Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

Today's reading was edited and adapted from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, published in 1937.

Life's Great Tragedy, consists of men and women who earnestly try and fail.

The tragedy lies in the overwhelming large majority

of people who fail as compared to the few who succeed. I have had the privilege of analyzing

several thousand men and women, 98% of whom were classified as failures.

My research and analysis showed that there were 27 major reasons for failure.

Today I would like to provide you with a description of these causes for failure.

As you listen to my list, check yourself by it, point by point, for the purpose of discovering how many of these causes for failure stand between you and success. Number 1. Lack of a well-defined purpose in life.

There is no hope of success for the person who does not have a central purpose or definite

goal at which to aim.

Number two, lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity.

There is no hope for the person who is so indifferent as not to

want to get ahead in life and who is not willing to pay the price. Number three, insufficient

education. This is a handicap which may be overcome with comparative ease. Experience has proven

that the best educated people are often those who are known is self-made or self-educated. It takes

more than a college degree to make one a person of education.

Any person who is educated is someone who has learned to get whatever they want in life,

so violating the rights of others.

Education consists not so much of knowledge, but of knowledge effectively and persistently applied.

Number four, lack of self-discipline.

Discipline comes through self-control.

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