This is the 65th in a collection of newspaper ads written by Harry Gray, then CEO of United Technologies, that appeared in the Wall Street Journal from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. Here is the text from that ad.
The greatest waste of our natural resources is the number of people who never achieve their potential.
Get out of that slow lane.
Shift into that fast lane.
If you think you can’t, you won’t.
If you think you can, there’s a good chance you will.
Even making the effort will make you feel like a new person.
Reputations are made by searching for things that can’t be done and doing them.
Aim low: boring.
Aim high: soaring.
Another inspirational ad from Harry Gray, and there’s not much for me to add.
The only line I would question is
Reputations are made by searching for things that can’t be done and doing them.
I’m not sure “Reputations” is the right word in that sentence; perhaps “Major breakthroughs” is more appropriate.
When I think of how reputations are built, it’s by hard work, doing the right thing, doing what you said you were going to do, treating people kindly, and not being an a**hole.
And none of those are “things that can’t be done“.
In fact, you probably learned how to do all those things in kindergarten.
Borden's Blather 