It was a choice. Spend his last $30 on a handgun in the pawnshop window, or walk into a library to get warm? Og walked away from the pawnshop, and entered a library in Concord, New Hampshire, where he found W. Clement Stone’s classic, ‘Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude’, a book that changed Og for the better.

His Mother held his dream. She told him throughout his childhood, “You will become a famous writer.” It took years of rough travel down his path before writing, “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” Og struggled being a salesman, but believed in success, and shared his story to inspire others. He is proof of what you receive is what you believe, and speak.

Here are today’s seeds:

I will keep a smile on my face and in my heart even when it hurts today. I know that the world is a looking-glass and gives back to me the reflection of my own soul. Now I understand the secret of correcting the attitude of others and that is to correct my own.

It usually begins with the one in the mirror.

I will turn away from any temptation today that might cause me to break my word or lose my self-respect. I am positive that the only thing I possess more valuable than my life is my honor.

Don’t say it, if you cannot do it.

I will work this day with all my strength, content in the knowledge that life does not consist of wallowing in the past or peering anxiously at the future. It is appalling to contemplate the great number of painful steps by which one arrives at a truth so old, so obvious, and so frequently expressed. Whatever it offers, little or much, my life is now.

It took trial and error, but Og began making good choices.

Here is an insightful article about Og Mandino’s early years.

Parts of this Blog are taken from The Seeds of Success, by Og Mandino.