The big little idea

Some years ago, I attended a conference and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four. A few minutes later, an older gentleman came along carrying his tray, looking for a place to sit. I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.

It turned out that he was Kop Kopmeyer - a legend in the field of business success and achievement. He had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. "Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, I asked him which do you think is the most important?"

He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, "The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago: 'Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.'"

Adapted from Brian Tracy
The Power of Discipline