Someone once said,

“Everybody’s a self-made man; but only the successful ones are ever willing to admit it.”

Frederick Douglass: A Story of Unbreakable Determination

Frederick Douglass’s life seems to be the prototype of the American rags to riches story. Born as a slave, he was deprived of any favorable circumstances. Yet, through hard work and with the help of an unbreakable determination, he managed to free himself and to become one of the most prominent African Americans of his times. He said:

“Self-made men are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any of the favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results.

My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success. All human experience proves over and over again, that any success which comes through meanness, trickery, fraud and dishonor, is but emptiness and will only be a torment to its possessor.”

Reconstructing Your Future

Our past choices have brought us to our present circumstances. We have created who we are and what we have.

Excuses about how bad our upbringing was and the amount of times we were cheated carry no weight, when compared with the hardships overcome by people in far more adverse conditions. Was your situation worse than that of a Second World War concentration camp survivor? Once we have the courage to accept responsibility for our past choices, we can start to reconstruct our futures, no matter at what age.

“As A Man Thinketh”

James Allen, in his wonderful book which had a major impact on my life, “As A Man Thinketh” (download it FREE at www.asamanthinketh.com), he said:

“Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to the light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this – that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within him that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make of himself what he wills.”

All You Need to Achieve Greatness

Having this attitude and assuming the responsibility is the foundation upon which one can build any future one desires, however two more ingredients are required in order to achieve greatness:

• Access to the right people,
• and guidance along the way.

For this reason, I created DollarMakers. What future will you create?