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Og Mandino

Augustine "Og" Mandino II (December 12, 1923 – September 3, 1996) was an American author. He wrote the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World. His books have sold over 50 million copies and have been translated into over twenty-five different languages. He was the president of Success Unlimited magazine until 1976 and is an inductee of the National Speakers Association's Hall Of Fame.

Mandino was born December 12, 1923. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, he was named after his paternal grandfather.

Mandino was once the editor of a high school paper and planned to attend the University of Missouri's journalism school. But in the summer of 1940, before Mandino was able to enter college, his mother died suddenly from a massive heart attack. This happened while Mandino's mother was in the kitchen preparing his lunch. After the incident, Mandino decided to work in a paper factory until 1942. Afterwards, Mandino joined the United States Army Air Corps where he became a military officer and a bombardier. He flew for thirty bombing missions over Germany on board a B-24 Liberator during World War II. It was also during this time that Mandino flew with fellow pilot and movie star, James Stewart. Mandino kept a personalized 8 X 10 photograph of Stewart. This photograph hung on the wall of his home office where he wrote his books.

After his military duties, Mandino discovered that many companies were not hiring many former bomber pilots. As a result, he became an insurance salesman. Traveling on the road and sitting in bars at night, Mandino became an alcoholic. He was unable to keep a job. As a result, Mandino's wife, together with their only child, left him. One wintry November morning in Cleveland, Mandino almost tried to commit suicide. But as he sorted through several books in a library, volumes of self-help, success and motivation books captured Mandino's attention. He selected some titles, went to a table and began reading. Mandino followed his visit to the library with more visits to many other libraries around the United States. He read hundreds of books that dealt with success, a pastime that helped him alleviate his alcoholism. It was in a library in Concord, New Hampshire, where he found W. Clement Stone's classic, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, a book that changed Mandino for the better.

Mandino eventually became a successful writer. His works were inspired by the Bible and influenced by Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Emmet Fox.


“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult... I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”
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“Realise that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.”
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“Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy.”
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“Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears. They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead...”
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“I will become a firefly and even in the day my glow will be seen in spite of the sun. Let others be as butterflies who preen their wings yet depend on the charity of a flower for life.”
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“I will greet this day with love in my heart.”
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“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.”
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“There are two kinds of discontented in this world, the discontented that works and the discontented that wrings its hands. The first gets what it wants and the second loses what it has. There is no cure for the first but success and there is no cure at all for the second. The very worst of my vices and bad habits will abate of themselves if they are brought to an accounting every day.”
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“I determine to render more and better service, each day, than I am being paid to render. Those that reach the top are the ones who are not content with doing only what is required of them.”
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“Only a habit can subdue another habit.”
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“Jedina važna cena je ona koju sami sebi pripisujemo. Ukoliko sebi određujemo previše nisku cenu i svet će se sa njom saglasiti. Ali ako prikažemo sebe u najboljoj svetlosti, svet će i tu našu procenu sebe samih spremno prihvatiti”
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“My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible.All are of no value unless they are followed by action.”
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“No, my son, do not aspire for wealth and labor not only to be rich. Strive instead for happiness, to be loved and to love, and most important to acquire peace of mind and serenity.”
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“Wealth, my son, should never be your goal in life. Your words are eloquent but they are mere words. True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.”
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“Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.”
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“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.”
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“Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all.”
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“I will greet this day with love in my heart. And how will I do this? Henceforth will I look on all things with love and be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness as it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.”
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“... women have their roots in the ground, and often those roots are starved and ravaged, yet there is not a human alive who cannot reach and touch, with... her fingers, the very top of God's rainbow.”
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“Today.....I begin a new life".”
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“To be always intending to make a new and better life but never to find time to set about it is as to put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to the next until you're dead.”
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“Sound character provides the power with which a person may ride the emergencies of life instead of being overwhelmed by them. Failure is... the highway to success.”
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“Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.”
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“The secret of success is to triple your rate of failure.”
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“It is those who concentrates on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality.”
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“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
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“The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.”
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“Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.”
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“Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.”
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“Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.”
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“Do all things with love.”
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“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
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“Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would die today. Go another mile!”
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“I will live this day as if it is my last. …I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, Yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad?” I will live this day as if it is my last. This day is all I have and these hours are now my eternity. I greet this sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death. I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day. So too, I will beat upon my heart with gratitude as I consider all who greeted yesterday’s sunrise who are no longer with the living today. I am indeed a fortunate man and today’s hours are but a bonus, undeserved. Why have I been allowed to live this extra day when others, far better than I, have departed? Is it that they have accomplished their purpose while mine is yet to be achieved? Is this another opportunity for me to become the man I know I can be?”
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“Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat... Never take yourself too seriously.”
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“Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.”
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“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big toask questions, never know too much to learn something new. ”
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“Treasure the friendship you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished.”
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“How do I change? If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel inferior I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will think of past success. If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions.”
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“Sooner or later all mankind will realize that the greatest cure for all the ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrow and crimes of humanity rests solely in acts of love. Love is the greatest gift from God. It is the divine spark that everywhere produces and restores life. To each and every one of us, love gives us the power to work miracles with your own life and those we touch. ”
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“Every one should be wealthy, if only for a day, so that each might realize that being rich is not the ideal condition that most believe it is. And like the land, we should have little need for all that silver when we cease breating. Let us enjoy the smiling faces of as many children of god as we can while we are able to see them.”
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“I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy. ”
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“He who worries about calamities suffers them twice over.”
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“Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”
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“Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment. ”
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“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to achieving your dreams.”
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“There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.”
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“Pilihlah untuk mencintai...bukan membenciPilihlah untuk tertawa...bukan menangisPilihlah untuk mencipta...bukan merusakPilihlah untuk gigih bertahan...bukan menyerahPilihlah untuk memuji...bukan bergosipPilihlah untuk menyembuhkan...bukan melukaiPilihlah untuk memberi...bukan mencuriPilihlah untuk bertindak...bukan menunda-nundaPilihlah untuk tumbuh...bukan membusukPilihlah untuk berdoa...bukan menyumpahiPilihlah untuk hidup...bukan meninggal”
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“Kesabaran adalah kekuasaan.Pergunakanlah untuk memupuk semangat, meredakan kemarahan, meredam angkara murka, mengubur rasa iri, menekan kesombongan, menahan lidah, mengekang tangan, sampai tiba waktunya anda memanen seluruh hasilnya.”
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“Berani tanpa disertai kesabaran akan membunuh anda.Ambisius tanpa kesabaran dapat memusnahkan karier yang paling menjanjikan.Berjuang meraih harta tanpa kesabaran akan mengamblaskan milik yang sudah ada.”
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