The one who tries to get something for nothing generally winds up getting nothing for something.
Those who think they can get by in life without providing the same amount of value for value received will eventually find themselves working harder than ever to deceive others and receiving very little in return. Life has a funny way of evening the score. In the long run, you will get in the same measure you give. Spend your time on productive, positive efforts; give generously of your time and talents, and you will stand out from the great multitudes whose primary goal in life seems to be to get something for nothing.
If you don’t know why you failed, you are no wiser than when you began.
There’s an old adage that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So it is with our failures. Unless we learn from our mistakes, we are likely to repeat them until we learn from such experiences and correct our course — or give up and accept temporary defeat as permanent failure. Every setback you encounter in life contains valuable information that, if you study it carefully, will eventually lead you to success. Without adversity, you would never develop wisdom, and without wisdom, success would be short-lived indeed. When you make a mistake, say, “That’s good! I’ve gotten that out of the way. I will never do that again.” You will no doubt make other mistakes, but they won’t bother you nearly as much when you treat them as learning experiences.
Attend well to your character, and your reputation will look out for itself.
Most of us at one time or another have been misunderstood by those who are important to us. They thought we planned to take an action they disliked when in truth our intentions were to proceed in an entirely different direction. Such misunderstandings are usually quickly righted and life goes on. The same is true with character and reputation. If your reputation is for some reason misaligned with your character, it will soon quickly right itself when others discover for themselves that you are not at all the kind of person they had assumed you were. If your foundation is strong, you never need to be concerned about such misunderstandings. Others will learn soon enough what kind of person you really are. Spend your time and energy in constant self-inspection and self-improvement, building strong character, and you will never have to worry about what others think of you.
Ability is greater than money because it can be neither lost nor stolen.
If you study the lives of very successful people, you will find that they rarely climb to the top of their business or profession and stay there. They often climb to the top and fall to the bottom several times during their careers, but they know that the one thing that got them where they are — their ability — is always there to help them reach the top again. Your ability is the one thing that you own exclusively. No one can ever take it from you.