What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself?
Recorded Elan Lee said elsewhere, not written here
There’s a few that are immediate, because he just drilled them into my head. One is “Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.” Try as hard as you want to market something, get a crowd. That’s what actually matters. Another one that he still says all the time is, “You’ve got a violin, I’ve got a barn. Let’s put on a show. Don’t overthink this, just go.

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 4 February 2023 source ↗

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Sachin Tendulkar India Test and one-day international cricketer, 1989–2013
He gave me freedom at the age of 11, and told me that [I should] chase my dreams, but make sure you do not find short cuts. The path might be difficult, but don't give up, and I have simply followed his instructions. […] Every time I have done something special [and] showed my bat, it was [for] my father.
Recorded Farewell address, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, The Hindu, 16 November 2013 source ↗
Norman Borlaug Plant pathologist and agronomist; Nobel Peace Prize, 1970
Oh, my granddad was ahead of his time. He was always in favor of education. My dad and mother were too, but Granddad was very aggressive in that. You know, as he used to say, “You’ve got to fill your head with new ideas so you can use them later to improve your own status and that of the neighborhood.”
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 12 May 2008 source ↗
David Oyelowo Actor, director and producer
“David, you are going to walk among kings.” This was my mum’s prophecy when I was small. My father is from a royal family in Nigeria, so I interpreted it that way. Remarkably, she was right: I went on to play King Pelasgus, Henry VI, Martin Luther King and Seretse Khama.
Recorded The Observer / The Guardian, 19 April 2025 source ↗
Jimmy Carter 39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
I thought often during my years in the White House of an admonition that we received in our small school in Plains, Georgia, from a beloved teacher, Miss Julia Coleman. She often said: "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2002 source ↗

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