I took test next day and got an "A". From that day on, I realized that circumstances and events around us somehow reflected our inner landscape. That perspective is important and by changing way I look at my world, I could change my very world.

Decades have come and gone since that first year in college. I have acquired various degrees in chemistry, mathematics and business and have worked in hallowed halls of corporate America. I have written best-selling books and have lectured from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco, California; from Bali, Indonesia to Bombay, India.

There are many things I have done and still many more I have left undone. Yet, wherever I go or whatever I do, I use as one of my guideposts in life, "It's better to light one candle than to curse darkness." Those words have stood me in good stead through darkest nights of my soul.

I heard again Dr. Dooley's voice when I stood at deathbed of my wife. It kept my company through loss of my business. It was with me when my car was repossessed and when they foreclosed on my house.

Times have changed dramatically since my journeys through "Valley of Shadow." But have times really changed or have I changed way I look at things? Life is a lot more pleasant now or could it be that I have learned how to look at life differently?

Change way you look at life and life will appear way you look at it. Look for good in everything and good in everything will look right back at you. The way I figure it, you could berate thorns on rosebush or tenderly pick a rose and enjoy its beauty.

Perspective, choose it and use it. Use it or lose it. The Universe is biased on your side. Trust process.

Perhaps we should look to several examples as to why this is true. First, very often we want quickest results possible. Knowing this is case, accepting that having stick-to-it-ness necessary to achieve greatness isn't all that glamorous. Perhaps it is easier for us to simply say, they were lucky then to say, "If they can do it, I can learn from this persons example and achieve similar results in my given area of endeavor."

In looking not to just end result, or glamorous rewards often associated with success stories of other people, but also in hardships they had to endure we can gain a needed strength. It is from that very strength that I believe we can in turn move closer to our own definition of success.

The next time you hear someone calling a person’s achievement lucky, I hope you will do both yourself and other person a big favor and disagree with them wholeheartedly. Remind then that far more likely then simply "luck" was all effort that we may not even be aware of that went into getting them to where they are now.

It's a simple shift in way we choose to view things, but it is a shift that gives us power and knowing that we are as capable as anyone when it comes to reaching our dreams and desires.

-- Here's wishing you great success, Josh Hinds