The Angel Inside – Michelangelo’s Secrets

• According to legend, when a young boy asked the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the block of marble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David, the artist replied, “Young man, there is an angel inside this rock, and I am setting him free.”

Find the Angel Inside You

• Every person has this tremendous capacity to be both king and warrior, a person of value and a person of accomplishment – of beauty and power.

Follow Your own Passion

• There comes a time in every person’s life when they must decide whether they will follow what they want for their life or what someone else wants for their life.

Being confident in your strength

• If you are to be successful, you must find self-confidence in the things that you do well, and then pursue them
• “Here are the words David spoke to Goliath just before he took the sling to him: ‘I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth.’

The Beauty is in the Details

• “The masters, the ones who succeed tremendously  and set the standard for others, are those who master the details.

Your hand creates what your mind conceives

• Our worlds are created through the synchronization of the creative brilliance of the mind and the diligent steadiness and skill of the hand.
• “The marble not yet carved can hold the form
  Of every thought the greatest artist has,
  And no conception ever comes to pass
  Unless the hand obeys the intellect.”

Plan and Prepare

• The lesson is not to move too fast. Fast enough to get where you want to be, but slow enough to do it right the first time.

start with swift action.

• Action is the beginning of accomplishment. Without it, you have only wasted dreams and good intentions.

Embrace the stages of chipping, sculpting, sanding and polishing.

• We must go through the same progression: Chip away what doesn’t belong, sculpt our lives and give them form through the people we associate with and the information (books, for example) we take in, allow the rough spots of our lives to be sanded away through adversity and suffering, and then, only then, are we ready to be polished and let our power and beauty show in all their glory.

• * Books – chance to converse with the author. Author is speaking these ideas directly to me. I react and ask questions in my mind as I read, and this allows me to ‘speak’ with the author. This way, I am not bound by the limitations of time and space. I can be friends with the greatest minds that walk and have walked the earth. I can invite them into my life to challenge my thinking, shape my life and help me become a better person, a more successful person.

• * You can’t be a leader unless you are a reader.
• * Opt for long-dead authors because if their books are still touching and helping people, their ideas must be lasting, and what you are looking for are ideas that have passed the test of time. You should look for timeless content, not vogue content. (classics)

Sometimes success takes years, so be content

• * Sometimes success takes years. It takes methodical action over time.

No one starts with the Sistine Chapel

• * Live your life and do your work in the embodiment of excellence, and opportunities will flow your way. People cannot, they will not, turn an eye away from excellence.