Avenues to Success Notes

How long is a subscription good for?

Once a person is enrolled to receive Avenues to Success, the subscription is good as long as we have a valid email address for him/her.

An address can be changed at any time by emailing me a note. Usually, on the 17th of each month, there is a reminder that the address can be changed in the body of the message.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
     - Mark Twain, Author, Samuel Clemens (1835-1910)

Do you send to school email addresses during summer brake?

We continue to send the daily inspirational messages using the college email address. Before the summer break, these students are sent a message to give them the option to give us an alternate address that they are using during the summer.

If the address is not changed, and we receive five consecutive server messages indicating a filled box, emails will be suspended until the start of the fall session. This will help the server by reducing the saved messages in a box that is not being used. It also reduces the risk of being classified as a spam mailing.

Students can permanently change their email address at this time, if they wish.

"Living is... not being sure, not knowing what next or how...
The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
      - Agnes de Mille, American Dancer, Choreographer, Writer (1905-1993)

Where do you get your quotes?

As of this date, I've collected nearly 5,000 quotations to help my subscribers, and I'm happy to say that very few of them came from searching the web for quotations. There are some great sites that I do occasionally use, but mostly to find out some background information on the author.

I like to use quotes found in books and magazines I read. This lets me find words of wisdom in context and select them if I feel they would be of value to my daily Avenues. For example, take the quote:

"You cannot teach a man anything . . . You can only help him to discover it within himself."
     - Unknown.

I have it classified as a Leadership Avenue. What are the chances of finding it searching the various sites using "leadership?"

This is one of my favorite times of the year for new quotes. Commencement speeches offer a great source for advice to help the college student succeed as they enter the next phase of their life. The speaker will offer quotes that he's found for the occasion, but every so often he or she will have a gem of their own.

Looking for my inventory this way takes longer, but it is much more rewarding to me and the students and others Avenues to Success serves.

College Parents of America

College Parents of America is a great organization for parents of prospective college students and support for parents of current college students. I urge you to visit their website, College Parents of America - A national membership association serving current and future college parents, for more information and to join to receive some of the fine benefits they offer. 

just because it is right

"The ultimate experience is when you do something, not for acknowledgment or to get something, but just because it is right. And that will only come about when you've had the experience of caring at a deep level. That is where fulfillment comes from."

     - Tony Robbins, Motivational Author, Speaker

all of us need both love and charity

"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing, and therefore all of us need both love and charity."

     - Eleanore Roosevelt

The true leader serves.

"The true leader serves. Serves people. Serves their best interests and in so doing will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated be loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price."

- Eugene B. Habecker, Author, 30th president of Taylor University, having assumed the presidency on August 15, 2005.

Who can enroll to receive Avenues to Success?

Anyone can enroll to receive Avenues to Success.

The primary market to benefit from the service is the college students. However, we realize the  quotations are also meaningfull to anyone interested in personal development, and we welcome them to join us.

Even though they may not be enrolling because of a particular sponsor, a subscriber can choose a listed sponsor or enter their own college choice to receive a portion of the subscription price.

"Fortune favors the brave."
     - Proverb

Why did you choose Courage, Honor, Integrity, Leadership, Persistence and Personal Relationships as your Avenues?

Courage, Honor, Integrity, Leadership, Persistence, and Personal Relationships are the keystone Avenues that I base my daily quotations on.

When I began sending my daughter the daily quotes during her first year at the US Coast Guard Academy, she was living a life alien to the one she left at home. She was also an environment that is designed to foster qualities in character.

I could have subscribed her to a free daily quotation service, but you never know what topics the emails may cover, and chances were good that they would have ads that would be distracting. So I decided to find quotes that were relative to what she may be experiencing. It was imperative that the topics be focused and relevant.

Here is why I choose the main Avenues:

Courage: The realities of a military life and the harshness for the environment would mean facing tough situations and choices.

Honor: She would be following The Honor Concept prescribed at the Academy.

Integrity: The characteristic that is fundamental to Honor and life.

Leadership: What it take to develop men and women you are associated with.

Persistence:  The will to meet the challenges.

Personal Relationships: We do not live in an isolated world; what we do has consequence affecting each other.

When you think about these Avenues to Success, you can see how they are intertwined and work with each other in personal development.

I felt my daughter could benefit by learning more about these qualities and when I decided to expand Avenues to Success, I realized that they would help other students, too. 

"It wasn't the reward that mattered or the recognition you might harvest. It was your depth of commitment, your quality of service, the product of your devotion -- these were the things that counted in a life. When you gave purely, the honor came in the giving, and that was honor enough."
     - Scott O'Grady

Self-confidence means faith in oneself . . .

Self-confidence means faith in oneself and in his own powers and abilities. It does not mean an exaggerated opinion of one's qualities, but rather a true estimate of what he can do and a belief that he can do it. Self-confidence derives its greatest value from the fact that it causes a person to undertake difficult tasks, to stay with them until they are successfully completed.

     - Dr. Barton Morgan