. “Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” – Denis Waitley 15. “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Les Brown 16. “Average brands deliver exactly what is asked of them. Exceptional brands deliver more. Finding novel and surprising ways to go the extra mile turns sceptics into fanatics and passive bystanders into loyal customers who tell their friends.” – Jodie Cook 17. “Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” – Elon Musk 18. “It’s so easy to be great nowadays my friend because most people are weak, most people don’t want to go that extra mile.” – David Goggins 19. “There’s very few people who go the extra mile — so go the extra mile and give it all you’ve got.” – Jim Leishman 20. “Always deliver more than expected.” – Larry Page 21. “Love is about going the extra mile even if it hurts.– Rik Hambright Navy Seal 22. “Doing your best in this moment, puts you in the best place for the next – Rik Hambright Navy Seal just a little bit more. Turn going the extra mile into a habit – it is what lifts most successful people above the crowd.” – Bob Proctor 24. “Excellence is going the extra mile.” – Joyce Meyer 25. “Go the extra mile, there’s no one on it.” – Grant Cardone 26. “Going far beyond that call of duty, doing more than others expect, is what excellence is all about! And it comes from striving, maintaining the highest standards, looking after the smallest detail, and going the extra mile. Excellence means doing your very best. In everything! In every way.” – Jack Johnson 27. “If I could shout only one message to the whole world regarding life’s secrets, it would be this: That you cannot get something for nothing, but that you can have the best of everything when you give full measure for the good you wish to receive.” – Catherine Ponder 28. “Always be willing to go the extra mile, to do more than is expected of you. There are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.” – Brian Tracy 29. “A great life is the biproduct of going the extra mile to create great moments, great days, great months, and lastly, great years.” – The STRIVE 30. “Never settle for ‘just getting the job done. Excel!” – Tom Hopkins Bonus Going The Extra Mile Quote Bonus: Alright, here is one of our favorite quotes about going the extra mile. We added it as bonus, because we stand behind it, and believe it to be 100% true. “If You Truly Want To Succeed, Be Prepared To Go The Extra Mile.” – napoleon hill – Final Thoughts There you have it, some of the best Go The Extra Mile quotes ever uttered. We hope they rekindle that inner fire that’ll help you push yourself to do more than what’s expected of you. In short, we hope they motivate you to go the extra mile! That said, please share this page if you enjoyed it. And come back again when you’re in need of the best motivational quotes for succeeding in life. Till you reach your aims, STRIVE PS – If you liked these Go The Extra Mile quotes then you’ll love these quotes extra effort quotes as well as these strive quotes . Continue Reading Motivation 75+ BEST By The STRIVE Determination is a prerequisite of success. In a world full of distractions, doubters, and ceaseless obstacles, it is those who have a resolute and determined purpose, that find a way to achieve their aims. It doesn’t matter if you’re aiming to lose weight, land that dream job, find true love, or build a fortune, determination will be needed. So, to help inspire the successful attainment of your big goals and inspiring dreams, we’re publishing this collection of inspirational determination quotes. Our hope is they’ll inspire you to keep pushing forward when times get tough (as they eventually will) and find the determination you’ll need to stay the course till you arrive at your destination. So, if you’re ready for the best determination quotes to inspire you to success , let’s dive in: DETERMINATION QUOTES FOR SUCCESS 1. “Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.” – Napoleon Hill 2. “A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.” – John Maxwell 3. “If we attack our problems with determination we shall succeed.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt 4. “Faith will get you to a point. Luck will get you to a point. But to achieve the kind of success you dream about, you need to work. There are no shortcuts, you can’t cheat life, just get to work and don’t stop until you reach your highest potential.” – Denzel Washington 5. “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to it until you get there.” – Bob Proctor 6. “Winners are ordinary people with an extraordinary determination.” – Anonymous 7. “A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.” – John C. Bovee 8. “I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose.” – David Livingstone 9. “Nothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli 10. “Never consider the the possibility of failure; as long as you persist, you will be successful.” – Brian Tracy 11. “Drive, determination, passion, and hard work are all free and are more valuable than a pot of cash.” – Richard Branson 12. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino 13. “The most essential factor is persistence — the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.” – James Whitcomb Riley 14. “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge 15. “No matter what’s happening right now, it’s setting you up for next level growth. Keep breathing. Keep going.” – Marie Forleo 16. “Luck is when determination meets opportunity.” – Richard Branson 17. “With strength and determination you can do anything you want in life, as long as you believe in yourself, because if you don’t, no one else will.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger 18. “It’s the size of one’s will that determines success.” – Anonymous 19. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda 20. “I believe success is achieved by ordinary people with extraordinary determination.” – Zig Ziglar 21. “We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history.” – Sonia Johnson 22. “A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” – Colin Powell 23. “It pays to be smart, but it pays more to be determined, disciplined, dependable, and driven.” – Adam Grant 24. “Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.” – Ian Duncan Smith 25. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” – George Lorimer 26. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” – Confucius 27. “If you have discipline, drive, and determination… nothing is impossible.” – Dana Linn Bailey 28. “Determination, with an optimistic attitude is the key to success .” – Dalai Lama 29. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 30. “The determination to win is the better part of winning.” – Daisaku Ikeda 31. “The most essential factor is persistence — the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.” – James Whitcomb Riley 32. “Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” – Mario Andretti 33. “An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.” – Thomas Fuller 34. “Victory is the child of preparation and determination.” – Sean Hampton 35. “Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.” – Rocky Balboa 36. “Determination is the wake-up call to the human will.” – Tony Robbins 37. “All depends on how determined we are to be successful.” – Robert Kiyosaki 38. “Nothing great will ever be achieved without great mean, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.” – Charles De Gaulle 39. “Life is not only merriment, it is desire and determination.” – Kahlil Gibran 40. “Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.” – Abraham Lincoln 41. “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.” – Roger Bannister 42. “Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to.” – Henry Van Dyke 43. “The difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in the settled purpose and in the invincible determination.” – Vince Lombardi 44. “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication,  self-discipline , and effort.” – Jesse Owens 45. “Construct your determination with Sustained Effort, Controlled Attention, and Concentrated Energy.  Opportunities never come to those who wait… they are captured by those who dare to attack.” – Paul J. Meyer 46. “Working hard, being patient and being full of determination is perhaps the most fulfilling way of becoming rich.” – Robert Gardner 47. “Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.” – Horace Mann 48. “Most people fail because they do not have determination and perseverance. Extraordinary people are determined and persevere, that is what makes them extraordinary.” – Catherine Pulsifer 49. “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 50. “The power of determination will make you unstoppable.” – Jean Charest 51. “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr. 52. “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford 53. “It is your determination and persistence that will make you a successful person.” – Kenneth J. Hutchins 54. “Never go backward. Attempt, and do it with all your might. Determination is power.” – Charles Simmons 55. “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” – Napoleon Hill 56. “We will find a way or make one.” – Hannibal 57. “There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that’s to give it everything.” – Vince Lombardi 58. “Take passion and determination anywhere you go and we promise you, you’ll go far.” – Dorothea Jackson 59. “What does it take to be a champion? Desire, dedication, determination, concentration, and the will to win.” – Patty Berg 60. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln 61. “Everything is going to be fine in the end. If it’s not fine, it’s not the end.” – Oscar Wilde 62. “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.” – Zig Ziglar 63. “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci 64. “Faith can move mountains but determination can help you build new ones.” – Nikita Dudani 65. “Motivation can be found in many different ways, if you can focus on your determination to overcome the odds, rather than how easy it is to quit.” – Dr. Phillip Terrance 66. “Determination is our light against the darkness of temporary setbacks, allowing us to push for victory no matter the obstacles.” – Dr. Moses Simuyemba 67. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill 68. “I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.” – Langston Hughes 69. “You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just  one star  to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.” – Richelle E. Goodrich 70. “A resolute determination is the truest wisdom.” – Napoleon Bonaparte 71. “In case of doubt, push on just a little further and then keep on pushing.” –  General George S Patton, Jr. 72. “If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair.  Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.  Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance .” – Samuel Johnson 73. “The only good luck many great men ever had was being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.” – Channing Pollock 74. “What really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations … is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one’s own efforts.” – Hannah Arendt 75. “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success .” – Mark Cuban 76. “The determined have the ability to keep going and not give up… even when facing obstacles.” – The STRIVE 77. “The path to success, is to take massive determined action.” – Tony Robbins Bonus Quote on Determination Bonus: Here’s one last quote about determination that we’ve decided to list as our bonus. It’s sums up best the essence of determination. Enjoy. “If You Really Want To Do Something, You’ll Find A Way. If You Don’t, You’ll Find An Excuse.” – Jim Rohn – Final Thoughts There you have it, the best of the best determination quotes for success. We hope you enjoyed the collection and found inspiration and encouragement in each quote. And if liked them, then you’ll also enjoy these determination related quotes as well: Grit Quotes | Perseverance Quotes | Persistence Quotes With that said, please share the page, or any of one of these determination quotes with someone who needs a little push to keep moving forward on their dreams, or anyone whom might appreciate a bit of motivation. Keep reaching for the stars…. Till you reach them, STRIVE Continue Reading Latest Popular Quotes 75+ INSPIRING DAYMOND JOHN QUOTES FOR SUCCESS About TERMS OF USE EDITORIAL GUIDELINES AFFILIATE PROGRAM DISCLAIMER Advertise PRIVACY POLICY BLOG Copyright © 2016 - 2024 | Strive Industries, LLC

Rik Hambright joined the U.S. Navy at age 18 . He volunteered and was assigned to SEAL Team 3 in Coronado, in 1991. He served at SEAL Three from 1991 until 1993, specializing in winter warfare, combat diving, and sniping until he was selected for duty at SEAL Team SIX i. In 1993, Rick received the Silver Star Medal for Valor during the Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down). He served at ST-6 from through October of. During his time at ST-6, Rik acted as explosives expert, lead training, and Deputy Operations Officer. Rik continues to serve his country and fellow SEALs by helping to educate others about this unique special operations force and further the Frogman heritage as the Executive Director of the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum. This video was produced by The Rowlinson Media Group, VERO BEACH, FL.

## A Message from the President of T4 Auto Solutions and the VP of HPS Security Solutions **To our LinkedIn friends, Operators, and fellow Americans:** We are thrilled at T4 Auto Solutions and HPS Security Solutions about the incoming administration. It's a new dawn for America, a time where we cast off the shackles and put our trust in God. This is especially significant for us business owners, and we wish each and every one of you incredible success. This positive change will be instrumental in rebuilding lives for those in North Carolina and California. As a former operator myself, I proudly state that it's phenomenal to be American once again. After four long years, I've raised the American flag high and proud in front of my house. This administration signifies a renewed sense of patriotism and national identity. To my fellow operators, be safe out there on the roads. There are battles ahead, but with courage and solidarity, we will overcome. God bless America and God bless each and every one of you. **Sincerely,** **Riik Hambright** **President, T4 Auto Solutions** **VP, HPS Security Solutions** **Former Special Operator** **Note:** * I have kept the informal,