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174 quotes, page 4 of 6Starting again
After redundancy, a move to a new country, an illness, a mistake or a long gap. A second start is still a start.
We say who really said each one, and where the credit is uncertain we tell you. Every card is ours to share.
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture (2008)
A failed driving test or theory test is a brick wall. Rebook it.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Death: The Final Stage of Growth (1975)
Hospice and care teams are full of people who came back from loss. It shows in their care.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 5.6 (1921)
Each new word of English you learn widens the jobs you can apply for.
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
Workers who speak two languages are a real asset in hospitality and care. Mention it.
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
Attributed to Charlemagne. Widely attributed; the original source has not been traced.
Learning English as an adult is hard work. It also opens a second working life.
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
Frank Smith, To Think (1990)
Put every language you speak on your CV, even a basic one.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (1883). Written for the Statue of Liberty.
Many who arrive with little become the backbone of their trade. Make new arrivals welcome.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)
Mixed teams from many countries learn from each other every shift.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
John Powell, The Secret of Staying in Love (1974). Often credited to Henry Ford.
A disciplinary is a bad day. Learning nothing from it makes it a bad year.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
Attributed to Laozi. Not found in the Tao Te Ching.
Letting go of the old title is often the first step into a better role.
“Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.”
Edmund Burke, as widely quoted
Even on the low days, send one application. Work carries you through the mood.
“And lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.”
Rudyard Kipling, If (1910)
Lost a business? Starting again on the tools is honest work and nobody needs a long story.
“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley.”
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (1785). 'Gang aft agley' is Scots for 'often go wrong'.
Plans fall through for everyone. Have a plan B job in mind before you need it.
“Once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.”
Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy (1990)
Sometimes the right job and the right moment do line up. Be ready when they do.
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
Said to yourself before a hard first day, it can steady the nerves.
“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Attributed to Dolly Parton. She has used the line, but it was in circulation before her.
The better job often comes after a run of rough ones. Hang in there.
“Little by little does the trick.”
Aesop, The Crow and the Pitcher
Rebuilding after debt, pay by pay, works like the crow dropping pebbles in the jug.
“When the old man at the frontier lost his horse, who could say it was not good fortune?”
Chinese saying, from the Huainanzi (2nd century BC). The old man's lost horse came back leading another.
Losing a job can lead somewhere better. Wait and see before deciding it was a disaster.
“When Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil.”
Mencius, Book 6 (Legge translation)
Hard years in heavy work can prepare you for running a team one day.
“Patience is the key to relief.”
Arabic proverb (As-sabr miftah al-faraj)
Visa paperwork and DBS checks take time. Patience gets you to the first shift.
“Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
Attributed to Rumi. A Coleman Barks rendering, not a literal translation.
The skills from your old job come round again in the next one, in another form.
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on.”
Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat, Edward FitzGerald's translation (1859)
The past is written. Read it once, learn, and turn the page.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
A year of uncertain work can be followed by a year of clear direction. Hold on.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin, As Much Truth As One Can Bear (1962)
Open the letters, check the bank balance, then make a plan. Facing it is the first step.
“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Losing a job you defined yourself by can show you who you are without it.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
Attributed to Carl Jung. Widely attributed; the original source has not been traced.
Your record, your redundancy, your gap: none of them decides who you become.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person (1961)
Admitting you need to retrain is where the retraining starts.
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
Attributed to George Bernard Shaw. Widely attributed; the original source has not been traced.
A new career is made, course by course and shift by shift.
“Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all.”
G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905)
The week everything looks hopeless is exactly when another application matters.
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.”
G. K. Chesterton, All Things Considered (1908)
A new city and a new job are tiring. They are also the start of a good story.
Other sections
- Work and keeping going (447)
- Stoic calm (235)
- An open mind (272)
- Starting a business (245)
- For leaders (167)
- Working with people (155)
- Mindset and habits (246)
- Safety and health (183)
- Starting again (174)
- Pride in the job (156)
- True stories of people who started small