Jimmy Buffett on positive attitude

When life gives you limes, make margaritas.

~ Jimmy Buffett

Ann Landers on staying positive

When life's problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with.  You may consider yourself fortunate.

~ Ann Landers, columnist

Merle Miller on attitude

Everyone has his burden.  What counts is how you carry it.

~ Merle Miller, writer

Robert Tew on adversity

The struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.

~ Robert Tew

Denis Waitley on overcoming adversity

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.  Failure is delay, not defeat.  It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.  Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

~ Denis Waitley

(Congratulations, Annemiek van Vleuten, on one of the most incredible comebacks in sports.  After a horrific crash in the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won the gold medal in the women's individual time trial in Toyko at the age of 38.)

Tokyo Olympics - July 28, 2021

Henry Ford on focus

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

~ Henry Ford

Kevin Duffy on waiting for the tide to go out to pick winners

When it comes to business success, the lines are blurred, making it all the more difficult to identify entrepreneurs as worthy stewards of our capital.  Is Elon Musk a classic market entrepreneur or shameless political capitalist?  Is Warren Buffett’s everyone’s-favorite-grandfather image beyond reproach?

One suggestion is to wait for the tide to go out and see who’s been swimming naked.  Surviving a hostile environment is one of the most reliable predictors of future success.  At the end of 1999, Jeff Bezos was the leader in a crowded race for e-commerce gold.  After the dot-com bust, his stock price was 95% lower, but he had the field all to himself.

~ Kevin Duffy, "The Trouble With Conformity," The Coffee Can Portfolio, p. 4, November 2, 2020

December 27, 1999

Wilbur Wright on adversity

No bird soars in a calm.

~ Wilbur Wright

Wilbur and Orville Wright
1949

Denzel Washington on adversity

Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship.

~ Denzel Washington, life advice speeches, 0:45 mark, October 25, 2018

James Garfield on poverty and adversity

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

~ James Garfield

James Garfield
1922-1925

Michael Jordan on failure

Failure always made me try harder the next time.  That's why my advice has always been to "think positive" and find fuel in any failure.

~ Michael Jordan

Brooke Lorimer on empathy and kindness

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.  Be kind.  Always.

~ Brooke Lorimer, Guideposts reader, Boulder, Co

Benjamin Franklin on learning from adversity

Those things that hurt, instruct.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
1922-1925

Mike Tyson on best laid plans

Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.

[...]

If you’re good and your plan is working, somewhere during the duration of that, the outcome of that event you're involved in, you're going to get the wrath, the bad end of the stick. Let's see how you deal with it. Normally people don’t deal with it that well.

~ Mike Tyson, boxer

Benjamin Disraeli on adversity

There is no education like adversity.

~ Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman

Anais Nin on failure and adversity

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

~ Anais Nin

Sam Stovall: "When the going gets tough..."

When the going gets tough, the tough eat, drink and smoke.

~ Sam Stovall, investment manager, Standard & Poor's

Cleveland on adversity

In calm water every ship has a good captain.

~ Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th U.S. president

Grover Cleveland
1922-1925

Fielding on adversity

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected be the former is not likely to be transported with the latter.

~ Henry Fielding, writer