Everyone needs a little inspiration from time to time; something that makes us feel good, encourages us when we are feeling down or simply gives us insight into the thoughts, ideas, and teachings of the very wise. A different perspective can open amazing new possibilities.

That is why we have put together a list of favorite inspirational quotes from members of the OTA executive team, staff, and instructors reflecting their philosophy on life, love and success.

Many of these quotes may remind you of things you already know, but it is nice to be reminded as we make this incredible, sometimes challenging, but always interesting trek through life. Enjoy!

Eyal Shahar, CEO

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill

Alissa Perl, Customer Care Representative

“In the end everything will be ok, if its not ok, it’s not the end.” - John Lennon

“Do not go where the path my lead go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lisa Tashjian, Training & Development Manager

The Golden Rule: “Treat others the way you’d want to be treated.”

Sean Mar, Student Support Specialist

“Know your limits, but never stop trying to break them.” – Kyle Maynard

Mike Richardson, President

"Any competent person is capable of bearing problems in mind until they yield their secrets; what not everybody possesses is the requisite will, passion, or insane obsession that will let them hold the problem long enough or fiercely enough.” – Ken Wilber

Kipton Cariaga, Education Counselor, Irvine, CA

“The walking of man and all animals is a falling forward.”

-Ralph Waldo Emmerson

“Never let success get to your head and never let failure get to your heart.”

-Ziad K. Abdelnour

Eyal Marmareli, Chief Technology Officer

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” - Mario Andretti

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” - Steve Jobs

Mark Grieco, VP of Platform Development

“Learn to love the process more than the result and you will enjoy great success. Choose to “become” rather than to “receive” – Anonymous

“If you want to go somewhere quickly, go alone.  If you want to go somewhere far, go as a team.” – African proverb

 “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Mike McMahon, Content Developer

“Good, Better Best – Never Let It rest Until the Good is Better and the Better is Best.” – Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs

Ryan Herron, Instructor

“Where you place your attention, is where you place your energy.” - Joe Dispenza

John O’Donnell, Director of Research and PTW Presenter

“If goods do not move across borders via frictionless voluntary exchange, troops will. - Ludwig von Mises, 1920

Mike Siewruk, Instructor

"It is always too soon to quit." – Norman Vincent Peale

Gene Longobardi, Chief Operating Officer

“I live in my hopes, and not in my fears.” - Former NFL coach John Gruden

Linda Schulte, Customer Care Manager

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

May Go-Tran, OTA Tax Pros

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius

 “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it” – Estee Lauder

 “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: ‘we did it ourselves’. “ – Laozi

Justin Cook, Writer

“If you work really hard, and are kind, amazing things will happen.” - Conan O’Brien

Jeremy Nosek, Chief Marketing Officer

“We look for people that have integrity, intelligence and energy. If you don’t have the first than you would want the other two qualities to be dumb and lazy. The last thing you want is someone without integrity to be intelligent with a lot of energy.” - Warren Buffet

Gaylene Galliford, Senior Director of Product Solutions & Ron Lembo, Student Support Specialist & Instructor, Phoenix, AZ

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge 

Jennifer Perez, OTA Tax Pros & 

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church....a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes.” - Charles Swindoll

Mia Feist, Operations Student Coordinator

“Whatever tomorrow brings I’ll be there with open arms and open eyes.” - Incubus

Jonathan Ross, Marketing Support Manager

“Only a fool trips on what is behind him.” – Iceberg Slim

Nebula Jennings, Instructor

“Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” - Berthold Auerbach

Woody Johnson, Instructor

 “I'd rather be known for the questions I ask than the statements I make.” - Woody Johnson

Steve Suminski, Instructor

“Reflection turns experience into insight.”  -  John Maxwell

Jason Rotman, Instructor

 “Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” - Sean Patrick Flanery

Gina Monetti, Education Program Specialist

“Surrender all to Jesus, then do the next thing.” - Elizabeth Elliott

Erika Morrow, Student Support Program Manager

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”- Helen Keller

Todd Humphrey, Instructor

“It is better to notice others people’s needs rather than having the need to be noticed” - Unknown

Tony Harkey, VP Marketing

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Chelsea Lawrence, Student Support Specialist, Irvine, CA

“Believe you can and you will.”  - Debasish Mridha

Joanne Ngo, Social Media Manager

“When you’re gone, would you rather have your gravestone say, ‘He never missed a meeting’? Or one that said, ‘He was a great father.’” -  Steve Blank, author of “The Startup Owner’s Manual”

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” - Dolly Parton

"In business, what you don't get done today can be done tomorrow. But with Family, what doesn't get done today is gone forever." 

“Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.”  - Hillary Clinton

Deanne Brown, Communications, Culture & Success Specialist 

“We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves.” -  James Hollis

Cathie Morrison, Instructor

 “If I have seen further than others it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Sir Isaac Newton

Roger Best, Instructor

“One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

John Roberts, Instructor

“God give me the strength to change the things I can change, the humility to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Mark Leigh, Instructor

“When you talk, you are only repeating what you know; But when you listen, you learn something new.” - Dalai Lama

Diana Hill, Education Development Manager & Instructor

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why we call it the present.” - Joan Rivers

Joyce Owens, Instructor

"PLAN everyday as if you'll live to 100 but LIVE everyday as if it's your last." - Unknown

Louise Serero, Senior Legal Manager

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Ann Frank

Greg Hadley, Instructor

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan