55 EXCUSES FOR FAILURE
People who do not succeed all have one thing in common. They share the same excuses for their lack of achievement. But excuses won’t pay the rent, and the world is only interested in successes.
A character analyst compiled a list of the most common excuses. As you read the list, remember that this book discredited all of these excuses.
1. If I didn’t have a wife and family …
2. If I had enough “pull” …
3. If I had money …
4. If I had a good education …
5. If I could get a job …
6. If I had good health …
7. If I only had time …
8. If times were better …
9. If other people understood me …
10. If conditions around me were only different …
11. If I could live my life over again …
12. If I did not fear what “they” would say …
13. If I had been given a chance …
14. If I now had a chance …
15. If other people didn’t “have it in for me” …
16. If nothing happens to stop me …
17. If I were only younger …
18. If I could only do what I want …
19. If I had been born rich …
20. If I could meet “the right people” …
21. If I had the talent that some people have …
22. If I dared assert myself …
23. If I only had embraced past opportunities …
24. If people didn’t get on my nerves …
25. If I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children …
26. If I could save some money …
27. If the boss only appreciated me …
28. If I only had somebody to help me …
29. If my family understood me …
30. If I lived in a big city …
31. If I could just get started …
32. If I were only free …
33. If I had the personality of some people …
34. If I were not so fat …
35. If my talents were known …
36. If I could just get a “break” ….
37. If I could only get out of debt …
38. If I hadn’t failed …
39. If I only knew how …
40. If everybody didn’t oppose me …
41. If I didn’t have so many worries …
42. If I could marry the right person …
43. If people weren’t so dumb …
44. If my family were not so extravagant …
45. If I were sure of myself …
46. If luck were not against me …
47. If I had not been born under the wrong star …
48. If it were not true that “what is to be will be” …
49. If I did not have to work so hard …
50. If I hadn’t lost my money …
51. If I lived in a different neighborhood …
52. If I didn’t have a “past” …
53. If I only had a business of my own …
54. If other people would only listen to me …
55. If I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others, for I know that there is something wrong with me, or I would now be where I would have been if I had spent more time analyzing my weaknesses and less time building alibis to cover them.
Making excuses to explain away one’s lack of success is a national pastime. This habit is as old as the human race. Elbert Hubbard said, “It has always been a mystery to me why people spend so much time deliberately fooling themselves by creating alibis to cover their weaknesses. If used differently, this same time would be sufficient to cure the weakness; then no alibis would be needed.”
Before you read this book, you may have had the valid excuse of not knowing how to force life to give you what you want. But that alibi is now gone.
You now know you must create a burning desire mixed with faith to achieve an ultimate goal which will provide you with a practical plan to achieve it that you must follow with undying persistence until you succeed. Will you start now, or will you make excuses?
