"If you’re ever lucky enough to be successful in what you choose to do, don’t ever believe your own hype, and remember it could all stop tomorrow. Do whatever you do to the best of your ability. Take the job seriously, but not yourself. And most of all, be nice to work with."
-- Oliva Colman
"You have to really focus. Just do one thing. And aim to become best in the world at it."
-- Jony Ive
"So you have to sit yourself down and tell yourself whatever you have to tell yourself so you start to believe it, that you can beat them, that you WILL beat them. You may even have to lie a bit to yourself at first to get the belief going. Whatever it takes. And from then on, once you start to believe, you make sure you’re searingly honest with yourself. Are you working as hard as you could? Have you done everything, and I mean everything, you can to get ready for that match? And the answer always has to be yes. There has to be no doubt in your mind. Otherwise, you’re going to lose."
-- Lawrence Dallaglio
"Give and you get back what you give. Treat everyone as individuals: understand how people are and encourage them. There is real discipline too underpinning the work they do. I strongly believe that you achieve more in a work environment with hope rather than fear … the whole concept of people shouting or bullying or intimidating is foreign to me."
-- Ruthie Rogers
"There is an inner steel that comes from knowing you’re good at something. It might be plumbing or building tables or driving a cab or whatever, but being able to say “When it comes to this, I know what I’m doing” is good for one’s confidence. So my advice to someone younger is search for the thing you’re good at and don’t stop."
-- James Corden
"Treat everybody as equal value, irrespective of his or her status or who they are. That’s the thing I want for my children, I want them to always feel that nobody’s better than you and vice versa. That’s what my parents taught me. Never treat anybody as lesser and never accept anyone treating you as lesser. Respect the humanness of the other person."
-- Helena Kennedy QC
"I really play on the edge. The time on the Eiger, I had to move fast, so I allow myself to hit only once with the ice axe, no compromise, never twice. Full commitment each time I place the axe. And it works, you really concentrate, you really hit precise."
-- Ueli Steck
"Listen, you can’t just hope that a gold medal, a good grade, or a promotion is waiting for you at the end of a cycle. You must do everything in your power—in your Game Plan—to make sure you deserve that reward."
-- Bob Bowman
"Always believe that when you apply yourself, you can achieve anything. Make sure you give 100 per cent and work as hard as you can in everything you do, not just in what you enjoy but also in life. And don’t forget, natural ability will only get you so far, there is no substitute for practice."
-- Andy Murray
"There’s always going to be someone faster, smarter, taller, more experienced than you, but the rewards in life don’t always go to them, the rewards in life goto the dogged, the determined, those who can keep going and pick themselves back up and never say die and just hang in there, sometimes quietly and undramatically."
-- Bear Grylls
"No matter how bad it is, no situation is ever greater than you. You always have three options: you can change the situation, accept the situation or change your mindset on how you see the situation. And you have the power in your hands to choose whichever is best for you. Never allow something else or someone’s opinion to become the title of your book. Ever."
-- Jo Malone
"I have never met a child that is not fascinated by our natural world, the animal kingdom and the wonders within it. It is only as we get older that we sometimes lose that sense of wonderment. But I think we would all be better off if we kept it. So my advice is to never lose that, do what you can to always keep that sense of magic with our natural world alive."
-- Sir David Attenborough
"Life for me is about doing the right thing, on a difficult day, when no one is looking. If you do something or walk by something that you know is not right, then you’re ultimately cheating and undermining your own self. If you do the right thing, no matter what the outcome, your confidence always grows. And you have a better life that way. So just make sure you are always honest with yourself. And make sure you always do the right thing."
-- Lt Col Lucy Giles
"For each person who aspires to anything, retain the innocence and conviction of when you started out. Be open to the surprise and wonder and terror of the world, but remain faithful to your first aspiration. Never forget what bestirs you."
-- Edna O’Brien
"I know it sounds kind of corny, but every day I look in the mirror and I tell myself that I am going to go out there and face it and not curl up in a ball because somebody said something or thinks that I couldn’t be or do something simply because of who I am. It’s hard, but you have to do it. Put in the hard work, discipline and focus and just keep going. Remember there are numerous people, both similar and dissimilar to you, who are rooting for you to stay strong, and to prove the naysayers wrong."
-- Dambisa Moyo
"In life, we are not what we look like, we are not our gender, sexuality or religion or race, we are how we act and the impact that we have on others. And the best way to think about the impact we have on others is in adjectives. I ask myself “What person do I want to be?” But in adjectives, not nouns. How about kind? Healthy? Ambitious? Does thinking like that get me to a more fruitful and satisfying place? I think it probably does."
-- Clare Balding
"Whatever you do, do it with intent. In martial arts we call it “one plus one”. Just one good kick and one good punch is better than twenty you didn’t have any intent behind. Do not say something unless you mean it, do not do something unless you are committed. Do not confront by shouting, but confront by using your intellectual powers and the power of a better argument, by standing your ground, by keeping your centre, by never transgressing so they cannot attack. Ultimately, the trick is to absorb and redirect their energy. You use their own power against themselves."
-- Nancy Hollander
"If you put your head on a pillow late at night and think it hasn’t been a good day, wake up next day and change something. It might be your ideas or attitude, it might be to leave a job or husband. It could be anything, but change something. Don’t just drag on a set of circumstances which just aren’t falling into the right places. You’ve got to listen to and then act on that inner spark."
-- Joan Bakewell
"There is such a large amount of luck needed to get your moment, so you have to be in acting for the right reasons: do it because you love the thing, the process, because you’ll enjoy doing a no-pay play in a room above a pub. You have to be happy doing it that way, because what happens otherwise if you don’t get your break?"
-- Jude Law
"I told you, you have to make the best of whatever you have. The only thing I had was that piece of bread, so I hid the gold every night in that and they never spotted it. I was cleverer than them. Make always the best from what you have, no matter how little it is."
-- Lily Ebert
"You have to develop a well-stretched ear and listen. The more you listen for the rhythm of your life, the more you will hear it. Find your rhythm. Live your life to its beat."
-- Mickey Hart
"Do not let others define you and your life. Do not be defined by other people’s expectations of you. Do not be defined by time, either by what you’ve done up to this point, as that is the past, or by your ambitions, as that is the future. Tune into yourself and define yourself by being your authentic true self in every given moment. Find out what things feel good for your soul and do that. That’s your freedom that you have. And it gives you the ballast to resist a world that’s trying to manipulate or categorise you in some way."
-- Nitin Sawhney
"He was very focused. If he said he was going somewhere – it didn’t matter what was on that road – he went there. He lived authentically, and true to himself – that’s what I admire about my dad."
-- Dr Maki Mandela
"People talk about work and play as if they are separate things, with one being there to compensate for the other, but all of it is life, all of it is precious. Don’t waste any of it doing something you don’t want to do. And do all of it with the people you love."
-- Sir Richard Branson
"Be bold. If you’re bold you might right royally screw up, but you can also achieve much more, so be bold. You’ve only got your own reputation to lose and that’s not important. It’s much better to strive for something that seems impossible, that’s quite nuts on some level. So be bold, whatever it is. Even if you work on a customer help desk somewhere, ask yourself how can I be bold? Find those small moments of boldness because they are everywhere."
-- Baroness Martha Lane Fox
"If I was passing on anything, I would say, for goodness sake, look for the pluses in life. Being negative completely erodes everything. If something bad happens, I always say cancel and continue and get back on track. There’s no good being negative, I don’t believe in negativity."
-- Dame Judi Dench
"At the end of the day I think the most important thing is don’t look back on what has happened. Instead look forward to what you can do. Just crack on."
-- Corporal Andy Reid
"Confidence and happiness are not luck or something only other people can have, they are decisions you make that involve hard work, commitment and believing that you actually deserve it. There are no barriers to stop you getting them. And if for whatever reason you ever feel in despair, it is worth remembering God gives his toughest journeys to his strongest soldiers."
-- Katie Piper
