Today, I’d like to share some of my favorite A.L. Williams quotes from his best-selling book: All You Can Do Is All You Can Do But All You Can Do Is Enough.
To call this book anything less than a masterpiece would be doing it a huge disservice. I easily give this book a 10 of 10 and consider it a must read by ANYONE looking to achieve success in life and in business. It is my # 3 favorite self-help book, right behind Think & Grow Rich and The Magic of Thinking Big.
What I like about the book is that it is easy to read. There’s no fluff. The content is amazing. You can “feel” the enthusiasm and passion in his writing. Once you pick up a copy and start reading it, the book will be hard to put down. This is one of those rare books that you should read every three to four months for the rest of your life! The information will be totally life changing if you apply it in your life!
Top 81 A.L. Williams Quotes
What I want to do in the rest of this post is share some of my favorite A.L. Williams quotes in the book. Each quote is in bold and italics. After each quote I will share my own two cents on the topic. The quotes are listed in no particular order. Enjoy.
# 1: Everybody wants to be somebody……all of us believe that we’re special, we’re different.
We are all unique. Know that there is no one else in the world just like you. You are a masterpiece created by God. Make others feel unique, special, and important when they are around you.
# 2: Society is kindest to people who don’t rock the boat.
Most people are taught to play it safe and do what everyone else does. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but if you really want to be successful you must take risks, step into the unknown, and be a renegade.
# 3: I became determined not to be defeated by someone else’s opinion of me or my ideas.
Don’t worry about what others think of you. Most of them aren’t thinking of you anyway. Unless they pay your bills, or cuddle up next to you at night, ignore the thoughts and opinions of others.
# 4: You can count on you.
You can’t count on anyone else, but you can always rely on yourself.
# 5: I believe the number-one problem that keeps people from winning in the United States today is lack of belief in themselves.
Most people are their own biggest critic, their own worst enemy. Work on your attitude and self-confidence. Learn how to love yourself.
# 6: Life will give you what you’ll fight for.
Anything worth accomplishing in life will be hard work and tough. Good things take time. The greater the risk the greater the reward.
# 7: All you need is the belief that you deserve a place in this world and the determination to get it.
Most people do not believe they are worthy of great things. Once you believe in yourself you become unstoppable.
# 8: You’ve got to learn to dream again.
Success starts with a dream. Without a dream life will be dreadful. Figure out what you want in life, come up with a game-plan to achieve it, and get to work.
# 9: Stop telling yourself what you can’t do. Start thinking about what you really want from life.
Stop selling yourself short. There is greatness within you. Never compare yourself to anyone else. Focus on improving daily.
# 10: The last time most people really competed was in high school or college.
Most people are living lives of quiet desperation. They’ve settled for their lot in life. Set high standards for yourself. Improve daily. Compete against yourself and no one else.
# 11: There has never been and there never will be a test that can look inside a person and tell if he has what it takes.
It’s what’s on the inside that matters most. You can’t see those “intangible” things when you are talking with someone. Never pre-judge anyone. More often than not, people will fool you.
# 12: You know what the “big leagues” is? It’s your life. It doesn’t get any bigger than your life.
Be more excited about your own life than you are about your favorite sports team. Get excited about you. No one cares about you or your future as much as you do.
# 13: Desire is the key. If you’ve got desire, you can be anything you want to be in America today, provided you have two things: a specific goal and a plan.
Success starts with desire, but you also need written goals and a specific action plan to get there.
# 14: Forcing yourself to set goals makes you take a hard look at what you really want from life.
Sit down and write down what you want to achieve in life. Read your goals daily. Create a vision board. Visualize what you want until it becomes a burning obsession.
# 15: There aren’t any good jobs for people who want to be somebody.
If you want to do great things in life you must work for yourself and create your own destiny.
# 16: It’s tough to make a total commitment. It’s not an overnight decision: it’s a long, ongoing process.
Ultimately, you must “sell out” to what you want to achieve in life. Unless it becomes a top priority it will not come to fruition.
# 17: The first eighteen months in business, everything turns into a mess.
Your goal the first year or two in your business is to learn and survive. Nothing goes exactly as planned. No new business is designed to provide immediate profits. A new business is like a new baby. It requires constant love, attention, and nurturing.
# 18: It’s been my experience that it takes from three to five years to get a business – any business – off the ground.
It takes time to build a successful business. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Be patient and take the long-term view.
# 19: Life isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. The ability to hang on when everything seems to be falling apart around you is a major difference between winners and losers.
When the going gets tough you must get tougher. Hang in there. Tough times never last but tough people do.
# 20: It’s necessary to have big dreams and big goals to succeed, but a dreamer without endurance is destined to fail. One of my favorite sayings is used by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes: “Dreamers are a dime a dozen, but marathoners are one in a million.”
You must be willing to do whatever it takes if you want to succeed. And you must stay the course UNTIL you eventually succeed.
# 21: You beat 50 percent of the people in America by working hard. You beat another 40 percent by being a person of honesty and integrity and standing for something. The last ten percent is a dog fight in the free enterprise system.
This is a great success formula.
# 22: You beat 50 percent of the people at any level just by working hard consistently over a long period of time.
Finish what you start. Get started, stay the course, and outlast everyone else.
# 23: Most people don’t give themselves enough time.
Anything worth accomplishing takes time, normally much longer than you think.
# 24: Inch by inch, it’s a cinch.
Break your goals down into smaller steps. That way things aren’t overwhelming. Anything is simple if you break it down into smaller tasks or goals.
# 25: More than 90 percent of all new companies fail their first two or three years.
Surviving the first few years in business will normally be your biggest challenge.
# 26: The most bankrupt people in the world are the ones who’ve lost their ability to dream.
The day you no longer have something to dream about and hope for, is the day your life becomes meaningless.
# 27: Most of us are just comfortable enough to kind of drift along, existing from day to day.
Our comfort zone is often our biggest enemy. Real happiness and real success begins OUTSIDE of your comfort zone.
# 28: It’s much easier to be motivated when you know your spouse and your kids are behind you.
Involve your spouse and kids with your dream and win their support.
# 29: You can make it with just a personal dream, and a lot of people do. But most people perform at their best when they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
Everyone wants to be part of something bigger and greater than themselves.
# 30: How you live and how you conduct your business are more important than the bottom line.
Your integrity is the most important thing. Money doesn’t make a man. It reveals the man.
# 31: The only way not to be controversial is to be average and ordinary.
Whenever you step above the crowd you will have critics. Accept it.
# 32: Once you find your crusade, you’ll never be the same again.
Figure out your life’s purpose as quickly as possible and then get after it.
# 33: A big mistake that people make when they fail in business or even at life is trying to complicate things.
Sometimes things don’t work out. Learn from it, made adjustments, and press on.
# 34: Don’t let your respect for modern technology replace the fundamentals of what will make your business a success. Focus on what generates income, and put your time and effort in this area.
Always focus on the money producing activities.
# 35: In any business, you have to take action.
Nothing beats hard work. Slackers never make it to the top.
# 36: It’s so easy to get sidetracked.
Keep the main thing the main thing. Focus is key. The longer you can stay focused, the higher the likelihood you will eventually succeed.
# 37: The shorter your message, the greater the effect.
Be the messenger, not the message. Keep things simple whenever possible.
# 38: The key is believing in yourself. If you don’t believe in you, no one else will, either.
Have confidence in yourself and know that you are worthy.
# 39: There’s no trick to winning. It’s an everyday, all-the-time thing.
Winning is a mindset, something you do all the time.
# 40: More than 90 percent of winning is being excited, especially when you don’t feel like being excited.
Be enthusiastic. Let your actions control your emotions, rather than let your emotions control your actions.
# 41: Most people can stay excited for two or three months. A few people can stay excited for two or three years. But a winner will stay excited for twenty or thirty years – or as long as it takes to win.
This is one of my favorite A.L. Williams quotes from his book.
# 42: Stop making excuses. An important part of having a positive attitude is refusing to look for or accept a reason not to do it.
You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can’t do both.
# 43: 99 percent of the things you worry about never happen.
Don’t worry so much. Most of the things you worry about will never happen anyway.
# 44: Surround yourself with positive, excited, happy people who love what they’re doing.
You are the result of your five closest friends. Choose your friends wisely.
# 45: No matter what your business or career is, you can’t do it alone.
Surround yourself with people who are better and smarter than you. This increases your value and performance.
# 46: Inside every person is a winner who deserves to be treated as the most special individual on earth.
There is greatness within you. Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses.
# 47: Nobody needs a “boss”; everybody needs a leader.
Inspire others by what you do. Be the Captain, not the dictator.
# 48: People respond better to praise than to punishment.
Say good things to others whenever you can. Look for the good in people. No one is perfect, but everyone has some good qualities.
# 49: People have a way of rising to the level that you set for them.
Have high expectations for everyone you interact with. Believe in others even when they don’t believe in themselves.
# 50: People love being singled out as special.
Treat everyone you interact with as if they are as important as your own mother or daughter.
# 51: A great head coach always gives his assistant coaches and players credit when the team wins…… But also remember that the head coach always takes all the blame when you lose.
Take responsibility for your own life and never pass the buck.
# 52: Withdrawing praise is ten times more effective than criticizing.
This is a smart thing to do.
# 53: The deepest relationships are formed in the tough times.
You never know how good of a friend someone is until things get bad. That’s when people show their true colors.
# 54: Your people are your most valuable asset.
This is spot on advice. Your employees, your business partners, and your customers are your most valuable business asset.
# 55: Quitting is easy. Anybody can quit. In fact, most people do. If everybody out there was tough, dedicated, and determined, the winner’s circle would be a lot more crowded than it is. But it isn’t crowded because most people won’t stick it out long enough to win.
Stay strong and keep going, even when nothing is working in your favor.
# 56: Failure is the halfway mark on the road to success.
You must fail your way to success. Success is never a straight line. It is filled with zigs and zags. You take three steps forward and two steps back.
# 57: The best cure for discouragement is to double and triple your efforts.
Whenever things go badly, work harder and smarter.
# 58: Hanging on in the tough times – that’s the part of success stories you usually don’t hear about.
When things don’t go your way, stay focused.
# 59: Most people get out of business and quit before they give their efforts time to compound.
Starting and succeeding in business is not a lottery or luck. It takes time and hard work to make any business succeed.
# 60: Give yourself time to succeed.
Work hard, but have patience and realistic expectations.
# 61: Just because you love what you’re doing doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to love it, too.
You will always have critics. That’s okay.
# 62: Everybody pays the price.
There are not shortcuts to success. The greater the achievement the greater the price you must pay.
# 63: The millionaires of tomorrow are the bottom of the leader’s bulletins today.
Everyone starts at the bottom and has to earn their way to the top.
# 64: In your business life, 95 percent of the things you do aren’t going to work.
Learn from each mistake. Improve. Get better.
# 65: Everybody talks a good game. But a winner goes out and does something.
Watch the feet, not the lips. Watch what people do, not what they tell you they are going to do.
# 66: Without competition, it’s a thousand times tougher to motivate yourself.
Have competitions and contests with other people whenever possible.
# 67: Your success doesn’t depend on anybody else but you.
You are the captain of your own ship. You are the master of your own fate.
# 68: The people who are real winners aren’t looking for handouts; they’re looking for opportunities.
If you can’t find an opportunity, create one.
# 69: A leader can never show fear, never show hurt, never show quit.
Be the strength for others to follow. Lead by example at all times. Be the lighthouse, not the weather vane.
# 70: All great people had some big setbacks.
There is always a story behind the story. Most successful people went through years of struggle before they eventually succeeded.
# 71: I believe that most people who go into business for themselves fail because they don’t have enough cash flow to survive.
Manage your money wisely. Save up sufficient funds before you start a business. As your business starts to generate revenue, put some money aside to be prepared for the unexpected.
# 72: It’s not how much you earn; it’s how much you keep that counts.
Be a good steward of your own money.
# 73: Time and consistency are the keys to building security in your financial future.
Anything worth accomplishing will take time and effort, normally much more than you think.
# 74: A healthy body is one of life’s most precious possessions.
Take care of your body. It’s the only one you’ve got.
# 75: The first decision you’ve got to make is the decision to change.
Don’t let your comfort zone hold you back. For things to change you need to change.
# 76: Be willing to pay a price. Pick one thing to go for.
Decide what you want and go after it like your life depends upon it.
# 77: No matter how hard you work, no matter how committed you are, everything isn’t going to go the way you planned.
Nothing in life goes exactly as planned. Be determined with your goal, but flexible with your approach.
# 78: There’s no dishonor in failing if you truly give it everything you have.
It’s better to attempt something great and fail than attempt to do nothing and succeed.
# 79: I really believe that nine times out of ten, all you can do is going to be enough.
Do your best and always go the extra mile. Success is simply a matter of time and effort.
# 80: Most people in business judge you by how much money you make….. But there is nothing like feeling good about yourself.
If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life.
# 81: The thing that counts is what that person in the mirror says about you.
Think highly of yourself and don’t sell yourself short. Whatever you think, you’re right. Don’t worry about what others say, think, or do about you.
Other Book Reviews You Might Enjoy
- Book Yourself Solid
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- If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go to School
- Endless Referrals
- The Greatest Salesman in the World
About A.L. Williams
A.L. Williams is the founder of Primerica. He is a respected author, speaker and entrepreneur. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever listened to.
About the Book
This book was published in August 1988 by Thomas Nelson Publishers. It features 219 pages. The ISBN is 978-0840790101. It is available anywhere books are sold. It has a 4.8 star rating on Amazon as of April 2016.
Final Thoughts
In review, these are my top 81 A.L. Williams quotes from his best-selling book “All You Can Do is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do Is Enough!” I give this book a 10 of 10 and consider it a must read for anyone who wants to achieve success and happiness in life.
On a side note, I would love to hear from you. What are your favorite A.L. Williams quotes on this list? Have you read the book before? If so, share your thoughts about it in the comment section below. Have a great day.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
Chuck Here is my email! I asked you for a copy of the 81 quotes from Art Williams book “All you can do…” You said you would email them to me! I appreciate this very much