1. The Geography of Success by Ron White

I will suggest to you that success has a lot to do with geography, although, perhaps not in the way you might think. I am not implying that success is a result of being in the right place at the right time. Rather it is about the geography of who you surround yourself with. To illustrate my point, take a moment to reflect on the history of the United States of America. While I believe that it is not up for debate that today the United States is the world's only superpower, how it achieved that status is obvious and yet often overlooked.

Geography has played a large part in the success of the United States. To the east and west are large oceans of protection. This cannot be overlooked as a major factor in the success of my country. What did Britain have to do in order to fight the colonists for control of the new world? They had to sail from England across the Atlantic! What did the Japanese have to do in order to attack Pearl Harbor? They had to bridge the distance of the Pacific, and if the Pacific Fleet was based instead on the West Coast of the mainland, would such an attack even have been possible?

There is no doubt about it—two mighty oceans of protection have served as barriers to forces hostile to the United States and acted as a buffer for the nation to grow and prosper unimpeded. To our north is Canada and to the south is Mexico. When the United States was in its infancy, Mexico was not considered an ally, yet today it definitely is. Therefore, the United States of America has walls of protection to its east and west in the form of massive bodies of water, and friendly neighbors to its north and south.

What do our neighbors to the north and south want for the United States? They want us to be militarily strong, economically prosperous and a symbol of strength in the world. Why do our neighbors want this for us? Make no mistake; it is not simply to see a friend prosper. These nations are very aware that the stronger we are, because of their proximity to us, the stronger they will be. In turn, it is in the national interest of the United States that Mexico and Canada are strong countries. Therefore, we will go out of our way to see that they are safe from foreign attack and that they remain prosperous nations.

Now, you see a couple of the reasons why the United States has prospered. We are surrounded by friendly neighbors and the safety of oceans. After you have examined the success of the United States, the next step is to look at the lives of those you know who are personally successful. I believe you will find the same marks of geography on their success.

What kinds of people do you find around successful people? What kinds of people are surrounding you? Do they desire for you to succeed or fail?

Where do you spend your free time? This is a geography question again. The geography of oceans has helped enable success for the United States. The geography of where you place yourself in your free time will also enable or disable your success. You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables learning. This can be done in a place to read or study.

You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables rest. This is any quiet and calm place where you can relax with your thoughts and recover for the work yet to come. A massage or a trip to the country are great examples of this type of geographical resting.

You must ensure that at least a portion of your geography is in an environment that enables health, strength and physical stamina. This could be accomplished at the gym, local track or simply jogging around your block. For your body to hold up to the test of success it must be in top shape.

Make no mistake, a nation surrounded by hostile neighbors constantly attacking or plotting its harm is going to be a nation constantly on the defensive and fighting simply to maintain the status quo. The nation surrounded by friendly geography has the potential to prosper beyond the wildest imaginations of its founders. You are no different than that nation. To ensure your success, constantly monitor your personal geography.

—Ron White

2. Quotes of The Week

Learning/Education

"Success is a process that continues, not a status that you reach. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned." —Denis Waitley

"The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts." —Rene Descartes

"I believe people should study a little bit every day. It should become habitual, like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, having a shower or getting dressed. Study the mind, the laws of the universe and paradigms. There's enough information on those subjects to keep a person studying forever." —Bob Proctor

"If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability." —Henry Ford

"Education is, after all, a serious business. Its lifeblood is standards. If there are no standards, how do we call something higher education?" —William J. Bennett

"Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained." —James A. Garfield

"In times of change the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." —Eric Hoffer

"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around." —Jim Rohn

3. Obstacles are the Stepping Stones of Success by Harvey Mackay

A man was walking in the park one day when he came upon a cocoon with a small opening. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It looked like it had gotten as far as it could, so the man decided to help the butterfly. He used his pocketknife and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily, but something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to emerge were natural. It was nature's way of forcing fluid from its body into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.

If we were allowed to go through life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

History has shown us that the most celebrated winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

My good friend Lou Holtz, football coach of the University of South Carolina, once told me, "Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity."

Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf. George Washington was snowed in through a treacherous winter at Valley Forge. Abraham Lincoln was raised in poverty. Albert Einstein was called a slow learner, retarded and uneducable. If Christopher Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured.

As an elementary student, actor James Earl Jones (a.k.a. Darth Vader) stuttered so badly he communicated with friends and teachers using written notes.

Itzhak Perlman, the incomparable concert violinist, was born to parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp and has been paralyzed from the waist down since the age of four.

Chester Carlson, a young inventor, took his idea to 20 big corporations in the 1940s. After seven years of rejections, he was able to persuade Haloid, a small company in Rochester, N.Y., to purchase the rights to his electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid has since become Xerox Corporation.

Thomas Edison tried over 2,000 experiments before he was able to get his light bulb to work. Upon being asked how he felt about failing so many times, he replied, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected president of the United States for four terms, had been stricken with polio at the age of 39.

Persistence paid off for General Douglas MacArthur. After applying for admission to West Point twice, he applied a third time and was accepted. The rest is history.

In 1927 the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School instructed student Lucille Ball to "Try any other profession. Any other."

Buddy Holly was fired from the Decca record label in 1956 by Paul Cohen, Nashville "Artists and Repertoire Man." Cohen called Holly "the biggest no-talent I ever worked with."

Academy Award-winning writer, producer and director Woody Allen failed motion picture production at New York University (NYU) and City College of New York. He also flunked English at NYU.

Helen Keller, the famous blind author and speaker, said: "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. Silver is purified in fire and so are we. It is in the most trying times that our real character is shaped and revealed."

Mackay's Moral: There is no education like the university of adversity.