Stanley Dashew has accomplished a great deal in his long life. A onetime top salesman, he went on to create successful L.A. companies – including one that helped spawn the credit card industry. An avid sailor, he once took his then-young family on a 15-month ocean adventure. And he’s a self-made multimillionaire who in recent years has turned to philanthropy.

Yet one thing has eluded him: a successful writing venture.

No longer. At age 94, Dashew has finally come out with a book. “You Can Do It! Inspiration and Lessons From an Inventor, Entrepreneur and Sailor” takes the reader through Dashew’s life and explains his philosophies.

The main message? “Life is not about whether you fail,” Dashew said. “It is about whether you pick yourself up after a failure and proceed forward anyway. Anything is possible with the right attitude and a dose of hard work.”

It was that attitude that led him to create several companies. His Dashew Business Machines in the late 1950s devised a way to quickly emboss – or stamp out the raised lettering on – plastic material, which created the first BankAmericard, now Visa, credit cards.

Later, Dashew dreamed up the “member since” line and had it stamped on sample credit cards that he showed executives in a pitch meeting for the American Express account. He won the account.

Dashew always wanted to be a writer – he and a boyhood friend started an alternative newspaper when he was in high school – but he got busy with work and family. He committed to write the book when he was in his 40s but could never put aside the time. Finally, in his 80s, he found a co-author, Josef Klus, to help.

Still, progress was slow.

Said Dashew: “I had businesses I was operating during the writing and little time to concentrate on the book, so it took a full 10 years to complete. I’d say that Josef now remembers more of my life than I do.”

Despite a painful ailment that compresses his spine and makes walking difficult, he still helps sail his 72-foot cutter out of Marina del Rey.

“We need to infuse people today with the idea that if they can dream it, then they can do it,” Dashew wrote in an e-mail. “Opportunities that lead to success abound for the diligent worker.”