Table Of ContentMany Miles To Go
A Parable For Great Success In Business and
Personal Life
By: Brian Tracy
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Dedication
To Christina, a great adventurer of the heart and mind.
You have come so far and done so well, and you have so many
wonderful experiences ahead of you. I am so proud of you.
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Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
—Author Unknown
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Foreword by Harvey Mackay
Caution: This Book Will Change Your Life
You are about to embark on an exciting journey of exploration
into the depths of the most fascinating person you will ever know:
yourself.
Life is a journey, and every part of life is a small journey, complete in
itself. You begin with a destination, either clear or fuzzy, travel with
the inevitable ups and downs, and you finally arrive at your
destination, which may or may not be what you had in mind. Your
experiences along the way, and how you react to them, are what
make you who you are and determine who you will become.
Learn From Experience
The more experiences you have, and the more you learn from
them, the faster you become all you are capable of becoming. The bad
news is, we tend to learn more from the mistakes and detours than we
do from the miles of smooth road. The good news is we can have
Brian Tracy as our traveling companion.
You have extraordinary intelligence, talent, ability, and skill
that you can develop and direct toward accomplishing exceptional
things and making a real difference in the world. This book will show
you how to tap into them.
Timeless Truths
I’ve known Brian Tracy for several years. He is one of the most
respected speakers and consultants in America, and perhaps the
world. (I ought to know; we’ve shared the platform on several
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occasions, and I’ve sat in the first row taking notes.) His books,
articles, audio and video programs, and seminars have been published
in 31 countries, in 18 different languages. Brian has the unique ability
to draw timeless truths and principles from his experiences, and then
share them with others in such a clear and simple way that their lives
and thinking are changed forever.
One Common Goal
Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to be
healthy and happy, do meaningful work, and achieve financial
independence. Everyone wants to make a difference in the world, to
be significant, to have a positive impact on those around him or her.
Everyone wants to do something wonderful with his or her life.
Luckily for most of us, success is not a matter of background,
intelligence, or native ability. It’s not our family, friends, or contacts
who enable us to do extraordinary things. Instead, it is our ability to
get the very best out of ourselves under almost all conditions and
circumstances. It is your ability, as Theodore Roosevelt said, to “Do
what you can with what you have, right where you are.”
The Success Formula
The great success formula has always been the same. First,
decide exactly what you want and where you want to go. Second, set
a deadline and make a plan to get there. (Remember, a goal is just a
dream with a deadline.) Third, take action on your plan; do something
everyday to move toward your goal. Finally, resolve in advance that
you will persist until you succeed, that you will never, ever give up.
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This formula has worked for almost everyone who has ever tried
it. It is simple, but not easy. It will require the very most you can give
and the best qualities you can develop. In developing and following
this formula, you will evolve and grow to become an extraordinary
person.
Learn From The Experts
One more thing: Learn from the experts. You will not live long
enough to figure it all out for yourself. And what a waste it would be
to try, when you can learn from others who have gone before. Ben
Franklin once said, “Men can either buy their wisdom or they can
borrow it from others. The great tragedy is that most men prefer to
buy it, to pay full price in terms of time and treasure.”
Over and over, I have found that a single piece of information,
a single idea at the right time, in the right situation, can make all the
difference. I have also learned that the great truths are simple. They
are not found in complex formulas that require a rocket scientist to
interpret. The great truths are contained in basic ideas and principles
that virtually anyone can understand and apply. Your greatest goal in
life should be to acquire as many of them as possible and then use
them to help you do the things you want to do and become the
person you want to become.
Fasten Your Seat Belt
Before you start reading this book, fasten your seat belt; it’s
a real page-turner. As you join Brian and his friend, Geoff, on their
journey, and face the challenges they face, you will find yourself
learning about life at a more rapid rate than you may have thought
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possible. You will see yourself and your own story in almost every
page.
As Brian says, “Everyone has a Sahara to cross.” You and I
move in and out of crises on a regular basis. The turbulence and
turmoil of life are inevitable and unavoidable. The only part of the
equation you control is how you respond. As Epictetus, the Roman
philosopher, once said, “Circumstances do not make the man; they
merely reveal him to himself.”
At the end of this book, you will be a different person, a
better person, a wiser person. In fact, you may never be the same
person again.
Bon voyage.
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Introduction
Why Are Some People So Successful?
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has
overcome while trying to succeed.” (Booker T. Washington)
Have you ever wondered why some people are more
successful than others? Why is it that some people enjoy better health,
happier relationships, greater success in their careers, and achieve
financial independence, if not great wealth—and others do not? What
is it that enables some people to accomplish remarkable things and
enjoy wonderful lives while so many others feel frustrated and
disappointed?
These questions were important to me when I started out in
life. I came from humble beginnings. My parents were good people,
but they were often out of work. Growing up, we never seemed to
have enough money for anything. Our family theme song was, “We
can’t afford it!”
I didn’t graduate from high school. I didn’t quit or drop out,
but I left high school in the half of the class that made the top half
possible. At the commencement ceremony, instead of a diploma, I got
a simple “Leaving Certificate.”
A Poor Start
My first full-time job was as a dishwasher in a small hotel. I
started at 4 p.m. and often worked into the early hours of the morning.
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When I lost that job, I got a job washing cars on a car lot. When I lost
that job, I got a job with a janitorial service washing floors late into the
night. I began to think that washing things was going to be in my
future.
With a limited education, I seemed to have a limited future as
well. I worked in a sawmill stacking lumber on the afternoon shift and
then later, the graveyard shift, getting off at 7 a.m. I pumped gas and
worked at odd jobs. I worked in the bush with a chainsaw, on a
logging crew, sometimes 12 hours a day, enduring black flies, dust,
diesel fuel, and 90-degree heat. I even dug wells for a while. That’s
where you start at ground level and work down. And when you
succeed, you fail, because when you find water, they fire you. It was
not a great incentive system.
Learning the Hard Way
I was homeless before it was respectable. I lived in my car in
the winter and slept next to it in the summer. I worked in hotels and
restaurants, washing pots and pans in the winter and working on
ranches and farms in the summer. I worked in construction as a
laborer and in factories putting nuts on bolts, hour after hour.
I worked on a ship, a Norwegian freighter in the North
Atlantic, as a galley boy, the lowest man on the nautical totem pole. I
worked and drifted from odd job to odd job for years, continually
asking and wondering, “Why are some people more successful than
others?”
Lessons Learned
My life is different now. I live in a beautiful house on a golf
course in Southern California. I have a healthy, happy family and a
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successful business with operations throughout the United States,
Canada, and in a dozen foreign countries. And all this happened for
me because I finally found the answers.
After years of searching, I met a wise and wealthy man who sat
me down and told me the key to success. He also explained the
reasons for failure and under-achievement in life. As he spoke, I
immediately recognized the truth in what he said. And his discovery
about success was quite simple, as all great truths seem to be.
What he told me was this: “The key to success is for you to
set one big, challenging goal and then to pay any price,
overcome any obstacle and persist through any difficulty until
you finally achieve it.”
Program Yourself For Success
By achieving one important goal, you create a pattern, a
template for success in your subconscious mind. Ever after you will be
automatically directed and driven toward repeating that success in
other things that you attempt. By overcoming adversity and achieving
one great goal in any area, you will program yourself for success in
other areas as well.
In other words, you learn to succeed by succeeding. The
more you achieve, the more you can achieve. Each success,
especially the first one, builds your confidence and belief that you will
be successful next time.
Nothing Can Stop You
The fact is that you can accomplish almost any goal that you
set for yourself if you persist long enough and work hard enough. The
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