Quote of the Day

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious."



Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was one of the most successful coaches in the history of American football. He was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967: they won five NFL championships during his 9 year tenure. Following a one-year retirement from coaching in 1968, he returned as head coach of the Washington Redskins for the 1969 season. He owns a 9-1 record in the post-season.

Quote of the Day

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Les Brown, a renowned public speaker, author and television personality has risen to national prominence by delivering a high-energy message, which tells people how to shake off mediocrity and live up to their greatness. It is a message Les Brown has learned from his own life, and one he is helping others apply to their lives.

Born a twin in low-income Liberty City in Miami, Florida, Les Brown and his twin brother, Wes, were adopted when they were six weeks old by Mrs. Mamie Brown, a single woman who had very little education and financial means but a very big heart. As a child, Les Brown's inattention to school work, restless energy and the failure of this teachers to recognize his real potential, resulted in him being mis-labeled as a slow learner. The label and the stigma stayed with Les Brown, damaging his self-esteem to such an extent that it took several years to overcome.

Les Brown has had no formal education past high school, but with persistence and determination he has initiated and continued a process of unending self-education, which has distinguished him as a resource on human potential. With his passion to learn and his hunger to realize greatness, Les Brown rose from a hip-talking morning dee-jay to broadcast manager, from community activist to community leader, from political commentator to three term legislator and from a banquet and nightclub emcee to premier keynote speaker.

Quote of the Day

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance."

H. Jackson Brown, Author was born and still lives in Middle Tennessee. His numerous books are in 35 languages and read throughout the world claiming 158 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. It is sometimes noted that he graduated from a prestigious university and is the recipient of one of their most distinguished awards but, who knows? If you were to phone the administration office, they would probably deny that he ever attended. It seems hard feelings still linger regarding Mr. Brown’s insistence that the campus clock tower he pledged to help fund be in the shape of a 150 foot slice of pepperoni pizza. An image, he argues, all students recognize as the midnight fuel, GLORY, YES!, even the “sustenance of success” that nourishes and ensures the college’s continuing graduation of esteemed donation-loyal doctors, lawyers, clergymen and franchisees of south Alabama Dairy Queens. When contacted, the Campus What’s Appropriate Committee, or CWAC (pronounced SEE-WACK), stated that the pizza matter is “still under consideration, but don’t count on it. It’s a lot of dough.”

Currently, Mr. Brown writes in a remote log cabin high on Hatchet’s Ridge in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. There he retreats to observe, ponder, resharpen No. 2 pencils and train his parrot to squawk, “One more step and I’ll shoot.” Should you want to visit, get an early start. Take the gravel road east out of Crowell Corners to the end. There it becomes a dirt road switch-backing up the ridges. A hand-lettered sign nailed to a hickory tree teasingly identifies these last fifteen miles as Broken Axle Trail. The cabin is not the first or second on this dusty corkscrew but the third. You’ll think you’re almost there, but you’re not. And count the creeks. You’ll cross two. The first on a tricky two-plank bridge. The second, unfortunately, offers no bridge at all. Now look for the weathered tin roof and the trellised front gate crowned with honeysuckle. Pay no attention to the dogs Dan, Hoover and Hot Ticket asleep on the front porch couch. But be careful where you step. The copperheads, rattlesnakes, and wild hogs love this bit of heaven as much as Mr. Brown does.

Quote of the Day

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.

Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar (born November 6, 1926) is an American author, salesperson, and motivational speaker. His latest book is Better than Good.

Zig Ziglar was born to John Silas and Lila Ziglar in Coffee County, Alabama as the tenth of twelve children. When he was four years old, his father accepted a management position at a Mississippi farm and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where Zig Ziglar spent most of his childhood. In 1932, his father died of a stroke (and his younger sister died two days later), leaving his mother to raise the remaining eleven children alone.

Ziglar served in the Navy during World War II. He was in the Navy V-12 Navy College Training Program, attending the University of South Carolina.

He later worked as a salesman in a succession of companies, during which time his sales skills improved and his interest in motivational speaking grew. In 1968, Ziglar became a vice president and training director for the Automotive Performance company, and moved to Dallas, Texas, where he still lives today. In 1970, he went into the business of motivational speaking full-time.

Quote of the Day

"Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income."


Jay Abraham, Marketing Expert. The nation’s highest paid marketing consultant, he regularly works marketing miracles for his clients. During his 24 year career, Mr. Abraham has worked with over 5,000 individual businesses in 165 separate industries. He has consulted for businesses large, medium and small, from one person operations to some of the world’s largest corporations including Weyerhauser, Coldwell Banker, Prudential-Bache, Dun and Bradstreet, Citibank and Sears Roebuck & Company.

Mr. Abraham specializes in successfully identifying and ethically exploiting a company’s hidden, marketable assets to create windfall profits for his clients.

While he maintains a number of select clients on a contingency basis, Mr. Abraham also publishes a series of marketing reports as well as conducting marketing and business training seminars.

Quote of the Day

"Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income."



-- Jay Abraham, Marketing Expert. The nation’s highest paid marketing consultant, he regularly works marketing miracles for his clients. During his 24 year career, Mr. Abraham has worked with over 5,000 individual businesses in 165 separate industries. He has consulted for businesses large, medium and small, from one person operations to some of the world’s largest corporations including Weyerhauser, Coldwell Banker, Prudential-Bache, Dun and Bradstreet, Citibank and Sears Roebuck & Company.

Mr. Abraham specializes in successfully identifying and ethically exploiting a company’s hidden, marketable assets to create windfall profits for his clients.

While he maintains a number of select clients on a contingency basis, Mr. Abraham also publishes a series of marketing reports as well as conducting marketing and business training seminars.

Quote of the Day

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."


Abraham (Harold) Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. He is mostly noted today for his proposal of a hierarchy of human needs and is considered the father of humanistic psychology.

Maslow was born and raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of seven children. He was smart but shy, and remembered his childhood as lonely and rather unhappy. Maslow attended City College in New York. His father hoped he would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. While there, he married his cousin Bertha, and found as his chief mentor Professor Harry Harlow. At Wisconsin he pursued an original line of research, investigating primate dominance behavior and sexuality. He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies. He found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Freud's early followers.

From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. In New York he found two more mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Freudian psychologist Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both realms, and such "wonderful human beings" as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential. He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow became the leader of the humanistic school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, which he referred to as the "third force" -- beyond Freudian theory and behaviorism.

Maslow saw human beings' needs arranged like a ladder. The most basic needs, at the bottom, were physical -- air, water, food, sex. Then came safety needs -- security, stability -- followed by psychological, or social needs -- for belonging, love, acceptance. At the top of it all were the self-actualizing needs -- the need to fulfil oneself, to become all that one is capable of becoming. Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs lower on the ladder would inhibit the person from climbing to the next step. Someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen, as he pointed out. People who dealt in managing the higher needs were what he called self-actualizing people. Benedict and Wertheimer were Maslow's models of self-actualization, from which he generalized that, among other characteristics, self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside of themselves, have a clear sense of what is true and what is phony, are spontaneous and creative, and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.

Peak experiences are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, when a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such peak experiences.

Maslow's thinking was surprisingly original -- most psychology before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving this. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by Carl Rogers.

Maslow was a professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969, and then became a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California. He died of a heart attack in 1970.

Quote of the Day

"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."


David MacKenzie Ogilvy, CBE (June 23, 1911–July 21, 1999), was a notable advertising executive. He has often been called “The Father of Advertising.” In 1962, Time called him “the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." He was known for a career of expanding the bounds of both creativity and morality.

David Mackenzie Ogilvy was born on June 23, 1911 at West Horsley, Surrey in England. His father was a Gaelic-speaking highlander from Scotland who was a classics scholar and financial broker. His mother was a beautiful and eccentric Irishwoman. At the age of 13 Ogilvy attended Fettes College, in Edinburgh, which was founded by Sir William Fettes (his great-uncle Lord Justice General Inglis, a notable Scottish advocate may have played a role later on). He won a scholarship in history to Christ Church, Oxford six years later in 1929. Without the scholarship he would have been unable to attend university because his father's business was badly hit by the depression of the mid-twenties. In the event, his studies were unsuccessful and he left Oxford for Paris in 1931 without graduating. He became an apprentice chef in the Majestic Hotel. After a year in Paris he returned to Scotland and started selling Aga cooking stoves door-to-door. His success at this marked him out to his employer, who asked him to write an instruction manual, The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA cooker, for the other salesmen. Thirty years later this manual was still read by Fortune magazine editors. They called it the finest sales instruction manual ever written. His older brother Francis Ogilvy, who was working for the London advertising agency Mather & Crowther, showed this manual to the agency management, who offered Ogilvy a position as an account executive. In 1938 he persuaded the agency to send him to the United States for a year.

Just after his few months in advertising Ogilvy did something that changed advertising forever. A man walked into Ogilvy's London agency wanting to advertise the opening of his hotel. Since he just had $500 he was turned to the novice - Ogilvy. Young Ogilvy bought $500 worth of postcards and sent an invite to everybody he found in the local telephone directory. The hotel opened with a full house. "I had tasted blood", says Ogilvy in his Confessions. This is also where he came to know Direct Advertising, his "Secret Weapon" as he says in "Ogilvy on Advertising".

In 1938, Ogilvy emigrated to the United States, where he went to work for George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. Ogilvy cites Gallup as one of the major influences on his thinking, emphasizing meticulous research methods and adherence to reality.

During World War II, Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington. There he wrote enormously, analyzing and making recommendations on matters of diplomacy and security. He extrapolated his knowledge of human behavior from consumerism to nationalism in a report which suggested "applying the Gallup technique to fields of secret intelligence." Eisenhower’s Psychological Warfare Board picked up the report and successfully put Ogilvy’s suggestions to work in Europe during the last year of the war.

After the war, Ogilvy bought a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and lived among the Amish. The atmosphere of "serenity, abundance, and contentment" kept Ogilvy and his wife in Pennsylvania for several years, but eventually he admitted his limitations as a farmer and moved to New York.

After working as a chef, researcher and farmer Ogilvy started his agency with the backing of two London agencies: S. H. Benson and Mather and Crowther, which was at that time being run by his elder brother Francis. The agency was called Ogilvy, Benson and Mather. Ogilvy had just $6000 in his account when he started the agency. He writes in his book Confessions of an Advertising Man that initially he had to struggle to get clients.

Ogilvy & Mather was built on David Ogilvy's principles: in particular, that the function of advertising is to sell, and that successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer.

But his belief was strong. He made best of whatever came his way. His entry into the company of giants started with several (to use the phrase du jour) iconic campaigns.

“The man from Schweppes is here” introduced Commander Whitehead, the elegant bearded Brit, bringing Schweppes (and “Schweppervesence”) to the U.S.

Perhaps the most famous headline in the car business – “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.

“Pablo Casals is coming home – to Puerto Rico”. Ogilvy said this campaign, which helped change the image of a country, was his proudest achievement.

Perhaps his greatest sales success (for which he is less recognized) – “Only Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream”. With this positioning, still being used 50 years later, Dove now outsells every soap in the U.S. and around the world.

He believed that the best way to get new clients is to do great work for existing clients. And he was right. Success of his early campaigns helped him to get big clients like Rolls-Royce and Shell. He created an avalanche of new clients. Ogilvy & Mather was an instant success.

In 1973 Ogilvy retired as Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather and moved to Touffou, his estate in France. While no longer involved in day-to-day operations of the agency, he stayed in touch with the company. Indeed, his correspondence so dramatically increased the volume of mail handled in the nearby town of Bonnes that the post office was reclassified at a higher status and the postmaster's salary raised.

Ogilvy came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as chairman of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in India. He also spent a year acting as temporary chairman of the agency’s German office, commuting daily between Touffou and Frankfurt. He visited branches of the company around the world, and continued to represent Ogilvy & Mather at gatherings of clients and business audiences.

In 1989 The Ogilvy Group was bought by WPP Group, a British holding company, for US$864 million. Two events occurred simultaneously: WPP became the largest marketing communications firm in the world, and David Ogilvy was named the company's non-executive chairman (a position he held for three years).

At age 75, Ogilvy was asked if anything he'd always wanted had somehow eluded him. His reply, "Knighthood. And a big family – ten children." (His only child, David Fairfield Ogilvy, was born during his first marriage, to Melinda Street. That marriage ended in divorce (1955) as did a second marriage to Anne Cabot. Ogilvy married Herta Lans in France in 1973.)
He didn’t achieve knighthood, but he was made a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) in 1967. He was elected to the US Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977 and to France's "Order of Arts and Letters" in 1990. He chaired the Public Participation Committee for Lincoln Center. He was appointed Chairman of the United Negro College Fund in 1968, and trustee on the Executive Council of the World Wildlife Fund in 1975.

David Ogilvy died on July 21, 1999 at his home in Touffou, France. Ogilvy remains one of the most famous names in advertising and one of the handful of thinkers (Raymond Rubicam, Leo Burnett, William Bernbach, Ted Bates) who shaped the business after the 1920s..

His book Ogilvy on Advertising is a commentary on advertising, and not all the ads shown in the book are his. In early 2004, Adweek magazine asked people in the business “Which individuals—alive or dead—made you consider pursuing a career in advertising?” Ogilvy topped the list. And the same result came when students of advertising were surveyed. His best-selling book Confessions of an Advertising Man is one of the most popular and famous books on advertising.

Quote of the Day

"The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life."

-- Brian Tracy, Author

Quote of the Day

"Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them."

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (September 9 [O.S. August 28] 1828 – November 20 [O.S. November 7] 1910) (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, IPA: [lʲɛv nʲɪkʌˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ tʌlˈstoj] listen (help·info)), commonly referred to in English as Leo (Lyof, Lyoff) Tolstoy, was a Russian writer – novelist, essayist, dramatist and philosopher – as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He was the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family.

As a fiction writer, Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. In their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of 19th-century Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of realist fiction. As a moral philosopher Tolstoy was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through works such as The Kingdom of God is Within You, which in turn influenced such twentieth-century figures as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quote of the Day

"What matters is where you want to go. Focus in the right direction!"

Donald Trump (1946- )

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946 in Queens, New York) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, television personality and author. He is the CEO of Trump Organization, an American-based real estate developer in the real estate market and the founder of Trump Entertainment, which operates gambling casinos. He enjoyed a great deal of publicity following the success of his reality television show, The Apprentice (in which he serves as both executive producer and host for the show). He is the son of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer in New York City.

Quote of the Day

"We lift ourselves by our thought. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere."

Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924) was an American writer associated with the New Thought Movement. He also held a degree in medicine, and was a successful hotel owner.

Marden was born in Thornton Gore, New Hampshire to Lewis and Martha Marden. When he was three years old, his mother died at the age of 22, leaving Orison and his two sisters in the care of their father, a farmer, hunter, and trapper. When Orison was seven years old, his father died from injuries incurred while in the wood, and the children were shuttled from one guardian to another, with Orison working as a "hired boy" to earn his keep. Inspired by an early self-help book by the Scottish author Samuel Smiles, which he found in an attic, Marden set out to improve himself and his life circumstances. He persevered in advancing himself and graduated from Boston University in 1871. He later graduated from Harvard with a M.D. in 1881 and an LL.B. degree in 1882. He also studied at the Boston School of Oratory and Andover Theological Seminary.
Marden supported himself during his college years by working in a hotel and afterward by becoming the owner of several hotels and a resort. Financial reverses ended that career, and in 1893, he was again working as a hotel manager, in Chicago, during the time that the World's Columbian Exposition was attracting visitors to that city from all over the world. It was during this period that he began to write down his philosophical ideas, with the goal of inspiring others as he had been inspired by Samuel Smiles.

In addition to Smiles, Marden cited as influences on his thinking the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom were influential forerunners of what, by the 1890s, was called the New Thought Movement.
Marden's first book, Pushing to the Front, was published in 1894. He followed this with several more volumes on the subjects of succes, the cultivation of will-power, and positive thinking. He founded Success Magazine in 1897 and was also a regular contributer to Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine Nautilus during the first two decades of the 20th century.
Like many proponents of the New Thought philosophy, Marden believed that our thoughts influence our lives and our life circumstances. He said, "We make the world we live in and shape our own environment." Yet although he is best known for his books on financial success, he always emphasized that this would come as a result of cultivating one's personal development: "The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."

Marden died in 1924 at the age of 74.

Quote of the Day

"Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor."

Brian Tracy (born in Canada in 1944) is a self-help author who has recorded many of his works as audio books. His talks and seminar topics include leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness, and business strategy.

Quote of the Day

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is the American multiple-Emmy Award winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated talk show in television history. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy Award-nominated actress, and a magazine publisher. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and the world's only black billionaire for three straight years. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Quote of the Day

"Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time."


Brian Tracy (born in Canada in 1944) is a self-help author who has recorded many of his works as audio books. His talks and seminar topics include leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness, and business strategy.

When he was 30 he attended the University of Alberta, eventually earned a master's degree in business; he is now the Chairman of Brian Tracy International, a human resource company based in San Diego, California, with affiliates throughout the United States, and in thirty-one other countries.

In 1981 Brian assembled his "success system" called The Phoenix Seminar. Three years later he released the seminar as a self-help audio tape called "The Psychology of Achievement".

He has recently launched Brian Tracy University, an online syllabus designed to focus primarily on entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals. The Brian Tracy College of Management and Entrepreneurship at the distance learning school Andrew Jackson University is named after him.

He is one of the many teachers for Success University

Quote of the Day

It's choice – not chance – that determines your destiny.


Jean Nidetch (b. 1923, Brooklyn, New York), is the founder of the Weight Watchers organization.

An overweight housewife with a self-confessed obsession for eating cookies, Nidetch had experimented with numerous fad diets before, in 1961, following a regimen prescribed by a diet clinic sponsored by the New York City Board of Health. After losing 20 pounds (9.07 kg), and finding her resolve weakening, she contacted several overweight friends and founded a support group which developed into weekly classes, and incorporated in 1963 into the Weight Watchers organization.

In 1978, Weight Watchers was sold to the H. J. Heinz Company. Nidetch, who remains a consultant to the organization, has established scholarship programs at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Nevada. She currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Quote of the Day

"You can't get a pay raise when you're angry. People will react to the negative energy and will resist you."

-- Stuart Wilde, Self Help Author and Lecturer.

Stuart Wilde has been referred to as both an urban mystic and a visionary. He has written 17 books on self-help, self-empowerment, spirituality and consciousness. He has also released many tapes and CDs for meditation and transcendence. His works have been translated into over 30 languages.

Quote of the Day

The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing."


Michael E. Gerber is a business visionary, entrepreneur, and noted author. He is a popular keynote speaker who has delivered his message to business audiences throughout the world. Chairman of the E-Myth Academy, Michael Gerber has grown his own business from humble beginnings in 1977 to the multimillion-dollar venture it is today. He is the author of the acclaimed business books The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, The Power Point, and The E-Myth Manger: Why Most Mangers Don't Work and What to Do About it.

Quote of the Day

"See that any time you feel pained or defeated, it is only because you insist on clinging to what doesn't work. Dare to let go and you won't lose a thing except for a punishing idea."


Guy Finley (b.1949) is an American writer, philosopher, and spiritual teacher. He is also a retired profressional songwriter and musician.

The son of late-night talk show pioneer Larry Finley, Finley grew up in the Los Angeles area where many of his childhood friends were the children of celebrities. At a young age, he decided to pursue a music career. He became the first white soft rock artist signed to the Motown Records label. While never achieving commercial success as a recording artist, several of his songs were recorded by popular artists including Diana Ross, the Jackson 5, and Debbie Boone in the 1970s. He also composed scores for a number of motion pictures and TV shows. In spite of this growing good fortune early in his profressional life, Finley has said he still felt something was missing in his personal life. Seeking to fill this void, he abandoned his music career and left for India and the Far East in 1979 to study spiritual teachings and investigate the true nature of success through a heightened state of self-awareness.

By the early 1980s, his search for spiritual awakening had led him back to the United States where he became a devoted student of spiritual teacher Vernon Howard for several years at the New Life Foundation in Boulder City, Nevada. In the early 1990's, with Howard's encouragement, he began a new career as an author of spirtual guidance books.

His teachings, like those of Howard, draw from many different spiritual traditions and philosophies including: Christian mysticism, various Eastern philosophies,Fourth Way and Jungian psychology.

In addition to his writing, he teaches inner-life classes at the Life of Learning Foundation in Merlin, Oregon, a non-profit organization of which he is founder and director. He also hosts a monthly live call-in radio program, "Guy Finley Live" on HealthyLife.net, as well a weekly syndicated program, "Letting Go with Guy Finley".

Quote of the Day

"A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life."

Suze Orman (born Susan Lynn Orman on June 5, 1951 is an American financial advisor, writer, and television personality.

Orman was born on the South side of Chicago, Illinois in 1951 to Jewish immigrants Ann and Morry Orman. Orman came from a working class background[4] and has said that she did not "grow up with money". She was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from which she holds a B.A. in social work. In 1973, she and some friends moved to Berkeley, California, where she became a waitress at the Buttercup Bakery until 1980. From 1980-1983, she was trained by and worked as an Account Executive at Merrill Lynch, and from 1983-87 she was Vice President of Investments for Prudential Bache Securities. In 1987, Orman founded her own business, the Suze Orman Financial Group, which she directed from 1987-1997.

Her books include:

The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (1997)
You've Earned It, Don't Lose It: Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make When You Retire (with Linda Mead) (1997)
The Courage to Be Rich (1998)
The Road to Wealth (2001)
The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life... (2003)
The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke (2005)
Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny (2007)

Orman has a Q&A advice section in Oprah Winfrey's popular monthly magazine O, alongside Dr. Phil's advice section. She also writes a biweekly column (as of Jan 2007) on Yahoo!'s Finance page.

She hosts a weekend financial planning show for the CNBC cable television network called The Suze Orman Show. Orman hosts another TV program on QVC called Suze Orman's Financial Freedom. Orman recently celebrated her fifth year on The Suze Orman Show on CNBC and her tenth anniversary on QVC with Suze Orman's Financial Freedom.

She won two Daytime Emmy Awards in 2004 and 2006 for her PBS pledge drive specials, The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life and The Money Show for the Young, Fabulous, & Broke. Her catch phrases are "Self-worth equals net worth," "People first, then money, then things," and "Truth creates money. Lies destroy it." She ends The Suze Orman Show with "People first, then money, then things" every week.

In early 2007, Orman launched a segment on The Suze Orman Show called "Can I Afford It?" During the segment viewers call in to the show and tell Orman what they want to buy — e.g., engagement ring, car, HDTV, etc. — then tell her the amount of savings, retirement savings, credit card debt, home loans, etc. they have. Then Orman determines if the caller can or can't afford the item and explains why. The segment airs every week and has grown to be the most popular one of the show.

Quote of the Day

I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.


Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as Madonna, is an American dance-pop singer-songwriter, dancer, record and film producer, and actress. She is noted for her ambitious music videos and stage performances as well as using political, sexual, and religious themes in her work.

Since her debut in 1982, Madonna has released many chart-topping albums, and has become one of the best-selling artists in popular music, with an estimated 200 million albums sold. In 2001 Guinness World Records lists her as the most successful female recording artist of all time. She has also appeared in several movies over the decades, including Evita, as well as contributing to their soundtracks. Madonna has had many worldwide tours. Billboard reported that her 2006 Confessions Tour held the record for the top-grossing concert tour by a female artist. According to both the 2007 Guinness Book of Records, and Billboard Magazine, she is the top earning female singer. Forbes magazine has estimated her net worth at $325 million. On September 27, 2007, she was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Quote of the Day

Succeeding is not really a life experience that does that much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience.


Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005.

Michael Eisner was born to a wealthy family in Mt. Kisco, New York, and raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan. He attended the Lawrenceville School and graduated from Denison University in 1964 with a B.A. in English. He is a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. His grandfather was one of the first uniform suppliers to the Boy Scouts of America.

After two brief stints at NBC and CBS, Barry Diller at ABC hired Eisner as Assistant to the National Programming Director. Eisner moved up the ranks, eventually becoming a senior vice president in charge of programming and development. In 1976, Diller, who had by then moved on to become chairman of Paramount Pictures, recruited Eisner from ABC and made him president and COO of the movie studio. During his tenure at Paramount, the studio turned out such hit films as Saturday Night Fever, Grease, the Star Trek film franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Beverly Hills Cop, and hit TV shows such as Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Cheers and Family Ties.

Diller left Paramount in 1984, and, as his protege, Eisner expected to assume Diller's position as studio chief. When he was passed over for the job, though, he left to look for work elsewhere and lobbied for the position of CEO of The Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney Productions had been struggling since its founder's death in 1966 [citation needed] and had narrowly survived takeover attempts by corporate raiders when its shareholders Sid Bass and Roy E. Disney brought on Eisner and former Warner Brothers chief Frank Wells to replace Ron W. Miller and turn the company around.

During the second half of the 1980s and 1990s, the studio revitalised, and the division had a "golden age" with annual box office hits with such regularity that even their creative structure started to be known as the "Disney formula." Disney also broadened its adult offerings in film when then Disney Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Miramax Films in 1993. Disney acquired many other media sources, including ABC and ESPN.

During the early part of the 1990s, Eisner and his partners set out to plan "The Disney Decade" which was to feature new parks around the world, existing park expansions, new films, and new media investments. While some of the proposals did follow through, most did not. These include WestCOT, Disney's America, Disney-MGM Studios Paris, and among film projects, a Who Framed Roger Rabbit franchise.

Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994, ending the longstanding feud between him and Eisner. (The Lion King, which is the most successful hand-drawn animated picture, was released over two months later in his memory). Shortly thereafter, Jeffrey Katzenberg resigned and formed Dreamworks SKG with partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' now available post.

[edit]The Save Disney war and Eisner's ouster
In 2003, Roy E. Disney, also the son of co-founder Roy O. Disney, resigned from his positions as Disney vice chairman and chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation, accusing Eisner of micro-management, failures with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan, as well as a string of box-office movie failures starting in the year 2000.
On March 3, 2004, at Disney's annual shareholders' meeting, a surprising and unprecedented 43% of Disney's shareholders, predominantly rallied by former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, withheld their votes to re-elect Eisner to the corporate board of directors. This vigorous opposition, unusual in major public corporations, convinced Disney's board to strip him of his chairmanship and give that position to former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. However, the board would not immediately remove Eisner as chief executive.

As criticism of Eisner intensified in the wake of the shareholder meeting, Eisner's position became more and more tenuous, and on March 13, 2005, Eisner announced that he would step down as CEO one year before his contract expired. On September 30 Eisner resigned both as an executive and as a member of the board of directors, and, severing all formal ties with the company, he waived his contractual rights to perks such as the use of a corporate jet and an office at the company's Burbank headquarters. Eisner's replacement was his longtime lieutenant, Bob Iger.

Eisner's struggle to maintain control of the legendary entertainment company was the subject of journalist James B. Stewart's bestselling book DisneyWar.

On October 7, 2005, Eisner hosted The Charlie Rose Show, filling in for Rose. His guests were John Travolta and his ex-boss, Barry Diller. Impressed with Eisner's performance, CNBC President Mark Hoffman hired Eisner in early 2006 to host his own talk show, Conversations with Michael Eisner. The show mostly features CEOs, political leaders, artists and actors. Eisner is also an executive producer of the show.

Eisner has recently invested in an Internet video distribution network named Veoh Networks

In March 2007, Eisner's investment firm, The Tornante Company, launched a studio, Vuguru, that will produce and distribute videos for the Internet, portable media devices and cell phones. "The entire concept here is content is king," Eisner said in an interview. "What will drive traffic is interest in the subject matter." Through these companies Eisner has acquired the rights to the internet series SamHas7Friends. The first series produced by Vuguru is Prom Queen, created by Big Fantastic (the same team behind SamHas7Friends), which launched on April 1, 2007.

Eisner, through Tornante, is also attempting the take over Topps Co., the well-known bubble-gum and collectibles firm, though as of August 2007 the outcome of that attempt remains uncertain.

Quote of the Day

"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."


Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter, known as Rosalynn, (born August 18, 1927) is the wife of former President Jimmy Carter and was First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

Quote of the Day

"The future you see is the future you get."

-- Robert G Allen, Business, Finance & Motivational Author

Quote of the Day

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Disney is notable as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Walt became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $30 billion.

Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He received twenty-two Academy Awards and forty-eight nominations during his lifetime, holding the record for the individual with the most awards and the most nominations. Disney has also won seven Emmy Awards. Disney and his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse. He is also well-known as the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, France, Japan and China.

Walt Disney was a polo player and a member of the Riviera Polo Club.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, a few years prior to the opening of his Walt Disney World dream project in Orlando, Florida.

Quote of the Day

"You can do so much in 10 minutes time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity."

Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of the furniture brand IKEAIngvar Feodor Kamprad (born March 30, 1926) is a Swedish entrepreneur who is the founder of the home furnishing retail chain IKEA. As of 2007 he is the richest person in Europe and the 4th richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of around US$33 billion.

Kamprad was born on a farm called Elmtaryd (now spelled Älmtaryd), near the small village of Agunnaryd of the Ljungby municipality in the province of Småland, Sweden. Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds and later ball-point pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a reward for succeeding in his studies. He used this money to establish what has grown into IKEA.

The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village Agunnaryd.

Kamprad has admitted that his dyslexia played a large part in the inner workings of the company. For example, the Swedish-sounding names of the furniture sold by IKEA were originally chosen by Kamprad because he had difficulty remembering stock keeping units (numbers).

Kamprad has lived in Epalinges, Switzerland since 1976. According to an interview with TSR, the French language Swiss TV broadcaster, Kamprad drives a 15 year old Volvo, flies only economy class, and encourages IKEA employees to always write on both sides of a paper. In addition Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a cheap meal. He is also known to buy christmas paper and presents in the post-Christmas sales. While Kamprad's frugality is well documented, it is also an important part of the carefully managed image presented to IKEA employees and the general public. He less frequently mentions that he owns a villa in an upmarket part of Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden and a vineyard in Provence in France or that he drove a Porsche for several years.

While working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic. He has however stated that his drinking is now under control

Quote of the Day

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

Claude M. Bristol, 1891-1951, Author of The Magic of Believing

Quote of the Day

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to."

George E. Allen, 1832-1907, Publisher and Author

Quote of the Day

The goal is to win. It's not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this. I don't want to throw my money away, but it's really about having fun and that means success and trophies.

Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (born 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russia) is a Russian oil billionaire and the main owner of private investment company Millhouse Capital, referred to as one of the Russian oligarchs. According to the 2006 Forbes magazine, as of 13 February 2006, he had a net worth of $18.2 billion,[1] and according to Russian Finance magazine, as of January 2007, his fortune was $21.0 billion. He is considered to be the richest living Jew in 2003

In Russia, Abramovich is prominent as the governor of Chukotka, a post to which he was elected in 2000. He is most famous outside Russia as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, an English Premiership football team, and for his wider involvement in European football. Despite his high profile around the world, Abramovich makes virtually no public statements about his activities.

Quote of the Day

"Action makes more fortune than caution."

Luc De Clapiers, 1715-1747, Essayist was born in Aix-en-Provence. His family was poor though noble; he was educated at the college of Aix, where he learned little—neither Latin nor Greek—but by means of a translation acquired a great admiration for Plutarch.

He entered the army as sub-lieutenant in the king's regiment, and served for more than ten years, taking part during the War of the Polish Succession in the Italian campaign of Marshal Villars in 1733, and in the disastrous expedition to Bohemia in support of Frederick II of Prussia's designs on Silesia, in which the French were abandoned by their ally.
There, in 1740, he met and fell in love with an aristocratic eighteen year old soldier eight years his junior, Paul Hippolyte Emmanuel de Seytres. De Seytres died shortly thereafter, during the Siege of Prague in 1742. De Clapiers addressed his philosophical work Conseil à un jeune homme (Advice to a young Man) to his young beloved. He also wrote a funeral eulogy for him, a work which he considered to be among the most important of his life, and which he continued to polish until his death. Vauvenargues discusses in his writings his hate of women and his love of young men, which he defends as having nothing against nature, and blames "malicious spirits" for criminalizing his tastes in love. (Michel Lariviere, "Homosexuels et bisexuels celebres" p.329)

Vauvenargues took part in Marshal Belleisle's winter retreat from Prague. On this occasion his legs were frozen, and though he spent a long time in hospital at Nancy he never completely recovered. He was present at the battle of Dettingen, and on his return to France was garrisoned at Arras. His military career was now at an end.

He had long been desired by the marquis of Mirabeau, author of L'Ami des Hommes, and father of the statesman, to turn to literature, but poverty prevented him from going to Paris as his friend wished. He wished to enter the diplomatic service, and made applications to the ministers and to king Louis XV himself. These efforts were unsuccessful, but Vauvenargues was on the point of securing his appointment through the intervention of Voltaire when an attack of smallpox completed the ruin of his health and rendered diplomatic employment out of the question. Voltaire then asked him to submit to him his ideas of the difference between Jean Racine and Pierre Corneille. The acquaintance thus begun ripened into real and lasting friendship.

Vauvenargues moved to Paris in 1745, and lived there in the closest retirement, seeing but few friends, of whom Jean-François Marmontel and Voltaire were the chief. Among his correspondents was the archaeologist Fauris de Saint-Vincens. Vauvenargues published in 1746 an Introduction à la connaissance de l'esprit humain, with certain Reflexions and Maximes appended.

He died in Paris on May 28, 1747.

Quote of the Day

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933), more commonly known as Calvin Coolidge, was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923–1929). He is often referred to as "Silent Cal". A lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight. Soon after, he was elected as the twenty-ninth Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative.

In many ways, Coolidge's style of governance was a throwback to the passive presidency of the nineteenth century. He restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity. As his biographer later put it, "he embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength."

Many later criticized Coolidge as part of a general criticism of laissez-faire government. His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Reagan administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating the economy.

Quote of the Day

"The money I have is in direct proportion to the value I've given to others. The more I give of myself, incredibly, the more economic power comes my way."

Tod Barnhart - Author of The Five Rituals of Wealth

Tod Barnhart was, at nineteen, the youngest licensed financial advisor in the United States. A millionaire by age twenty-eight, he is now a sought-after motivational speaker, television host, and investment advisor, and the author of the Business Week bestseller The Five Rituals of Wealth. He has turned A Kick in the Assets into a multi-media industry, with a weekly TV show on The People's Network, seminars in 100 cities per year, and a successful 6-tape audio series.

Quote of the Day

The people who get on in this world are the ones who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can't find them, make them.George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856–2 November 1950) was a world-renowned Irish author. Born in Dublin, he moved to London when he turned twenty. Having rejected formal schooling (toward which he had an enduring antipathy), he educated himself by independent study in the reading room of the British Museum; he also began his career there by writing novels for which he could not find a publisher.
His first success was as a music and literary critic, but he was drawn to drama and authored more than sixty plays during his career. Typically his work is leavened by a delightful vein of comedy, but nearly all of it bears earnest messages Shaw hoped his audiences would embrace.
Politically an ardent socialist, he wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society and became an accomplished orator in furtherance of its causes. Those included gaining equal political rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of land and promoting healthful lifestyles.
He married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They made their home in Ayot St. Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner. Shaw died there, aged 94, from chronic problems exacerbated by injuries incurred on falling from a ladder.
He remains the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize (1925) for his contribution to literature and an Oscar (1938) for Pygmalion.

Quote of the Day

The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start. The fellow who sits still and does just what he is told will never be told to do big things.


Charles Michael Schwab (February 18, 1862 in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania - October 18, 1939 in London, England) was an American industrialist who became a multimillionaire in the steel industry but died bankrupt.

Schwab was born into a German Catholic family in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania and grew up in Loretto, Pennsylvania, which he would always consider his "home town". He attended Saint Francis College, now Saint Francis University, but left after two years to find work in Pittsburgh.

He started as a stake driver in Andrew Carnegie's steelworks and in 1897 rose to become president of the Carnegie Steel Company at the age of 35. In 1901, he negotiated the secret buyout of Carnegie Steel to a group of New York-based financiers led by J.P. Morgan. After the buyout, Schwab became the first president of the U.S. Steel Corporation, the company formed out of Carnegie's former holdings.

However Schwab found U.S. Steel to be unwieldy and inefficient. After several clashes with Morgan and company executive Elbert Gary, he resigned in 1903. He left the company to run the Bethlehem Steel Company, which under his direction became the largest independent steel producer in the field.

Part of Bethlehem Steel's success was the development of the H-beam, a precursor of today's ubiquitous I-beam. Charlie Schwab was interested in producing such a wideflange steel beam, a risky venture that required capitalization and new plant construction to make an unproven product.

"I've thought the whole thing over," Schwab told his secretary, "and if we are going bust, we will go bust big." It is his most famous remark.

In 1908, Bethlehem Steel began producing the beam, which revolutionized building construction and made possible the age of the skyscraper. Its success helped make Bethlehem Steel the second-largest steel company in the world. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was incorporated, virtually as a company town, by uniting four previous villages.

In 1910, Schwab broke the Bethlehem Steel strike by calling out the newly-formed Pennsylvania State Police. Schwab kept labor unions out of Bethlehem Steel, which was not organized until 1941, two years after his death.

Schwab eventually moved to New York City, specifically the Upper West Side, which at the time was considered the "wrong" side of Central Park, and where he built "Riverside", the most ambitious private house ever built in New York. The US$7 million 75 room house combined details from three French chateaux on a full city block. After Schwab's death, New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia turned down a proposal to make the mansion the official mayoral residence, considering it to be too grandiose. It was eventually torn down and replaced by a drab apartment block.

He also owned a 44 room summer estate on 1,000 acres (4 km²) in Loretto called "Immergrün" (German for "evergreen"). The house featured opulent gardens and a nine hole golf course. Rather than tear down the existing house, Schwab had the mansion raised on rollers and moved 200 feet to a new location to make room for the new mansion. Schwab's estate sold Immergrün after his death and it is now Mount Assisi Friary on the grounds of Saint Francis University.

Schwab was considered to be a risk taker and was highly controversial. He circumvented American neutrality laws during the early years of World War I by funneling goods through Canada. After America's entry into the war, he was accused of profiteering but was later acquitted. His lucrative contract providing steel to the Trans-Siberian Railroad came after he provided a US$200,000 "gift" to the mistress of the Grand Duke Alexis Aleksandrovich. Thomas Edison once famously called him the "master hustler".

Schwab was notorious for his "fast lane" lifestyle including opulent parties, high stakes gambling, and a string of extramarital affairs producing at least one illegitimate child. He became an international celebrity when he "broke the bank" at Monte Carlo and traveled in a US$100,000 private rail car named "Loretto".[1] Even before the Great Depression, he had already spent most of his fortune estimated at between $25 million and US$40 million. Adjusted for inflation, that equates to between $275 million and US$440 million in modern terms. The affairs and the illegitimate child soured his relationship with his wife.

The stock market crash of 1929 finished off what years of wanton spending had started. He spent his last years in a small apartment. He could no longer afford the taxes on "Riverside" and it was seized by creditors. He had offered to sell the mansion at a huge loss but there were no takers.

At his death ten years later, his holdings in Bethlehem Steel were virtually worthless due to the company's bankruptcy. He was over US$ 300,000 in debt. Had he lived a few more years, he probably would have seen his fortunes restored when Bethlehem Steel was flooded with orders for war material. He was buried in Loretto.

He was not related to Charles R. Schwab, founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation.

Quote of the Day

Failure is only postponed success as long as courage coaches ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

Herbert Kaufman (1878-1947) was an American writer and newspaperman whose editorials were widely syndicated in both the United States and Canada. During World War I, Kaufman regularly contributed articles and editorials to the Evening Standard, The Times, and other leading British periodicals, along with more than 50 war poems, including the classic The Hell-Gate of Soissons.

Quote of the Day

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.

Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar (born November 6, 1926) is an American author, salesperson, and motivational speaker. His latest book (as of 2006) is Better than Good.


Zig Ziglar was born to John Silas and Lila Ziglar in Coffee County, Alabama as the tenth of twelve children. When he was four years old, his father accepted a management position at a Mississippi farm and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where Zig Ziglar spent most of his childhood. In 1932, his father died of a stroke (and his younger sister died two days later), leaving his mother to raise the remaining eleven children alone.

Ziglar served in the Navy during World War II. He was in the Navy V-12 Navy College Training Program, attending the University of South Carolina.

He later worked as a salesman in a succession of companies, during which time his sales skills improved and his interest in motivational speaking grew. In 1968, Ziglar became a vice president and training director for the Automotive Performance company, and moved to Dallas, Texas, where he still lives today. In 1970, he went into the business of motivational speaking full-time.

Quote of the Day

"Happiness depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."

Marcus Aurelius - 121-180, Roman Emperor

quote of the Day

"I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."

John Davidson Rockefeller said that. This oil tycoon and philanthropist has the distinction of being the United States' first billionaire - and since he lived back at the turn of the 20th century - Rockefeller's massive wealth would have made Bill Gates look like a pauper.


John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. Rockefeller had always believed since he was a child that his purpose in life was to make as much money as possible, and then use it wisely to improve the lot of mankind. In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company and ran it until he retired in the late 1890s. He kept his stock and as gasoline grew in importance, his wealth soared and he became the world's richest man and first U.S. dollar billionaire. Rockefeller is often regarded as the richest person in history.

Standard Oil was convicted in Federal Court of monopolistic practices and broken up in 1911. Rockefeller spent the last forty years of his life in retirement. His fortune was used to create the modern systematic approach of targeted philanthropy with foundations that had a major effect on medicine, education, and scientific research. His foundations pioneered the development of medical research, and were instrumental in the eradication of hookworm and yellow fever. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church-based institutions throughout his life.

Always avoiding the spotlight, Rockefeller was remembered for handing dimes to those he encountered in public. Married in 1864, Rockefeller outlived his wife Laura Celestia ("Cettie") Spelman. The Rockefellers had four daughters and one son (John D. Rockefeller, Jr.). "Junior" was largely entrusted with supervision of the foundations.

Quote of the Day

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to."

George Herbert Allen (April 29, 1918 – December 31, 1990) was an American football coach in the NFL and USFL.

Quote of the Day

"Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing."


Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. A former player for the New York Knicks, Jackson is widely considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Basketball Association. His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 through 1998; during his tenure in Chicago, Jackson led the team to six NBA titles. His reputation was furthered when his next team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won three consecutive NBA titles.

Jackson is known for his use of Tex Winter's triangle offense as well as a holistic approach to coaching that is influenced by Eastern philosophy, earning him the nickname "Zen Master". He is the author of several candid books about his teams and his basketball strategies. Jackson is also a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award. Jackson leads the 2007 class of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Quote of the Day

Even when I lose, I win


Chaim Witz, (born August 25, 1949 in Haifa, Israel), better known by his stage name Gene Simmons, is an Israeli-American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist. He is best known as "The Demon", his blood-spitting, fire-breathing, and tongue-wagging persona in the hard rock band Kiss, an act which he co-founded in the early 1970's.

In 1953 at the age of four, Simmons immigrated to New York City with his mother Florence Klein—a Jewish Hungarian immigrant and the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. His father, Feri Witz, had abandoned his family years earlier. When Simmons was young, (as he has discussed on Gene Simmons Family Jewels, a reality-based television program on the American cable network A&E), his mother's long absences while working two jobs in order to make ends meet left emotional scars which left him with a strong desire for wealth. After arriving in the U.S., he took the name Eugene Klein (later Gene Klein, Klein being his mother's maiden name). In the late-1960s, he changed his name again, to Gene Simmons. He has cited Lon Chaney Sr. as one of his favorite actors.

Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, then renamed The Missing Links, when he was a teenager. Eventually he disbanded The Missing Links to form the Long Island Sounds. While he played in these bands, he kept up odd jobs on the side to make more money, including making fanzines and buying used comic books. Gene then attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York. He then joined a new band Bullfrog Beer, and the band made a demo, "Leeta", which was eventually released on the KISS box set in demo form.

Simmons formed the rock band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s with Stanley Harvey Eisen (now known as Paul Stanley) and recorded one album, which was never released. Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley sought out other musicians and eventually joined up with drummer George Peter John Criscuola and lead guitarist Paul Daniel Frehley — who would become Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively.

When Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their old band members, they met with resistance and they quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records. They decided to form the ultimate rock band, and started looking for a drummer. Simmons and Stanley found an ad placed by Peter Criscuola, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio. Paul Frehley responded to an ad they put in the Village Voice for a lead guitar player, and soon joined them. KISS released its self-titled debut album in February 1974 and has continued to perform, with Stanley as lead performer on stage and Simmons being the driving force behind the extensive KISS merchandising franchise. Since its 1974 debut, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have remained consistent in the band as KISS underwent numerous line-up changes.

In 1983, while KISS's fame was waning, the members took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity that continued into the 1990s. The band hosted their own fan conventions throughout 1995, and fan feedback about the original KISS members reunited influenced the highly successful 1996-1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour. In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus, its first album in almost 20 years by the original line-up. Since then, the original line-up has once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley on lead guitar, and Eric Singer (who performed with KISS from 1992 up through 1996) replacing Peter Criss on drums.

Simmons currently lives in Beverly Hills, California with longtime partner and former Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed (Gene opposes marriage). They have two children: a son, Nicholas (b. 22 January 1989), and a daughter, Sophie (b. 7 July 1992). They appear with him on their reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E. Simmons also has another child: first born son Christoper Ashley Simmons (b. 17 June 1977) who resides in Malibu, California. His mother is playmate Jacqueline Anderson and he bears a striking resemblance to his biological father.

Quote of the Day

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success.


Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883–November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. In America, Hill stated in his writings, people are free to believe what they want to believe, and this is what sets the United States apart from all other countries in the world. Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the promise of Hill's books.

Hill called his success teachings "The Philosophy of Achievement" and he considered freedom, democracy, capitalism, and harmony to be important contributing elements. For without these, Hill demonstrated throughout his writings, personal beliefs are not possible. He contrasted his philosophy with others, and thought Achievement was superior and responsible for the success Americans enjoyed for the better part of two centuries. Fear and selfishness had no part to play in his philosophy, and Hill considered them to be the source of failure for unsuccessful people.

The secret of Achievement was tantalizingly offered to readers of Think and Grow Rich, and was never named directly as Hill felt discovering it for themselves would provide readers with the most benefit. Hill presented the idea of a "Definite Major Purpose" as a challenge to his readers, to make them ask of themselves "in what do you truly believe?" For according to Hill, 98% of people had no firm beliefs, putting true success firmly out of reach. Hill's numerous books have sold millions of copies, proving that the secret of Achievement is still highly sought-after by modern Americans. Hill dealt with many controversial subjects through his writings including racism, slavery, oppression, failure, revolution, war and poverty. Persevering and then succeeding in spite of these obstacles using the philosophy of Achievement, Hill stated, was the responsibility of every American.

Quote of the Day

The most important thing in life is to stop saying 'I wish' and start saying 'I will.' Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.


David Copperfield, Magician.

Copperfield, born on September 16, 1956, began practicing magic at the age of 12, and became the youngest person ever admitted to the Society of American Magicians. By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University. At age 18, he enrolled at Fordham University, and was cast in the lead role of the Chicago-based musical The Magic Man (directed by Holland, MI's John Tammi) three weeks into his freshman year,[citation needed] adopting his new stage name "David Copperfield" from the Charles Dickens book of the same name. At age 19, he was headlining at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii.

David Copperfield played the character of Ken the magician in the 1980 horror film Terror Train. He also made an uncredited appearance in the 1994 film Prêt-à-Porter. Most of his media appearances have been through television specials and guest spots on television programs.

In 1982, Copperfield founded Project Magic, a rehabilitation program to help disabled patients regain lost or damaged dexterity skills by using sleight-of-hand magic as a method of physical therapy. The program has been accredited by the American Occupational Therapy Association, and is in use in over 1,100 hospitals throughout 30 countries worldwide.
Copperfield was engaged to the supermodel Claudia Schiffer, but the couple parted ways in 1999 after a six year relationship.

David Copperfield at one time was ready to open a "Theme" restaurant called "Magic Underground." There were to be two locations, one in New York City and one in Walt Disney World (built in the shape of a Hidden Mickey). These locations would allow "D.A.V.I.D" (Digital, Audio, Video, Interface, Device) to remotely interact with the guests in the restaurant. It was basically a high tech videophone system. Other things such as the very table you were sitting at might "Float" around the room and even the waiters were to be involved performing magic as they brought your order to you. Eventually the New York project ran into trouble and it as well as the Walt Disney World location was aborted.

In 1996, Copperfield joined forces with Dean Koontz, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury and others for “David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible,” an anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. A second volume was later published in 1997, called “David Copperfield's Beyond Imagination.”

Copperfield has also attempted to preserve the history of the art of magic for present and future generations by providing a safe, permanent home for antiquarian props, books, and other historical ephemera related to conjuring. His vast collection, known as the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, is housed in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Forbes Magazine reported that Copperfield earned $57 million in 2003, making him the tenth highest paid celebrity in the world. It also estimated that he made $57 million in 2004 (35th) and $57 million in 2005 (41st) in merchandise and tour revenue.[5] Copperfield performs over 500 shows per year throughout the world.

According to Copperfield's official website, his tour schedule shows that throughout 2007, he will perform at the MGM and Hollywood Theater every night.

Quote of the Day

"I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing."


Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. He was known as Lew Alcindor before changing his name in the fall of 1971, several years after converting to Islam.

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, the 7ft-2in (2.18 m) Abdul-Jabbar played center for UCLA from 1965 – 69. Later, he played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969 – 75) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975 – 89), accumulating 38,387 points, the NBA's highest career total. He was famous for his "Skyhook" shot which was almost impossible to block because Kareem's body was between the basket and his arm, and because of his height. His on-court success was unprecedented; he won a record six Most Valuable Player Awards, played on six championship teams as a professional, and played on three NCAA championship teams under coach John Wooden as a collegian. His high school team won 72 consecutive games and his UCLA teams were an unmatched 88-2. After a then-record 20 professional seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar retired from the game in 1989. Following his success as a professional athlete, Abdul-Jabbar has become known as a successful basketball coach, author, and part-time actor.