Excerpt taken from Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World Part II The End of the Story Part 1

I was born to succeed, not fail.

I was born to triumph, not to bow my head in defeat.

I was born to toast victories, not to whimper and whine.

What happened to me? When did my dreams all fade into a grey mediocrity where average people

applaud each other as excellent?

No person is ever so much deceived by another, as by himself. The coward is convinced that he is only

being cautious and the miser always thinks he is practicing frugality. Nothing is so easy as to deceive

one’s self since what we wish is always easy to believe. No one, in my life, has deceived me as much as I

have.

Why do I always try to cover my small accomplishments under blankets of words that make light of my

work or excuses for my lack of ability? Worst of all, I have come to believe my excuses so that I willingly

sell my days for pennies while consoling myself with thoughts that things could always be worse.

No more!

It is time to study the reflection in my looking glass until I recognize that the most harmful enemy that I

have . . . is me. At last, in this magic moment with my first scroll, the veil of self-deceit is beginning to lift

from my eyes.

Now I know that there are three classes of people in the world. The first learn from their own experience

—these are wise. The second learn from the experience of others—these are happy. The third learn

neither from their own experience nor from the experience of others—these are fools.

I am not a fool. Henceforth I will stand on my own feet and my terrible crutches of self-pity and self-con-tempt have been cast aside forever.

Never again will I pity or belittle myself.

How foolish I was when I stood in despair, by the side of the road, and envied the successful and wealthy

as they paraded by. Are they blessed with unique skills, rare intelligence, heroic courage, enduring

ambition, and other outstanding qualities that I posses not? Have they been allotted more hours, each

day, in which to perform their mighty tasks? Do they have hearts full of compassion and souls overflow -ing with love that are different from mine? No! God plays no favorites. We were all fashioned from the

same clay.

Now I also know that the sadness and setbacks of my life are not unique to me. Even the wisest and

most successful of our world suffer chapters of heartbreak and failure but they, unlike me, have learned

that there is no peace without trouble, no rest without strain, no laughter without sorrow, no victory

without struggle and that is the price we all pay for living. There was a time when I paid the price willing-ly and easily but constant disappointments and defeats first eroded my confidence and then my cour -age even as drops of water will, in time, destroy the strongest granite. All that is now behind me. No

longer am I one of the living dead, remaining always in the shadows of others and hiding behind my

sorry apologies and alibis while the years waste away.

Never again will I pity or belittle myself.

The First Vow of Success

Excerpt taken from Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World Part II The End of the Story