Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Act, God, Purpose, Give, Lies, Soul
Whatever obstacles appear in your path, put your head down and get past them. Those obstacles aren’t real. They’re just God’s way of testing you. He’s asking you, “Do you want to make it or not?”
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Past, God
You have to live your life as if you are already where you want to be.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Life, Live
I knew it was unrealistic to think I could build an institution overnight. But if I took baby steps, eventually it would happen.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: New, Think
In my experience, there’s only one thing that will always steer you toward success: That’s to have a vision and to stick with it… Once I have a vision for a new venture, I’m going to ride that vision until the wheels come off.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Vision, Experience, New, War, Success
Money can’t make you happy. But happy can make you money.
—Russell Simmons
But rich or poor, black or white, none of us are entitled to anything.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Poor, Rich
When I start my day by reflecting on all the things I have to be grateful for, I’ll have a much more rewarding day.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: War
I know some people say “Keep your eyes on the prize,” but I disagree. When your eyes are stuck on the prize, you’re going to keep stumbling and crashing into things. If you really want to get ahead, you’ve got to keep your eyes focused on the path.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: People, Focus
Piling up zeros in your bank account, or cars in your driveway, won’t in and of itself make you successful. Rather, true success is based on a constant flow of giving and recieving. In fact, if you look up affluence in the dictionary, you’ll see its root is a Latin phrase meaning “to flow with abundance”. So in order to be truly affluent, you must always let what you have recieved flow back into the world.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Abundance
Always focus on your effort, instead of the results of that effort.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Focus, Results, Effort
The thing about hip-hop is that it’s from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.
—Russell Simmons
The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words man, (“to think”) and tra (“tool”). So the literal translation is “a tool of thought”. And that’s how mantras are used in Buddhist and Hindu practices, as tools that clear your mind of distractions. Because when you focus on repeating that mantra over and over again, soon the noise will die down and all you will hear is your inner voice.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Mind, Think, Practice, Focus, Act, Action
The person who understands Dharma will have the opposite reaction to a “hard” job. That person will be eager to get started, no matter what kind of work is in front of her, because she understands that she’s doing God’s work. And when you’re working for God, nothing is too hard.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Action, Kind, God, Work, Act, Doing
The key ingredient to any kind of happiness or success is to never give less than your best.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Give, Best, Happiness, Kind, Success
The pain that’s created by avoiding hard work is actually much worse than any pain created from the actual work itself. Because if you don’t begin to work on those ideas that God has blessed you with, they will become stagnant inside of you and eventually begin to eat away at you. You might seem OK on the outside, but inside you will be ill from not getting those ideas out of your heart and into the world. Stalling leads to sickness. But taking steps, even baby steps, always leads to success.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Create, God, Pain, Heart, Success, Act, Work
Jesus and Muhammad didn’t reveal themselves to prove what they could do. They revealed themselves so you could see what *you* can do.
—Russell Simmons
In the end, the overriding factor in whether or not you realize your dreams is going to be you. Not the world. YOU.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Dream, Dreams, Act
If you aren’t passionate about a vision, it’s hard to have faith in it.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Passion, Vision, Faith
Age ain’t nothing but a number.
—Russell Simmons
A clear and focused mind will last a lifetime. Getting your mind in shape is nothing less than the key to sustainable success in the world.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Mind, Success, Life, Focus
You’ve got to tell God thank you every day.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: God
I don’t believe that people create their own visions. Rather, I believe that visions are actually God’s way of communicating with us.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Vision, Create, People, Believe, God, Act
In the yogic tradition, this principle of using intense effort to burn through life’s distractions is called Tapas. It’s another Sanskrit word, roughly defined as “heat” or “essential energy”. The concept is that through a disciplined approach to work and self-sacrifice, Tapas will burn away the negativity that separates us from God. By working our hardest and happily enduring the hardships of life we are able to create a sense of peace and clarity in ourselves.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Energy, Act, Sin, Create, Peace, Work, Life, God, Effort, Action
What holds most people back isn’t the quality of their ideas, but their lack of faith in themselves.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Faith, People
Any kind of lasting success is rooted in honesty.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Kind, Honesty, Success
I’m just suggesting that when you’re faced with fear and anxiety, don’t medicate. Meditate instead.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Anxiety, Fear
Live your life as if you already are where you want to be.
—Russell Simmons
It’s important to focus on what we do best and master one craft at a time.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Master, Focus, Best
Always try to be yourself.
—Russell Simmons
Topics: Try
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