“I raised you to be a thoroughbred. When thoroughbreds run they wear blinders to keep their eyes focused straight ahead with no distractions, no other horses. They hear the crowd but they don’t listen. They just run their own race. That’s what you have to do. Don’t listen to anyone comparing you to me or anyone else. You just run your own race.” — Danny Thomas to his teenaged daughter Marlo, who later wrote that, throughout her life, she was able to “cut to the chase by asking myself, ‘Am I running my race or somebody else’s?”

No one else’s path will be the same as yours; and while their successes may motivate you, trying to duplicate their efforts may not serve your purpose. Instead, you should allow the stories of those whom you admire to inspire you to discover the things that will help you achieve your own goals in your own unique way. Ultimately, how someone else runs their race and how things work for anyone else won’t really matter if their choices won’t work for you. All that really matters is how you run your own race, and that the choices you make help you reach your own goals. And that’s all.