Dorothea Brande.

I doubt you’ve heard of her (I hadn’t until Brian Buffini mentioned her on his podcast).  Born almost thirty years before women could vote in our country, she published Wake Up and Live in 1936.  That book impacted both Earl Nightingale and Og Mandino, whose legacy lives on in every motivational and self-improvement author you’ve ever read.  She dropped a pebble and was forgotten, but the ripples keep circling wider.

“To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail” – Dorothea Brande

“We are where we are because that is exactly where we really want or feel where we deserve to be, whether we’ll admit that or not.” – Earl Nightingale

“To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.” – Og Mandino

You can get a sample of her work here.