John Gokongwei Quotes

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

The most successful people in the world aren't usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere.

Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.

What people call success is only preparation for the next failure.

Study people's success stories hard. Study their failures even harder.

When people don't understand that being uncomfortable is part of the process of achievement, they use the discomfort as a reason not to do. They don't get what they want. We must learn to tolerate discomfort in order to grow.

Somebody told me that if you wake up every day and do stuff that's easy, then you're doing the wrong thing. If you wake up every day and do stuff that's really hard and you manage to get through to people, then you're doing the right thing. They might have just fooled me by telling me that, but it worked. I think that's my philosophy.

Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts.

I love to hear stories about people who got to places where they are today. Those kinds of things are very interesting to me.

Persisting through lesser difficulties builds your capacity to persist through greater difficulties, and achieve even greater things.

I'm in no way suggesting that I succeed, but it's inspiring to read somebody who does succeed and from whom, in a general way, you can draw examples and nourishment and sustenance.

I learned that hard work and self-discipline can overcome many obstacles.

My life was lucky so that I met, I loved (and disappointed) only outstanding people.

Adversity is something that makes reaching your goals so much more rewarding than if it didn't exist.

Even if you're the greatest of all time, people are not just going to give it to you. It's a great lesson.

People respond to a guy who is trapped and succeeds on some level and fails on another.

Being a successful person is not necessarily defined by what you have achieved, but by what you have overcome.

What is failure? We can’t possibly know what failure is. Most people think they do, but that’s because they’re judging how their lives should be and what they need it to be: a success. Who is to say what’s a success and what’s a failure? Do your best. Trust. Relax. Do your best. Enjoy yourself.

When people 'succeed' they tend to party, when they 'fail' they tend to ponder.

I just look back on my season [2004] as a year where I've had to prove myself. I've had to fight all the way through to the end.

Looking back, I've learned the most from the bad coaches, really, how not to act, how not to coach, how not to treat people. So I always say no matter what situations you're faced with, how bad it is, you can always walk away and learn. You can always rise above it.

Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one 'dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.

No one can take away the days that we conquered.

You give up on what you need to be doing because you forget that you're worth it. This is why most people aren't leading exemplary lives...You have to believe in yourself so much that you're willing to do what's uncomfortable, time-consuming, inconvenient, and on occasion seemingly impossible. When you don't believe in yourself this much, pretend.

So I learned that the people who make the most of the process of encountering reality, especially the painful obstacles, learn the most and get what they want faster than people who do not. ... In short, I learned that being totally truthful, especially about mistakes and weaknesses, led to a rapid rate of improvement and movement toward what I wanted.