Success and Effort

The axis: success as method, perseverance, and the long horizon — or a cult of
effort that breaks against non-action, measure, and the futility of striving.

Success is method and perseverance

Hill (hill) — success is a method, not luck: a definite chief aim, organized effort, and persistence decide the outcome. Grounding: uspekh-eto-metod-a-ne-udacha, tsel-dolzhna-byt-opredelennoy, nastoychivost-reshaet-iskhod.
Smiles (smiles) — genius is patience: the world has been moved by men of average abilities and untiring perseverance; the power lies in little things. Grounding: genij-eto-terpenie, perseverance-and-application, sila-v-malom.
James Allen (james-allen) — there is no achievement without sacrifice; it is the vision held, not the idle wish, that becomes reality. Grounding: net-dostizheniya-bez-zhertvy, voploshchaetsya-videnie-a-ne-prazdnoe-zhelanie.
Wattles (wattles) — thought without personal action is barren: act efficiently now, where you are. Grounding: mysl-plyus-lichnoe-deystvie, deystvie-v-nastoyashchem, effektivnoe-deystvie.

Success is patience, service, and freedom from the fear of failure

Rockefeller (rockefeller) — there is no short road to success: patience, a long horizon, and the ripening of the business. Grounding: net-korotkoj-dorogi-k-uspehu, terpenie-i-dlinnyj-gorizont, vyhazhivanie-i-terpenie.
Ford (ford) — do not fear failure: failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently; start with the product and strip away the superfluous. Grounding: ne-bojsya-neudachi, nachni-s-izdeliya-ubiraj-lishnee.
Franklin (franklin) — method instead of impulse: a scheduled day and an account of the virtues; the endeavour matters more than perfection. Grounding: metod-vmesto-poryva, scheme-of-employment, stremlenie-vazhnee-sovershenstva.

Against the cult of effort

Laozi (laozi) — resolute effort destroys what grows of itself; strength pushed to its limit turns against itself. Grounding: wuwei, fan, predel-i-mera.
Schopenhauer (schopenhauer) — striving is insatiable and futile: satisfaction yields no positive good, and the yardstick of success is false. Grounding: futilnost-stremleniya, schaste-otritsatelno.
Goethe (goethe) — unqualified activity ends in bankruptcy: activity requires knowledge and measure, and fullness comes only within limits. Grounding: deyatelnost-trebuet-znaniya-i-mery, ogranichenie-i-masterstvo.

Axis of dispute: Laozi against Hill and Smiles — non-action against organized
effort; Schopenhauer against the whole success camp — the futility of
striving; Goethe holds the middle position — yes to activity, no to
measurelessness.