Skip to main contentA logo with &quat;the muse&quat; in dark blue text.
Advice / Succeeding at Work / Break Room

How to Be Successful, According to the Presidents

Are you doing anything to celebrate Presidents’ Day? Sure, you couldn’t make it to Mount Rushmore this year, but I’ll bet you have a few minutes to be inspired by those who’ve been elected to the highest office in the country.

No matter what your politics are, you have to admit that this job takes insane amounts of motivation and drive. Seriously, imagine if your interview process was several years long and involved multiple interviews, debates with competing candidates, media scrutiny, and millions of people who thought weren’t the right choice.

Then, once you’re there, your management, leadership, and decision-making skills would affect the lives of people for years (even generations) to come. Surely, we can all find a little inspiration in that.


1. Create Your Own Luck

I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Thomas Jefferson


2. Be Fearless

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

John F. Kennedy


3. Inspire Others

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower


4. Don’t Underestimate the Value of Hard Work

I think perhaps education doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat.

Barack Obama


5. Say Only What Needs to Be Said

Be sincere, be brief, be seated.

Franklin D. Roosevelt


6. Listen

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

George W. Bush


7. Tell the Truth

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.

George Washington


8. Know You Can Do It, Too

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

Abraham Lincoln



Tweet me and tell me which of these quotes you like best, or if you have a favorite one I missed.


Photo of President Obama courtesy of Ron Foster Sharif/Shutterstock.