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Andrew Carnegie's 45 causes of failure

1. Habit of drifting through life without a definite major purpose
2. Unfavorable physical heredity at birth
3. Habit of meddlesome curiosity into other people’s affairs
4. Inadequate preparation for the work in which one engages
5. Lack of self-discipline
6. Indifference towards opportunities for self-advancement
7. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity
8. Ill health (due to wrong thinking, improper diet and exercise)
9. Unfavorable environmental influences (esp during childhood)
10. Lack of persistence in carrying through a finish what one starts
11. Habit of maintaining a negative mental attitude
12. Lack of control of emotions
13. The desire for something for nothing
14. indecision and indefiniteness
15. Fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, loss of liberty, death
16. Wrong selection for mate in marriage
17. Over caution in business and occupational relationships
18. Excess tendency towards chance
19. Wrong choice of associates in business or occupational work
20. Wrong choice of a vocation or total neglect to make a choice
21. Lack of concentration of effort leading to dissipation of time and energy
22. Habit of indiscriminate spending
23. Failure to budget and use time properly
24. Lack of control of enthusiasm
25. Intolerance, close-mindedness and prejudice
26. Failure to cooperate with others in a spirit of harmony
27. Craving for power or wealth not earned or based on merit
28. Lack of a spirit of loyalty where loyalty is due
29. Egotism and vanity not under control
30. Exaggerated selfishness
31. The habit of creating plans without basing them on known facts
32. Lack of vision and imagination
33. Failure to make mastermind alliance
34. Failure to recognize the existence of and adapting to the power of infinite intelligence
35. Profanity of speech (unclean and undisciplined mind)
36. Speaking before thinking. Talking too much.
37. Covetousness, revenge, and greed
38. A habit of procrastination
39. Speaking slanderously of other people
40. Ignorance of the power of thought & lack of knowledge on the operation of the mind
41. Lack of personal initiative
42. Lack of self-reliance
43. Lack of the qualities of a pleasing personality
44. Lack of faith in oneself, fellow men and God
45. Failure to develop the power of will through voluntary controlled habits of thought

via X

"Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but do it like you love it." -- Mike Tyson

"People of very great ability will as a rule get on better with people of very limited ability than they will with people do ordinary ability, for the same reason as the despot and the plebeian, the grandparents and the grandchildren are natural" -- Schopenhauer invented the midwit meme 200 years ago from "Essays and aphorisms".

"Anxiety is what happens when your brains are bigger than your balls. You're smart enough to know what you should be doing but lack the courage to do it. This imbalance is what triggers anxiety. The only way to demolish anxiety is to choke it out with ruthless action. This is why you never feel anxious when you're in motion, even if that motion leads to temporary failure. Anxiety has nothing to do with failure and everything to do with a lack of courage." -- x/waronweakness

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill—he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness."