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xeford2020 · 4 years ago

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Oh, the Places We’ll Go: Why Education Is Pivotal for Launching a Self-Driving Service

By Brittany Pauley, Washington, D.C. Market Manager, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC

A Ford self-driving test vehicle operating in Washington, D.C.

Self-driving vehicles will change how we view and utilize mobility services, from the seamless experiences that take people and packages from point A to point B to how they will ultimately help make our lives more efficient and enjoyable — especially as time behind the wheel comes back to us to be used in new ways we’ll get to choose.

While self-driving cars will present new opportunities for cities, businesses and individuals, there is still a lot of apprehension about the technology. PAVE, or Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, found in a recent survey that 48 percent of people in the U.S. said they would never get in a taxi or ride-sharing vehicle that was self-driving. So, how do we overcome this fear and change perception?

Just like the many transformational technologies that have come before autonomous vehicles, the burden is on us, as one of the leading technology creators and future mobility service providers, to inform and educate people across all age levels so they can better understand this complex technology and new way to move.

With nearly half of the U.S. population indicating high apprehension about autonomous technology, any effort to inform and educate must include reaching people in numerous ways, even on individual levels. Over the last year, I had the opportunity to work with high school senior Seth Sabar through a mentorship program. Here is Seth’s take away on his experience and how he went from being skeptical to confident in self-driving vehicles.

Seth Sabar is a senior at School Without Walls High School, a public magnet school in Washington, D.C. He will attend Brown University and major in mathematics. In his free time he enjoys playing piano and playing sports with friends.

As a senior at School Without Walls High School, everyone is required to take on a year-long project focusing on solving a real-world problem. While brainstorming the seemingly countless problems facing the world, car accidents was top of mind for me. Almost everyone has either experienced a car accident or knows someone who has been in one. My grandmother broke her arm in a crash and my mom had a classmate in high school who was killed by a drunk driver.

Seth Sabar, a senior at School Without Walls High School in Washington, D.C

In fact, more than 30,000 people died in the U.S. from car crashes in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But how can we change this? What is the solution to prevent crashes from happening when most are caused by human error? As I did more research on the topic, it became clear that autonomous vehicles were the front-runner. Don’t get me wrong, I was skeptical about the technology at first. But, this was something I wanted to dive deeper into as part of my senior project.

I reached out to the D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development because I wanted to connect with someone in the self-driving vehicle sector — that’s how I met Brittany Pauley, Ford’s Washington D.C. Autonomous Vehicle Market Manager. She became my mentor and advisor throughout the year for my various projects, but also educated me on the world of self-driving vehicles and the work Ford is doing in my hometown of Washington D.C.

When I first told my class about my senior project idea, one of the biggest criticisms of autonomous vehicles I heard from classmates was: What if the technology fails? This was one of my biggest concerns, too.

So, what changed my mind? With the help of the Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC team, I educated myself on the technology, learned how it is being built to operate better than a human driver and came to understand that experts are thinking about various scenarios that could happen if you are in a vehicle without a safety operator — which makes me trust this technology even more. Ultimately, knowing Ford is also collaborating closely with the District or City of Washington D.C. on how this technology will be rolled out meant something to me. In fact, the collaboration with the local government helped build my confidence.

Through all of my research I decided to draft a federal bill for my project (and sent it to a few Think Tanks) titled the “Advancement of Autonomous Vehicle Education, Safety and Technology Act.” In the past, lawmakers have passed bills to mandate seatbelts and airbags — technologies that have been proven to make cars safer. I thought to myself “autonomous technology is another safety mechanism, so why can’t we pass legislation on it too?” While I know there is work being done at both the federal and local level, I wanted to shed light on some ideas I think are important, including creating a new sub-agency in the DOT that solely works on autonomous vehicles. My goal is to have my ideas considered and incorporated into potential bills that are likely being worked on already.

In order to make self-driving vehicles a success, we have to educate people on what they are capable of and how well they are being designed. I had the opportunity to argue in favor of this technology to my fellow classmates and therefore believe continuous education is key to earning consumer trust — this could include town halls in the community and even classes where students can learn about how technology is becoming intertwined with their lives. Most importantly, communities need to be reassured that jobs will be created, not taken away.

I knew this technology was complex and challenging but over the last eight months, my biggest takeaway was how close we are to self-driving vehicles becoming a reality. In the near future, autonomous vehicles will be among the leading discussions within governments and communities across the country.

On top of self-driving vehicles’ potential to help save lives, I am also excited to see their ability to reduce traffic. This is especially exciting as someone living in D.C. Anyone who lives here knows how painfully slow D.C. traffic is during rush hour. With the goal of self-driving vehicles to reduce single-vehicle riders, and increase coordination among them autonomously, the issues D.C. faces with congestion and emissions could be curbed significantly. I think everyone, but especially those who live in cities like D.C. with a lot of traffic, should be excited to see the impact of autonomous vehicles on traffic — and I believe it will positively impact hundreds of millions of Americans.

I plan to study mathematics in college and it’s exciting to know how integral math is in the development of self-driving technology. As I look ahead, I am excited to explore how I can use math to tackle some of the challenges facing autonomous vehicles and maybe even pursue a job in the field.

I enjoyed studying self-driving vehicles over the last year and learning more about how they are being built to help make our lives easier. Thank you to the Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC team and Brittany for taking the time to educate me on this incredible work being done to change the future of transportation.

Oh, the Places We’ll Go: Why Education Is Pivotal for Launching a Self-Driving Service was originally published in Self-Driven on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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apathetic-revenant · 7 years ago

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by the skin of your teeth (part 4)

in a shockingly unrealistic and out of character move, Ford actually sits down and explains something.

“His name is Bill. Bill Cipher.”

Ford said the words in a low, furtive voice, as though fearful of being overheard.

“Bill?” Stan said. “A demon named Bill?”

“Technically ‘demon’ is only a convenient appellation. More accurately, he’s an extradimensional being of pure energy. But, yes, the name is somewhat underwhelming. I assure you the rest of him is...not.”

Ford paused to take a cautious sip of the water Stan was making him drink. Between the illness, the apparent blood loss from... something, and Ford being Ford and probably trying to survive entirely on spite and academia, Stan was surprised his brother had any fluid left in him at all. He didn't know how to treat whatever it was Ford had, but he knew something about being dangerously dehydrated, after Arizona.

He'd gotten Ford back onto the couch and wrapped in the blankets and, for good measure, had cleaned the blood off his face. Ford's eye was bloodshot and weepy, but he'd assured Stan it wasn't his fault.

“It happens,” he'd said. “When...when he possesses me.”

Somehow this didn't make Stan feel much better.

“Okay,” he said when Ford didn't say anything for a minute, “so... how'd you get involved with this...Bill?”

Ford shifted uncomfortably and started chewing on his lip.

“I made a terrible mistake,” he said.

Well. Yeah, Stan thought. Obviously.

“I... I've been in Gravity Falls for six years now,” Ford said. “I moved here right after college. I got a research grant to study this place, you see…”

Stan blinked. “Study...this? What the hell is there here to study?”

“A lot more than you would think. Gravity Falls has the highest concentration of anomalies in the world. It's really quite amazing…”

“Anomalies? Like what?”

“Anything you could imagine,” Ford said, continuing to be spectacularly unhelpful. “I've encountered amazing creatures, evidence of alien life, magical artifacts, the undead...and there's still more to find, I'm sure. I haven't even begun to catalogue it all.”

“Wow,” Stan said weakly. “That's… really something.”

“Indeed.” Ford took another drink, wincing slightly, from nausea or pain or some uncomfortable memory, Stan couldn't tell. “But I couldn't find the reason for it. I knew there had to be some explanation, some theory as to why weirdness was attracted to this place. But it eluded me. And I...I was getting desperate. That was when I...encountered Bill.”

There was a story and a half loaded into encountered, but Stan didn't pursue it. Ford was obviously pushing himself to the limit to say this much as it was.

“He...he tricked me,” Ford said haltingly. “He told me…”

Stan waited.

“He told me he was a muse,” Ford said at last. His voice was thick with bitterness. “That he picked one great mind in a century to inspire and that I was it. He flattered me and I fell for it like the damn fool I am.”

Stan let out a long, slow breath. It wasn't really surprising. He hated to admit it, but in many ways his brother made for a damn easy mark. Ford was brilliant beyond belief, but he had always had a dangerous blind spot when it came to dealing with people.

When they were kids, Stan had been both shield and interpreter for Ford, standing between him and the outside world that his brother so often struggled to cope with himself. Ford was the smart one, the worthy one, the important one, but once upon a time that had been okay because there were still things Stan could do that Ford couldn’t, still a space left for him that his brother didn’t occupy. Once upon a time they had balanced each other out.

Only that balance had shifted, and there seemed to be less and less space for Stan-less and less reason for Stan- and he had panicked, and he had ruined everything. Ruined it more than he’d even realized, because not only had he trashed Ford’s college dream, he’d left him alone and vulnerable. He hadn’t been around to protect Ford, to do the only thing he’d ever been good for.

He’d told himself Ford would be fine. Ford didn’t need him anymore. Ford didn’t want him anymore. He’d lived ten years on the belief that his brother would carry on just fine without him. That was what he had been planning to do anyway, that was what he had been doing more and more as they grew older. Except it turned out Ford had needed him-and he hadn’t been there.

Then again, could Stan really say that things would have been better if he’d been there? After all, he had an uncontested knack for screwing up everything he touched; perhaps things would have gone even worse if Stan had been around to interfere.

“Look, I know it’s…” Ford began. “It’s...whatever you’re going to say, I can assure you I’ve said to myself already.”

Stan snapped out of his reverie. “What?”

“I was arrogant, and stupid, and I, I know that, you don’t have to-”

“Ford,” Stan said slowly, still struggling to keep up. “I wasn’t gonna say any of that.”

Ford blinked in that owlish way he had. “Oh. Er...what were you going to say?”

Stan shrugged. “Nothing, actually.”

“Oh,” Ford said. “...Right.”

He coughed and hastily took a drink of water to cover the awkward silence.

“Anyway,” he said eventually. “Needless to say, he was...not as benevolent as he made himself out to be.”

“Yeah,” Stan said. “I kinda got that.”

“Indeed.” Ford looked away. “He...he inspired me to build the portal, you see...gave me ideas, blueprints, details. He told me it would unlock the secrets I was looking for. But when we went to test it, there was...an accident. That was when I started to get suspicious-”

“Hang on,” Stan said. “We? There’s other people involved in this?”

Ford began to twist the end of one of his blankets. “Just one. I called in an old college friend to help me with some of the engineering on the portal. But when we activated it the first time for a test run he...he got tangled in the lines and pulled in...I managed to pull him back out but he saw...something on the other side. I don’t know what. I...I don’t want to think what.”

He swallowed another gulp of water, his other hand wrapping tighter and tighter around the blanket.

“He’d been...suspicious for a while, he’d tried to warn me, but I ignored him. I ignored him and he paid a terrible price for it.”

Stan had a sudden image of the melting Nazis from that adventure flick he’d caught a while back.

“Uh,” he said, trying to shoo that thought aside, “what kind of terrible price are we talking here, exactly?”

Ford shook his head. “I’m...not sure of the extent of it, to be honest, but whatever he saw... there was clearly some kind of damage to his mind. He was deeply shaken and upset... he left the project then and there, and I haven’t seen him since.”

“Oh. Alright.”

Ford frowned at him. “I’m serious, Stan. What happened to him-”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I’m not laughin’ or anything,” Stan said quickly. “It’s just-when you said ‘paid a terrible price’, I was wondering if there was a body to hide or something.”

“Stan!”

“Or if maybe you had him in a straitjacket down in that basement somewhere-”

“Stan!”

“Well I don’t know, Ford! I mean you’re talking about demons and horrible accidents and all that-”

“Alright, alright!” Ford was starting to look sick again, but when nothing happened Stan decided it was probably more emotional than physical. “There’s...there are no bodies to hide...as far as I know.”

“Well that’s reassuring,” Stan muttered.

“Anyway, that was when I truly began to grow suspicious,” Ford went on hastily, clearly eager to get away from this whole topic. “I confronted Bill and he admitted...no, he gloated that the entire project had been a ruse from the start. That what I had actually constructed was a means for him to enter our dimension and take it over.”

“That sounds bad.”

For a moment the look on Ford’s face was so familiar that Stan felt a strange swell of amusement and nostalgia and heartache. How many times had he seen that exasperated look, prompted by the stupid remarks he usually made while Ford tried to explain something?

“It’s indescribably bad,” Ford said tightly. “It would mean the end of the world as we know it.”

Stan whistled.

Ford gave him a narrow-eyed look suggesting that he still didn’t think Stan was taking this seriously enough. “That’s why I have to dismantle the portal before he can use it for his nefarious plans. And why I need you to take that journal somewhere safe. It contains research that must not fall into the wrong hands.”

“World-ending research?”

“...Potentially.”

Stan blew out a breath. Well, that put getting banned from 90% of the United States in some perspective.

“Okay,” he said, holding up his hands in what he hoped was a calming gesture. “You, uh...you understand, I’m not going to do anything, I just...this is just an honest question, okay?”

Ford nodded warily.

“Why not just destroy this journal? If it’s so dangerous.”

Ford’s hands tightened around his glass. “It’s my research, Stanley. It’s too valuable, I, I can’t-you can’t-I might need it later, I don’t know, I don’t know what might be in there that could be vital to fixing all this, but I can’t just leave it...if Bill found another pawn, if he got the information to someone else-I don’t know-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay.” Stan put his hands on Ford’s shoulders, steadying him; Ford was starting to shake again. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna destroy it, okay? I’m sorry for that, I just...I got mad, and...but I won’t, alright?”

Ford nodded jerkily. They sat there for a minute as Ford’s quickened breathing started to return to normal.

“So...what’s your plan?” Stan said eventually, pulling away again. “I mean, do you have a plan? Aside from getting rid of the book?”

Ford ran a hand through his hair, like it wasn’t messy enough already. “I’m...there are some caves nearby, where I first found the, um...the clues of Bill’s existence. I’m going to go back there, see if there might be anything helpful. I was just waiting for you to get here…”

Stan squinted at him. “So...your plan is to hope there’s something useful in a cave.”

“Well if you have a better idea I’d like to hear it!” Ford snapped, an angry flush creeping up his face-although under present circumstances, this only brought him back up to a normal complexion.

Stan took a few deep breaths, but oddly he found that the waspish remark didn’t irritate him nearly as much as it usually would. Maybe he was just too damn tired.

“I’m...sorry,” Ford said after a minute. Stan looked up in surprise to see Ford actually looking a little sheepish. “I acknowledge that it’s not the best plan, but I don’t know what else to do.”

Well, that was unexpected.

“‘S alright,” Stan said. “But...Ford, y’know, you barely even made it from the kitchen to here. You...you’re not up to crawling around caves right now. And that’s not even advice or anything, it’s, I mean, it’s just...it’s not gonna happen.”

Ford rubbed at his eyes and sighed heavily. “I don’t have much of a choice. The longer I wait, the more dire things get. I just...I just need to rest a bit and then I’ll go.”

Stan just barely managed to restrain himself from groaning out loud. Ford would try to go spelunking in the midst of an Oregon winter while too sick to stand upright. He would.

“Yeah, and how are you going to do that?” he said. “You’re the one saying you can’t sleep.”

“I can’t. Staying awake is the only way I can prevent Bill from possessing me. I can’t take the risk that he might...that he…”

Ford trailed off, working his lower lip in his teeth and staring into the middle distance. Stan waited a moment before waving a hand in his face. “Hello? Ford? You still here?”

“That’s it,” Ford said, more to himself than to Stan. “That’s it...Stan! Tie me up!”

Stan took a moment to process that one. It didn’t really help. “You what?”

“I can’t stop Bill taking me over while I’m asleep, but if you’re here...if you can restrain me…restrain him...he would be, would be...severely limited.” Ford swallowed. “I...I could sleep. Without...without setting him loose. As it were.”

“Oo-kay,” Stan said slowly. “You’re saying you want me to, what...chain you up like a werewolf?”

“Stan! Would you please be serious about this?” Ford considered for a moment. “Besides, it’s much more like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Stan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright. Alright. This...this is weird. This feels weird. But it’ll get you to sleep?”

“It’s the only thing I can think of,” Ford said.

There was a note in his voice that made Stan look up. Ford tended to avoid outright emotional displays when he could, especially anything like fear or pain. Partly it was just because he had all the prickly dignity of a damp cat, but mostly, Stan knew, it was because Ford couldn’t stand to show anything remotely like vulnerability.

They had that much in common.

But right now desperation and fear were written all over Ford’s face, impossible to miss, and there was a pleading note in his voice like nothing Stan had ever heard from his twin.

“Please, Stan. I...I don’t think I can stay awake all night. I’m trying but I...I…”

He trailed off hopelessly.

And by the looks of things, he was right, too, Stan thought. Ford looked like he was on the brink of collapse. Sooner or later-most likely sooner-he was simply going to shut down.

Stan squared his shoulders. “Alright,” he said. “You got any rope?”

They were unable to figure out a way to secure Ford to the couch, so they adjourned to what Ford insisted was the living room. Stan couldn’t really tell the difference between it and the rest of the house, but there was, at least, an armchair there, covered in a heap of papers and books. Ford haphazardly stacked them nearby while Stan untangled the length of rope Ford had found on top of a bookcase, along with a dead houseplant, a pair of wire cutters, and what looked like a human skull. Stan hadn’t asked any questions.

“So,” he said, as Ford dusted off the chair-a fairly useless endeavour- “does, um, Bill...he doesn’t have, you know, super strength or anything? He’s not gonna just bust outta this rope, is he?”

Ford dropped down into the chair. “No. Bill is essentially limited to the constraints of the body he is possessing.”

Stan raised his eyebrows. “Essentially?”

Ford looked away, working his jaw and refusing to meet Stan’s eyes.

“Bill is...not deterred by pain or...other sensations,” Ford said at last. “He can still feel it, but he is not, erm, particularly bothered by it. In fact he...he finds pain to be...interesting. Amusing, even.” He took a deep breath and hurried on. “I haven’t exactly been able to extensively test this, but my, er, belief is that he would therefore be able to...push beyond limits that I could not. But he is still fundamentally unable to do anything that I would physically be incapable of.”

“Ford,” Stan said, cutting off Ford’s rambling before it could really get going. “Is this...does this have to do with why you’re out of bandages?”

Ford didn’t reply for so long that Stan began to wonder if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open.

But finally he said, in a voice so low it was barely audible,“Bill...enjoys inflicting various minor injuries on me when he is in control. Mostly just for his own entertainment, but sometimes...sometimes to make a point.”

Stan clenched his fists and ground his teeth until his jaw ached. He could feel the same old anger that had always swallowed him when he saw someone trying to hurt Ford, that had gotten him more detentions and reprimands and bloody noses than he could count because when Ford was in danger Stan went in swinging without a second thought. He’d never regretted it either, no matter the consequences, no matter what punishment Stan took for Ford, no matter if even Ford himself was angry at him afterward. None of that mattered, because no one hurt Ford on Stan’s watch and that was the end of it.

But now he didn’t know what to do. There was nowhere to put that anger, no target to lash out at. He didn’t even really know if this was anything other than a byproduct of some illness, some delusion that had driven Ford to hurt himself.

“Stan,” Ford said. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not alright,” Stan ground out. “Nothing’s alright.”

Ford sighed. “Well...regardless, there’s nothing to be done about it at the moment. It’s a minor problem, really.”

“Only you, Ford,” Stan muttered, twisting the rope around his hands. “Only you would call this a minor problem.”

“It is a minor problem compared to the other problems at the moment.” Ford finally looked up and met Stan’s eyes. “I’m...I’m more concerned that he does not hurt you again.”

Stan didn’t really know what to say to that.

“Now, if you would, please,” Ford said.

Stan sighed and crossed over to the armchair.

“Now listen,” Ford said as Stan tied his arms behind the chair, doing his best to make the binds gentle but still effective, “I’m sure that Bill will try to trick you in some way. He’s a master of manipulation and trickery. So it is vitally important that you do not trust anything he says and above all do not make a deal with him! Do not shake his hand! No matter how harmless it might seem, it will certainly be a trap. Don’t engage with him at all if you can help it, in fact. Maybe you should gag me as well,” he added as an afterthought.

Stan rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna gag you, Ford. This is weird enough already.”

“Stan, the weirdness of the situation is inconsequential if it could thwart Bill��s plans!”

Stan groaned and checked the knots before moving on to tying Ford’s legs. “Okay. Is the very real possibility of you throwing up again consequential?”

“...I can put up with that if need be.”

“Yeah, well I’m not gonna. Look, Ford, I’m not making any deals with anyone, okay? I know something about liars, ya know?”

Ford grumbled vaguely. “Maybe, but Bill’s powers of persuasion are-”

“Ah, shut up and tell me if these knots are tight enough.”

Ford struggled valiantly, but the knots held to Stan’s satisfaction.

“You’re quite good at this,” Ford muttered.

“Yeah, well. Life of crime and all that.”

In point of fact, most of what Stan knew about tying knots came from their old days of working on the Stan o’ War, but he didn’t feel like bringing that up right now.

“Alright,” he said, coming out from behind the chair. “You...uh...comfortable?”

“As much as I think I could be in this situation.”

Stan put some blankets over him. It almost made the whole setup look normal.

“So uh, is there like...some way I can tell for sure if, you know, it’s him and not you?” he said as he took Ford’s glasses off and put them on top of the nearest pile of stuff. In truth, he didn’t think he really needed it; that too-wide grin and grating voice and overall sense of wrong would be pretty damn difficult to miss, especially once he was watching for it. But maybe it would make Ford stop panicking about Stan making some kind of a deal with the devil. Or at least, make him panic a bit less.

Ford stared at him.

“What?” Stan said.

“You...you didn’t notice?”

“Notice what?” He was starting to get a bit unnerved by the way Ford was looking at him.

“My eyes. In the kitchen, you didn’t...you didn’t see…?”

“What-oh, you mean the bleeding? Yeah, of course, but that didn’t happen until after-”

“No, not the bleeding! My eyes!” Ford was starting to sound almost frantic. “You didn’t notice anything about my eyes while Bill was-was-”

Stan shrugged. “Uh, well, I guess I did think they looked a bit weird, but I couldn’t really tell…”

“Stan, when Bill is...is in control of someone, their eyes always appear yellow, with slitted pupils. It’s...you really didn’t see that? At all?”

“It was dark, okay? And I was bit distracted, you know? I’m sorry!”

Stupid stupid stupid just like you just like always you never notice anything important you never get things right-

Ford blinked. “Stan, I’m not...it’s not…” He swallowed, and for the first time Stan realized that the look on Ford’s face was closer to horror than anger.

“You really didn’t know, did you?” he said. “You really...you really must have thought that...that was me.”

“Well...well, yeah, Ford, I thought you...I mean, I told you that.”

He couldn’t quite figure out the look on Ford’s face. He wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“Stan…”

“Oh, go to sleep already.” Stan turned away and began clearing out a space on the floor. “Tell me if you need anything.”

There was a heavy silence for a time.

“If this were much prolonged,” Ford muttered, startling Stan into knocking a whole stack of books over, “the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown…the power of voluntary change be forfeited.”

“What,” Stan said.

“Nothing. I was just thinking…” Ford yawned heavily. “...thinking about...Jekyll and Hyde.”

Stan rolled his eyes and went back to stacking.

“You know, the thing about Dr. Jekyll...” Ford said a moment later, “the thing about Dr. Jekyll…”

When there was no apparent follow-up to this Stan turned just in time to see Ford’s eyes close and his chin fall to his chest. He assumed that was the end of it, but as he looked away Ford spoke again, in a sleep-heavy mumble so low Stan could barely make it out.

“The thing about Dr. Jekyll was...he brought his curse on himself.”

Stan waited for a while, but Ford said nothing more.

Stan himself was achingly tired, but though he laid out the remaining pillows and blankets into something halfway comfortable, he had no real intention of sleeping. He couldn’t, really, not with the imminent promise of a reappearance from Bill hanging over him.

He wanted nothing less than to ever see that mocking facsimile of his brother again, but he knew he had to at some point. He had to know what was he was up against, what Bill really was, if there really was something supernatural at work or if this was all some strange sick delusion of Ford’s.

He had to know, before he could sleep, before he could do anything else, if it had really been Ford holding the knife all along.

He expected a long wait, but Ford had only been dozing for a few minutes when his head snapped up so suddenly that Stan jumped.

“Well, isn’t this cute!” Bill-and it was Bill, whatever Bill was, oh yes, because there was that grin- twisted and thrashed about, but the knots held firm. “You’re actually trying to stop me! Or did you just get tired of dealing with ol’ Fordsy and decide to put him out of the way?”

Stan wanted to either flee the room on the spot or punch Bill again, but instead he stood up and flicked on the overhead light. He had to get much closer to that grinning face than he wanted to make out the eyes. Damn his lousy eyesight anyway.

Ford’s pupils had contracted down to long slits like the eyes of a rattlesnake, and the usual warm brown had turned a bright, bright yellow.

The sight made something cold zap down Stan’s spine. He tried to think if he’d heard of anything-a drug or a sickness or something-that could make someone’s eyes change like that, but he had a sinking feeling that there was no such thing.

Well. Shit.

“Well, I guess I can’t fool you anymore!” Bill said cheerfully, and Stan drew back at once. “Good job! Brownie points for you! You’ve found out that I am not really your brother! Honestly, I was started to wonder how long it’d take you to notice, whew-”

“Uh-huh.” There was a lamp nearby that had been knocked onto the floor at some point but was still plugged in. Stan put it up on a box next to the chair and turned it on. The warm glow cast a better light on Ford’s face than the watery overhead light, and it grated less against the pounding headache he had picked up somewhere along the way.

“Buuuuuut that doesn’t mean you and I can’t still be friends,” Bill went on as Stan settled back in his spot. “I know, I know, I tried to kill you, but look-that was ages ago, and anyway, what’s a little murder between friends?”

“We’re not friends,” Stan snapped before he could stop himself. Dammit, Stan, don’t banter with the demon.

“But we could be!” Bill finally stopped twisting around against the ropes and fixed Stan with his spotlight stare. “Look, let’s have a talk, you and me, huh? I’m sure your beloved brother probably told you all kinds of terrible things about me. But why should you trust him? I mean really, after all this time, you think he has your best interests at heart?”

“Not listening,” Stan muttered, pointedly looking away. “Do-de-do, not paying attention to the creepy demon guy…”

“Aw, c’mon, there’s no need to be like that,” Bill said. “Listen, maybe I missed the mark earlier with that whole being forgiven thing. That’s not what you want? I got more! Did I mention wealth? Power? Fame and fortune?”

“Yeah,” Stan said. “You did mention all that.”

“So? All you gotta do is throw your lot in with me instead of your dumb brother. That oughta be easy, right? He betrayed you! Threw you to the curb, left you in the lurch, flicked you off like a scab and left you to rot for ten years! He only called you here so you could do something for him! Why would you turn around and help him now, huh?”

Stan gripped the edge of a pillow and looked away.

“Oh! Ohhhhhh!” From the corner of his eye Stan saw the glaring yellow eyes widen in realization. “I get it! You don’t want to reconcile-you want revenge! That’s what it is, isn’t it? You wanna get back at him for everything he cost you! Well that’s easy! No problem! Hey, I’ll even give you a free sample! You can punch him right now! No charge, no deal required, c’mon, it’s on the house!”

Bill raised Ford’s chin and waggled his eyebrows at Stan in a come-and-get-it expression that made Stan’s skin crawl.

He could see a black eye forming where he had punched Ford-no, Bill-earlier. By the looks of it it was going to be a beauty.

“Hey,” he said. “You know what I want?”

Bill dropped his chin and grinned. “Oh, I know a great many things, Stanley. But I’ll bite. What do you want?”

“It’s not money.”

“No?”

“It’s not power.”

“Really?”

“Not fame either, I definitely don’t need that.”

“Well, what is it?” Bill snapped. “You gonna tell me or what?”

Stan finally looked him right in the eye. “I want you to get the fuck out of my brother and haul ass back to whatever slimy hellhole you crawled out of in the first place.”

For a moment Bill simply stared at him with total incomprehension. Then the anger hit his stolen face like a lightning strike.

Bill tilted Ford’s head back and screamed, a high, horrible, throat-tearing sound of pure fury.

Stan waited it out, smiling tightly.

He’d been afraid. Not that he would have admitted it, but truthfully, he’d been terrified, terrified of once again encountering that nightmare of Ford, terrified that he was going to see that looming shadow at the back of his mind made manifest and this time discover that it had been real all along.

But it...wasn’t. Bill resembled that nightmare, but only in the same way he resembled Ford himself: a shallow mockery that was easily exposed. He might have said some of the same things Stan had dreaded over the years, but it sounded brittle and fake coming from him, with none of the dark weight that that nightmare brought with it.

And besides...Bill had given up. Bill was screaming and frothing in anger and that wasn’t like the nightmare at all. The nightmare never got angry. It didn’t have to, because it never lost.

“YOU PATHETIC, INSIGNIFICANT MEATBAG!” Bill raged. “WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I’LL STRING YOUR SUFFERING OUT FOR MILLENNIA! YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU COULD DIE!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Stan muttered, reaching for his bag. “Heard that one before.”

“YOU’VE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING LIKE ME BEFORE YOU DISGUSTING LITTLE STICK OF FLESH! I CAN DO THINGS THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR MIND CURDLE LIKE ROTTEN MILK-”

The contents of the bag were a jumbled mess, and it took Stan an earsplitting minute or two of rifling before he pulled out the Walkman. He’d stolen it from some rich asshole that had pushed him into a gutter while he was panhandling, intending only to get some revenge and quick cash, but he’d wound up liking the thing too much to give it up. Stupid, really-it would have been more sensible to sell it. Music wouldn’t put gas in your car or food in your stomach, after all. Hell, sometimes it stole your girlfriend. But it was...nice. A small luxury to hang on to.

He put the headphones in, cranked the volume up all the way, and grinned triumphantly as Bill’s ranting was drowned out by Queen.

A master of manipulation and trickery, huh? Well, Bill would have to step up his game if he wanted to take in Stan Pines.

The demon kept it up for a while, but by the end of the second track he was clearly flagging. When the noise finally died out about halfway through-appropriately enough-Sheer Heart Attack, Stan looked up to see Bill glaring at him, chest heaving with exertion. There was blood trickling from Ford’s eye again, and saliva dribbling from the corners of his mouth.

For a moment Bill just sat there, furiously gasping for breath, and then at long last he slumped forward and went still.

Stan waited briefly to see if this was going to last, and when it seemed like it was, he walked over and gently lifted one of Ford’s eyelids. Beneath was a bloodshot but otherwise normal brown eye.

He let out a breath and went to dig up a box of kleenex he’d seen earlier.

Ford blinked once while Stan was wiping the mess off his face and let out a quiet, slurred, “Stan?”

“It’s alright,” Stan said. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mmpfh,” Ford mumbled, and promptly dropped off again.

Stan tossed the bloody tissues away and went back to his makeshift bed. He meant to stay awake, to keep watch in case Bill tried anything else, but the little circle of lamplight was still and quiet and warm in the wake of the little space heater, and it had, after all, been a tremendously long day…

#gravity falls #gravity falls fanfic #fanfic #scribulations #by the skin of your teeth #some precision swearing in this one #things I had to look up for this chapter:#Queen albums #when Walkmans came out #which snakes have slitted pupils #how long it takes a black eye to form #(didn't actually get an answer on that one)#and the original text of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde #oh and exactly when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out

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johnark · 6 years ago

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I have just finished reading James Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty. There are quite a few points I gleaned from this book. First, Comey makes it clear to the reader that he is a man of great integrity and unimpeachable character. Soon the book introduced the era of USA torture, murder and illegal, secret prisons. Back when it was going on with Cheney – Bush and we knew about it, I looked into who could have created a legal opinion justifying this activity. I couldn’t find any info along this line. Evil is evil. You can’t justify evil by saying “it’s not as evil as it could have been, or as evil as it was before or we needed it as a matter of national security.” Torture is illegal. It is immoral. It is in violation of USA law and the Geneva Accord, which we signed. There is no way it can be justified or legalized. After it was all over and Cheney - Bush were gone, some low-level names began to become known – Comey’s name never came up. Now, by his own admission, we know he was right in the thick of it. Integrity? Character? He participated in “legalizing” it. I put him right in there with Cheney – Bush. Another now prominent figure is in the thick of this by his own indirect admission. That is the now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He was Bush’s Legal Secretary during this time. This meant that all documents to and from the White House passed through him and many of the WH documents were created by him. He bragged under oath to the congress during his confirmation hearings that he was with President Bush this whole time and “went everywhere with President Bush.” So Kavanaugh was at the center of this illegal activity. It is no wonder that both former President Bush and Trump quickly invoked executive privilege when an attempt was made to acquire the about 102,000 documents in Kavanaugh’s ‘Bush file.’ The information in these documents would surely negatively expose all three of them - Bush, Cheney and Kavanaugh. Also, regarding Kavanaugh, I believe Christine Blasey Ford. In response to the accusations against him, Kavanaugh launched into an angry, aggressive, vitriolic, chaotic, tantrum brimming with rambling sarcasm, scorn and conspiracy theories. This appalling partisan rebuttal to the accusations brought by Ford was disgusting. Certainly not the conduct and temperament you would expect from a Justice of the Supreme Court. Incidentally, I also believed Anita Hill in the confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas. The Thomas rebuttal to Hill’s testimony is eerily similar to the Kavanaugh diatribe. Thomas had Senator Orin Hatch’s angry, aggressive support. Kavanaugh had Senator Lindsey Graham’s angry aggressive support. I can’t help but wonder if the Thomas case was a template for the Kavanaugh case. Neither Kavanaugh nor Thomas should be on the Supreme Court. A supreme court judge should be above reproach in all things in addition to being a judicial intellect. OK. Back to this book. Judging from his book, Comey holds most politicians in very low regard. Hillary among them, and further than that I think he is and was prejudiced against Hillary. He was involved in the Clinton ‘Whitewater’ investigations. He was involved with Kenneth Starr in his Clinton investigations. No convictions after years of hard work. He prosecuted Marc Rich, oil trader and big Clinton donor, and after years of work, convicted him of tax evasion and trading with Iran. Rich fled to Switzerland and was given safe haven. Later Comey and a team went to Switzerland thinking to bring Rich back to the USA. That fizzled. And just before Bill Clinton’s second term ended, Bill pardoned Rich. Comey then investigated the Clintons’ and Mar Rich’s ex-wife for a potential illegal contribution to the Clinton Library. Again after lots of work, no criminal liability was found. Years and years and years of hard work on Clinton related potential prosecutions, resulting in nothing – absolutely nothing. When Hillary was NY Senator and Comey was US Attorney for the Southern District in NY, Hillary refused to meet him. With this background, and there is even more that I don’t mention, I definitely feel that Comey was and is prejudiced against Hillary Clinton. Now I come to the salient point in all this ‘Clinton – Comey’ dialog. Comey states that on 6 July 2015, he received a referral from “the inspector general of the intelligence community” regarding Secretary Clinton’s possible mishandling of classified information while using her personal email system. Is there some reason why Comey doesn’t state in the book “referral from the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Jim Clapper?” He mentions the agency and person like this later on in the book. Was this referral really from Jim Clapper, of from some GOP political faction? Anyway, four days later, on 10 July 2015 a criminal investigation was opened. This entire investigation, another year plus, of Comey investigating Clinton matters, is quite interesting with lots of very interesting points. I’ll make only one. In one email that was made public the dialog on the page appeared like this:

According to the media the FBI said this indicated that the material was classified as c for confidential. I would interpret this as item c of items a, b and c in that document. I have seen a lot of confidential material and that is not the way confidential material is identified. Anyway, I fast forward. On 1 November 2015 during the campaigning for president (Comey I), Comey disclosed to the media that Hillary was under investigation regarding possible misuse of classified information. It is not written in the FBI mission statement, but it is unwritten policy that the FBI will make no announcements or statements during an election that could in any way influence the election. This quickly became one of the main topics of debate, if it wasn’t already. Although the FBI knew their conclusion in May, they waited until 5 July 2016 (Comey II), four months before the election, to disclose that the one year investigation found nothing illegal. However, the intense political rhetoric on the topic continued. On 28 October 2016 (Comey III), 11 days before Election Day, Comey announced that he was reopening the “Clinton email investigation.” Political rhetoric exploded. On Sunday, 6 November 2016, with the election on Tuesday, 8 November 2016, Comey announced that he was closing the investigation, again, and for a final time, this time. For Comey, this was another year and a half investigating the Clintons and no conviction. However, I think that this time he delivered a blow to the Clintons that far surpassed any result that he could have achieved through the courts. He deprived Hillary of the office of President of the United States. I think he knew this as he did it. I think he believes that his actions tilted the scale for Trump. Hillary says that she thinks that. I also think Trump thinks that. Then why did Trump fire him? Trump thought Comey knowingly tipped the scale in his favor, that Comey was ‘one of the team.’ Observe how Trump actively tried to pull Comey closer into the ‘inner circle’ with several one on one meetings and a personal one on one dinner. That first meeting that Comey had with Trump in NY’s Trump Tower was very interesting. Trump really looked like he thought Comey was “one of the team.” Perhaps Comey knew at that time that a Trump presidency was a disaster, not worth getting the satisfaction of finally getting to whack the Clintons. However, I think that after Comey met Trump and personally discovered without question the type of person he had helped to put into the White House, he realized what a blunder it was. Trump demanded loyalty. Comey could not play the game, and in fact criticized Trump in front of Reince Priebus in the Oval Office on 8 February 2017. That was the end for Comey. Trump then ‘fired with malice’ the Director in such a way as to humiliate him. Comey got the news via TV when he was delivering a speech in LA. Trump intended to cut him loose with no security and no secure transport back to Washington. Andrew McCabe was elevated to Director with the firing and he authorized security and secure transport back to Washington – just as if Comey was still Director. This infuriated Trump and McCabe was soon out the door as well. And with more malice than with Comey. Trump fired McCabe on the day before he was to retire. Don’t cross Trump in any way or there will be dire consequences. The ego demands it. Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State, remarked in a conference at the Pentagon that Trump was a moron. He learned of his dismissal on TV, as did Comey. He was replaced by Mike Pompeo, a guy who apparently has kissed the ring. H.R. McMaster, former NSA Director, remarked in a private dinner that Trump was an idiot. He was replaced by John Bolton, another guy who apparently has kissed the ring. Anyway, it is now obvious that only those who stroke his ego and never, never ever criticize him in any way will remain long in the inner circle.

On Page 213 in the book, the first mention of the Steele Report appeared in a conference with President Obama on 5 January 2017. I say ‘appeared’ because here is the way it was presented. Clapper explained to Obama that here was an unusual matter that needed to be brought to Mr. Trump’s attention: additional material – what would become commonly called “the Steele dossier” – that contained a variety of allegations about Trump.

Steele said that he shared his information with the FBI in the summer and fall of 2016, well before the election. Steele came to believe that the FBI was concentrating resources on the Clinton/email matter and giving little if any attention to his information and in fact that people in the FBI were blocking an investigation of the material rather than pursuing an investigation. He thought they were influenced by Rudy Giuliani, a Trump advisor at the time. At any point there was no real investigation of the material in the report. Comey certainly didn’t deal with this “dossier” with the same zeal he used on the “Clinton referral.” Comey continues in his book The material had been assembled by an individual considered reliable, a former allied intelligence officer, but had not been fully validated. The material included some wild stuff. Among that stuff were unconfirmed allegations that the president-elect had been engaged in unusual sexual activities with prostitutes in Russia while on a trip to Moscow in 2013, activities that at one point involved prostitutes urinating on a hotel bed in the presidential suite of the Ritz-Carlton that the Obamas had used while on a visit there. Another allegation was that these activities were filmed by Russian intelligence for the possible purpose of blackmail against the president-elect.

Many people will think that this is just too weird, too preposterous to be factual. Regrettably, I think this is just the kind of crude, obscene, perverted, vindictive activity that Trump would initiate. On 30 April 2011 Obama had ridiculed Trump at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. Trump has boycotted the event since then. Trump’s ego will allow no limits to his vindictiveness, even in a petty way. I also think that is why he is so determined to unravel anything and everything that he can that Obama accomplished as President. If the Ritz-Carlton event really happened, we can be certain that Putin has a video of it. Putin political opponents and former KGB agents verify that recording prominent foreigners in Russia is standard procedure for Putin. Just in case it can be useful at some time.

Back to the Steele Report, Jim Comey was assigned by James Clapper to present the material in the Steele Report to Trump in one of their one on ones. Trump really seems to like these one on ones. Trump took it all in with denials, of course, thinking that Comey was on the team. The ‘on the team’ status began to unravel with a one on one private dinner at the White House on 27 January 2017. Trump wanted Comey to commit to personal and FBI loyalty to him. Comey was well aware at this time who the man he was dealing with really is. The dinner consumes eight pages in the book and clearly reveals Comey’s opinion of Donald Trump. Comey said that there wasn’t a dinner conversation, not a lecture either, just Trump rambling, often repeating lies that he had told and that were proven as such. Trump said that he needed loyalty, that he expected loyalty. Comey said that he wasn’t on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense. At one point Trump brought up what he called the “golden showers thing” (if he called it that, then he was certainly not naïve regarding this activity) and said that it bothered him if there was even a one percent chance that Melania thought it was true. Doesn’t this Trump statement tell us something? Trump’s “on the team” view of Comey certainly dimmed at this dinner. Then it was completely extinguished with Comey’s critical remark to Trump in the Oval Office on 8 February 2017.

Comey states in the Epilogue to the book: Donald Trump’s presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation. We all bear responsibility for the deeply flawed choices put before voters during the 2016 election (note, he includes Clinton here), and our country is paying a high price: this president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty. We are fortunate some ethical leaders have chosen to serve and to stay at senior levels of government, but they cannot prevent all the damage from the forest fire that is the Trump presidency. Their task is to try to contain it.

There is something else in Comey’s book that is unrelated to the 2016 election and Donald Trump that is interesting and merits contemplation. That is the contrast between Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby and David Petraeus. Martha Stewart was suspected of insider trading. The FBI could not prove that, but did convict her of lying to the FBI. She was sentenced to five months in federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia which she served. Scooter Libby was Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. Cheney – Bush were quite busy fabricating WMD information to support an illegal invasion of Iraq: in violation of the UN Charter and in violation of USA law. There were phony centrifuge claims, yellow cake in Niger, etc. They sent Joe Wilson to Niger; but he would not play along and reported there was no attempt by Iraq to buy nuclear material and that in fact Niger had none. The CIA (Valerie Plame) disputed the centrifuge fabrications. This surely infuriated Cheney and surely he disclosed (or ordered the disclosure) of Valerie as a covert CIA agent. This would accurately reflect his vindictive, revengeful nature. Disclosing the identity of a covert agent is a criminal offense. Joe and Valerie were married and this ended both careers. Obviously Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby fell on his sword for Cheney. After a three year investigation, Libby was convicted of lying to federal investigators, perjury and obstruction of justice. George Bush commuted his sentence and Trump pardoned him. And incidentally Cheney-Bush had Colin Powel go before the UN to “make the case for war” with Iraq with all the WMD material they had fabricated. Everyone who was observing the facts knew this was not flawed intelligence, but rather fabricated information. The USA media went along with it. The European media disputed all the claims almost immediately. In the USA only the AP, Reuters and the UN Atomic Energy Commission stuck to the facts which indicated that Iraq had no WMDs, was not trying to acquire them, and the entire country was in a shambles due to the sanctions. Now to David Petraeus of military fame in Iraq. He became Director of the CIA after Iraq and Afghanistan and it was in that role when he disclosed top secret information to his girlfriend and even allowed her to photograph some of it. He then lied repeatedly to the FBI about all of it. He was given a plea agreement. He admitted guilt and agreed to a $40,000 fine and probation for two years. Stewart – Libby – Petraeus, all guilty of lying to the FBI and two of them of much more. Only Stewart goes to prison. What’s the difference here? Along this train of thought, Oliver North could also be included.

Comey commented in his book about the size of Trumps hands. In this case this is certainly a crude, naughty, profane statement.

However, here in the Trump era this sort of commentary seems to be widely accepted. Rude, crude humor previously was confined to private conversations even that which is subtle. Now, thanks to The Donald, it seems to be the norm in all levels of media. Remember, this began on national TV during the campaign debates. Now we see it in a best seller book.

#ComeyTrumpClintonCheney #Comey*Trump #JohnArk20 #6Oct2018

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unixcommerce · 5 years ago

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105 Success Quotes to Help You Achieve Greatness

What’s the key to success? Is it hard work, motivation, tenacity or perhaps a good idea? Taking the sage advice of those who have already achieved success can be one of the best ways to accomplish it yourself.

If you’re looking for motivation to help you achieve greatness, use these motivational success quotes below to inspire your new daily affirmations.

Success Quotes to Inspire You Towards the Next Level

You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. ~ Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

If we win the hearts and minds of employees, we’re going to have better business success. ~ Mary Barra, General Motors

The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. ~ Warren Buffett, American Business Magnate

Just because you are a CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that. ~ Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo

Find something that you love to do, and find a place that you really like to do it in. I found something I loved to do. I’m a mechanical engineer by training, and I loved it. I still do. My son is a nuclear engineer at MIT, a junior, and I get the same vibe from him. Your work has to be compelling. You spend a lot of time doing it. ~ Ursula Burns, Xerox

Success can be attained in any branch of human labor. There is always room at the top in every pursuit. ~ Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist

Growth and comfort do not coexist. ~ Ginni Rometty, IBM

I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that. But I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying. ~ Jeff Bezos, Amazon

We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes — understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success. ~ Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post

Leadership Success Quotes to Draw Inspiration

Success depends on effective leadership. The success quotes below offer inspiration from great established leaders.

I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. ~ Steve Jobs, Apple

Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career. ~ Meg Whitman, Quibi

The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” ~ John D. Rockefeller Jr., American Financier

It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.” ~ Warren Buffett, American Business Magnate

Before you are a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is about growing others. ~ Jack Welch, General Electric

Whenever I meet a successful CEO, I ask them how they did it. Mediocre CEOs point to their brilliant strategic moves or their intuitive business sense or a variety of other self-congratulatory explanations. The great CEOs tend to be remarkably consistent in their answers: They all say, ‘I didn’t quit.’ ~ Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz

Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success. ~ Biz Stone, Twitter

Stay hungry, stay foolish. ~ Steve Jobs, Apple

Impossible is only an opinion. ~ Anik Singal, Lurn Inc.

Even during a mid-life crisis do not deviate from your goal. History remembers only those who succeed. ~ Hockson Floin

I admire people who are very successful. But if that success has been achieved through too much ruthlessness, then I may admire that person, but I can’t respect him. ~ Ratan Tata, Tata Sons

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. ~ Warren Buffett, American Business Magnate

Motivational Quotes to Keep You Moving Forward

When it comes to achieving success, you can’t have too much help. These success quotes by those that have been there can provide the motivation needed to help you achieve your next goal.

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it. ~ Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder Cosmetics

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite. ~ G.K. Chesterton, English Writer

If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. ~ Steve Jobs, Apple

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. ~ Colin Powell, U.S. Army Four Star General (Retired)

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. ~ Coco Chanel, Chanel

There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them. ~ Seth Godin, American Author

I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it. ~ Susan Butcher, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Winner

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. ~ Will Rodgers, American Actor

The only way around is through. ~ Robert Frost, American Poet

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. ~ Albert Schweitzer, Theologian

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! – Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company

I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. ~ Oprah Winfrey, Philanthropist

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill, British Politician

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it. ~ William Durant, American Auto Industry Pioneer

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Edison, American Inventor

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. ~ Richard Branson, Virgin Group

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. ~ Henry David Thoreau, American Poet

None of us is as smart as all of us. ~ Ken Blanchard, The Ken Blanchard Companies

Success Quotes to Help You Keep it all Together

True leadership lies in guiding others to success–in ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. ~ Bill Owens, American Photographer

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. ~ Peter Drucker, Author

Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership. ~ James Humes, Author

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. ~ Arnold Glasow, US Businessman

The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them. ~ John Maxwell, Author

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult. ~ Warren Bennis, Author

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. ~ Ralph Nader, Political Activist

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. ~ Jack Welch, General Electric

Success Quotes from Lessons Learned

On your journey towards greatness, there will be some stumbling blocks and failures along the way. These success quotes include insights to help you over those hurdles.

Its’ fine to celebrate success, but it’s more important to heed the lessons of failure. ~ Bill Gates, Microsoft

When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue. ~ Josh James, Omniture

Success depends on employees. For me knowing and connecting with my employees is very important. ~ Divine Ndhlukula, DDNS Security Operations Ltd

Make something people want, including making a company that people want to work for. ~ Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad

Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that. ~ Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine

Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you. ~ Mark Cuban, American Entrepreneur

If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don’t particularly like. ~ Soichiro Honda, Honda

If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble. ~ Omar Hamoui, AdMob

If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out. ~ Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us. ~ Angelo Sotira, deviantART

Be courageous – Look for opportunities to put your hand up and have a go. Back yourself. ~ Gail Kelly, Westpac

Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work. ~ Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you. ~ Tony Hsieh, Zappos

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ~ Bill Gates, Microsoft

Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” ~ Jack Dorsey, Twitter

There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions – in a way that serves the world and you. ~ Richard Branson, Virgin Group

Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea. ~ Mark Pincus, Zynga

Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that. ~ Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late. ~ Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. ~ Steve Jobs, Apple

Always deliver more than expected. ~ Larry Page, Google

What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed. ~ Dave Thomas, Wendy’s

Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be. ~ Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal

Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors. ~ Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz

Inspirational Quotes from those that Have Been There

Reading the right words can go a long way in lifting your spirits. If you fancy your chances in the ever changing world of entrepreneurship, these success quotes can inspire you to great new heights.

Entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create. ~ David Karp, Tumblr

In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination. ~ Steve Case, AOL

Empower yourself and realize the importance of contributing to the world by living your talent. Work on what you love. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you. ~ Catharina Bruns, WorkIsNotaJob

It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. ~ Scott Belsky, Behance

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over. ~ Warren Buffett, American Business Magnate

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. ~ Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

Don’t let others convince you that the idea is good when your gut tells you it’s bad. ~ Kevin Rose, Digg

Everything started as nothing. ~ Ben Weissenstein, The Entitled Group

Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. ~ Howard Schultz, Starbucks

Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities and don’t let the bastards get you down. ~ Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg L.P.

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. ~ Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics

You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end. ~ Jessica Herrin, Stella & Dot

The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something. ~ Seth Godin, Squidoo

When you are building a startup, it’s difficult. Particularly, a startup that is expanding at the rate of Tinder. You have to give 100%, and you have to be committed. Solving the problem has to be personal or else you’re going to disintegrate. ~ Sean Rad, Tinder, Inc.

If we tried to think of a good idea, we wouldn’t have been able to think of a good idea. You just have to find the solution for a problem in your own life. ~ Brian Chesky, Airbnb

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. ~ Herbert Swope, American Journalist

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. ~ Sam Walton, Walmart

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. ~ John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States

Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers. ~ Simon Sinek, Author

Management is focusing on getting someone to get a result. Leadership is producing a standard in someone that when you’re gone, they will live by to produce higher level results consistently. ~ Tony Robbins, Life Coach

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. ~ Woodrow Wilson, American Politician

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. ~ Warren Bennis, American Scholar

Don’t find fault, find a remedy. ~ Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company

Leadership is knowing when to lean on others and let them step up and shine. ~ Michelle Peluso, Gilt

If you enjoyed these success quotes, you can find more motivational quotes for business in our image gallery:

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Images: Crello

This article, “105 Success Quotes to Help You Achieve Greatness” was first published on Small Business Trends

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