“The Strangest Secret”

Conn-Selmer Providence Public School District

August 4-7, 2009
Providence, Rhode Island

Dr. Frank Tracz

Director of Bands
Kansas State University
 “The Strangest Secret”
• Facts:
• YOU: 19 - 22 years old

• 5%:Will achieve “their” success!

• 95%: Will fail!

 Success
• Definition:
– “Success is the progressive realization
of a worthy ideal.”
– Earl Nightingale

– “The opposite of courage in our society

is not cowardice…it is conformity.”
– Rocco May
 Successful People Are…

• …the schoolteacher who is teaching school

because that’s what she wanted to do.

• …the woman who’s a wife and mother because

she wanted to become a wife and mother
and is doing a good job of it.

• …the man who runs the corner gas station

because that’s what he wanted to do.
 Successful People Are…
• …the successful salesman who wants to
become a topnotch salesman and grow
and build with his organization.

• …anyone who is doing deliberately a pre-

determined job, because that’s what he
decided to do - deliberately.

• 1 in 20 does this!!!!!!!!!

• What is the key?????

 Goals!
• Some have them.

• Some do not.

• Why do some succeed? Fail?

Keys to Success and Failure
• “We become what we think about.”
• “Your life is what your thoughts make of
it.”
• “You are what you think about all day
long!”

“The greatest discovery of every generation

is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering their attitudes of mind.”
– William James
“ If you on ly care en ou gh for a res ult,
you will almos t certai nly at tain it. If
you wish to be ri ch, you will be ri ch.
If you wish to be learn
lea rn ed, you will be
learn ed. If you wish to be good, you
will be good. On ly you mus t then
real ly wish thes e things , and wish
them exc lusi vel y, an d not wish at the
same a hu ndred other inc ompatible
thing just as strong ly.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peel
said this:
“This one of the greatest laws in the universe.
Fervently do I wish I had discovered it as very
young man. It dawned upon me much later in
life, and I found it to be one of the greatest, if
not my greatest discovery outside of my
relationship to God. And the great law briefly
and simply stated is that if you think in negative
terms, you get negative results. If you think in
positive terms, you will achieve positive results.”

That is a simple fact which is at the basis of an

astonishing law of prosperity and success.
In 3 words: “Believe, and succeed.”
“People are always blaming their
circumstances for what they
are. I don’t believe in
circumstances. The people who
get on in this world are the
people who get up and look for
the circumstances they want,
and if they can’t find them,
make them.”

-George Bernard Shaw

 “How” Does it Work?
• The mind:
Garbage in, Garbage out.

• Most of us only use 10% of our

abilities.
 Decide Now!
• What is “IT” you want

• Control your thinking to get “IT.”

• Use Your talents.

 “We Become What We
Think About”

• What do you think about?

– When?

– Why?
 Action Ideas to Make it
Work for You!
1. Control your thoughts and control
your life.
2. Realize your limitations are self
imposed.
3. Be courageous, imaginative, and
ruthless in pursuit of your goals.
4. Save 10% of what you earn, realize
the potential of your tomorrow.
 Work Sheet
• Each of us wants something and is
afraid of something.

• Write down what you want more than

anything else.

• Work to NOT think about what we are

afraid of.
The Secret?

Purpose
and
Faith
 Simply Put…
Think about…
“Past” = Guilt!

“Future” = Worry!

“Present” = PASSION!!
You don’t MAKE success…

…You EARN it!

 Dr. Frank Tracz, Ph.D.
Director of Bands
Kansas State University

Ftracz@ksu.edu
(785) 532-3816