• Columnists

Pam Ray, Lobbyist

COLUMN = GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Pam has more than three decades of in-depth experience in policy and politics, with expertise in congressional budget/appropriations and federal grant programs.

Her select policy experience includes housing and community development, housing finance, transit/transportation, taxes, and trade.

With a focus on bridging the knowledge gap between elected officials and their constituents, Pam has achieved success in her own government relations business for 16 years and for elected officials in the US Senate, US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs (1989-95), and the NYS Senate Federal Affairs Office (1986-1989).

For more information, visit www.pamrayllc.com.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

– Thomas Edison

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

You don’t go into a field that requires cracking people’s heads open or operating on something as delicate as the spinal cord unless you are comfortable with taking risks.”

– Dr. Ben Carson

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.”

– Marcel Proust

Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity.”

– Ray Bradbury

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.”

– Jalaluddin Rumi

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

– Christopher Morley

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”

– Aristotle

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained individuals quitting their day jobs.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you.”

– Byron Katie

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

Part of your destiny is to live in the zone of maximum satisfaction.”

– Martha Beck

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

– Madam C.J. Walker

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

– William Butler Yeats

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

When I was younger I thought success was being a star, driving nice cars, having groupies. But today I think the most important thing is to live your life with integrity.

– Ellen DeGeneres

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

‎No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

Many people prefer to play it safe when it comes to business matters. Are you willing to take risks in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success?”

– Steven Schussler

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

Why am I whispering when I have something to say?”

– Eve Ensler

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein