Building Life

4. Excellence is not optional. 5. Take an active, not passive, role in helping your community. 6. Customers love humility. 7. Patience is a virtue. Don’t give up. 8. There is no replacement for effort. 9. Success does not come easily. Are you willing to pay the price? 10. Stop, listen, and think before you respond. These sayings express the natural wisdom that, when embraced, can guarantee a person’s success in life. They are the key to achieving success. THE CONDITION FOR SUCCESS Half of success depends on giving your best effort, and the other half is avoiding actions that would make your efforts useless. Therefore, success is about balancing what needs to be done and what should be avoided. For example, if someone opens a shop in the city and decorates it beautifully, that is the necessary effort in running a shop. However, if they also engage in undesirable actions like cheating in transactions or mistreating customers, their shop will fail. Similarly, a person might study medicine and open a clinic, stocking it with all necessary equipment. But