Success
This entry to dedicated to people who are feeling down and at a lost of what to do and attempts to offer motivation and encouragment. The stories below are taken from the book, "Living with Passion" by Peter Hirsch.
Here is a story.
A young boy was af?icted with a condition that caused him to wear braces on his legs. This was a pretty serious handicap for a youngster, especially for this boy who loved and lived for football.
One Sunday, this young guy got the thrill of a lifetime when he went to see the Cleveland Browns play football. His hero was number 32, the great running back Jimmy Brown, who at the time held just about every record possible for a fullback in pro football.
Now the great Mr. Brown had a pretty full dose of his own importance; that is to say, he was well known for his arrogance. And even though this little kid had waited for ages near the locker room after the game just to get a glimpse of his hero, when number 32 finally appeared, he curtly brushed right past the boy. The youngster called after him, 'Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown - You're the greatest football player of all time!' At that, Brown stopped and returned to autograph the kid's outstretched program. 'And,' the youngster excitedly continued, as he beamed up gratefully at the great football star, 'some day, I'm going to break every one of your records!'
The great Jimmy Brown looked at the youngster with all the metalwork round his legs, laughed, shook his head, and walked away.
But that was a little boy with the big purpose - and a big name to match: Orenthal James Simpson. He grew up to be known to the world as O.J. Simpson, who did, indeed, break every one of Jimmy Brown's records.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.-- Elaeanor Roosevelt
What you believe yourself to be, you are.-- Claude M. Bristol
O.J Simpson believe in himself and did not feel inferior after being laughed at. Like what I always feel, if you do not care how others look at you, you will not even care what you are doing will bring you embarassment.
Another story.
A very wealthy businessman once began a speech by saying, 'It's true that I am successful, probably the most successful person in this room. Would you like to know why? It is because I have failed more times than anyone here.'
Check out this impressive track record of another famous success story:
… Fired from his job in '32.
… Defeated for legislature in '32.
… Declared bankruptcy in '33.
… Elected to legislature in '34.
… Sweetheart died in '35.
… Had a nervous breakdown in '36.
… Defeated for Speaker in '38.
… Defeated in nomination for Congress in '43.
… Elected to Congress in '46.
… Lost bid for renomination in '48.
… Rejected for Land Officer in '49.
… Defeated for Senate in '54.
… Defeated for nomination for Vice President in '56.
… Defeated for Senate a second time in '58.
. . . And in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States of America.
Story #3.
Thomas Edison had a dream of making a working electric incandescent light bulb. Yet time after time after time, his experiments failed. After about the hundredth time, one of his frustrated young associates said to him, 'Can't you see that this isn't destined to work, that you're not going to succeed? You've failed one hundred times already!'
Edison replied, 'I have not failed at all, I have successfully determined one hundred ways that it will not work; therefore, I'm one hundred ways closer to the one way it will work.'
Failure and success are just another of those things we make up. To Edison's assistant, the great inventor had failed a hundred times. But to Edison, himself, he succeeded a hundred times in learning what not to do.
The difference between sucess and failure is marginal, the fear of failure is what denies success. When you had failed enough, it will get to a point where you cannot stand it anymore and you will start succeeding, "backward motivation" they call it. Maybe after falling once, and maybe that one time is enough to let us wake up our bloody idea, to look at things we once took for granted for, be it people, academics or anything at all, bring out and take away the smartasses in us, in becoming a better person.
Story #4.
There's a wonderful story of the three bricklayers at a new building site. A visitor walks over to the first bricklayer and asks, 'What are you doing?' The first worker looks up from his bricks and says, 'What does it look like I'm doing? I'm laying bricks, you idiot!'
The man walks over to the second worker and asks again, 'What are you doing?' The bricklayer looks over at him, slightly annoyed, and replies, 'Can't you see, I'm building a wall.'
Finally, he approaches the third bricklayer and asks for the third time, 'What are you doing?' The third bricklayer sits back, looks up at him and says, 'I'm building a hospital for sick kids, so they can come here for help and get cured.'
Attitude is pertinent to success. Positive attitude. I had always believed in this. Enough said.
Story #5.
A doctor once had a patient, a 13-year-old girl, who needed blood to live. The doctor walked over to the girl's younger brother, who was sitting in the visitor's room, and asked, 'Davy, I need your blood to save your sister; will you help us?'
The little boy gulped, but said, 'Yes,' without hesitation. Davy would do anything to help save his sister's life.
The doctor laid Davy down on a table and started removing blood from one of Davy's veins, and transfusing the blood directly into his sister. The family and the doctor prayed as they watched the girl in silence. Miraculously, in a half hour she was over the crisis. She would live. They were all elated, including Davy.
Then, through a teary eye, her brother Davy asked, 'Doctor, when do I die?'
Davy thought that he was giving all of his blood to his sister.
Davy thought that he had agreed to die for his sister.
This story really touches me when I was reading it. Davy is willing to save his sister thinking that by doing so he will die. Courage. The courage to do what the others dare not do, had not done before, and are not willing to do.
Story #6.
Ask yourself:
'Will my children [and if you don't have kids, use your spouse, your parents] ever starve to death?'
Take this question seriously; what's your answer?
The truth is, you have no proof for making that statement.
The truth is, you really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow - or two, or 200 tomorrows from now. How could you possibly control the future? You can't. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that your kids (spouse, parents) will not starve - yet you will state with total certainty that it will never happen to them.
How can you do that?
You can do that because you are committed to it. That's all. There is no more to say.
That is commitment at its clearest and most compelling. It has nothing to do with how a thing will or will not be accomplished.
Commitment is simply, powerfully and without question, what you say will be done. The how of it all doesn't matter - at all - to the making of the commitment itself. Commitment has nothing to do with how. Commitment is what will happen - no matter what.
Story #7.
Henry Peterson had a dream of being the very first person in his family ever to graduate from college. He applied and was accepted to Georgetown University.
Henry had another dream. He wanted to play college football. He never considered going pro; he just wanted to play for his college team. He tried out for the team and made it.
For four years, Henry sat on the bench.
One week before the final game of the season in his senior year, tragedy struck Henry's family. His father died. Henry was torn. If he went home, he let the team down; if he stayed and played, he failed his family.
He asked his coach for advice. The coach told him, 'Go home, Henry. Your family needs you more than the team does.' So Henry went home.
About an hour before the big game, who should show up in the locker room but Henry, suited up and ready to play! The coach, seeing him there, blew his top - 'Henry,' he shouted, 'I thought I told you to go home!'
'Coach,' Henry replied quietly, 'I need a favor.'
'What?!' replied the upset coach. After a moment, he cooled off and told Henry, 'Anything, Henry. What do you want?'
'Coach, I need to start the game today.'
'What!' said the coach, with some anger returning. 'Well, not anything, Henry... Look, you've sat on the bench for four years. I can't start you - '
'Coach,' Henry repeated firmly, 'just this once - please?'
'All right,' the coach relented, 'but the first time you compromise the team effort I'll take you out, Henry. It's nothing personal. The game is just bigger than you or me.'
So Henry started - and he was awesome.
He blocked. He faked. He carried the ball play after play after play, gained over 100 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns on the way to helping his team win a resounding victory.
At the end of the game, the coach ran up, gave Henry a bear hug and screamed, 'Henry, Henry, why didn't you tell me you could play like that?'
'Did you ever meet my dad?' Henry asked in return.
'No, son,' the coach said, 'I never had the pleasure.'
'Did you ever see my dad and me walking around the field for hours and hours, talking, arm in arm?'
'No, son,' the coach said and asked, 'What's your point, Henry?'
'Coach,' said Henry, looking at the older man with tears in his eyes, 'my dad was blind. Today was the first game he was ever able to see me play.'
Henry fulfilled his dream of being the first in his family to graduate from college - and, he went on to build a very successful business career, as well. Henry points to that day and that football game as his shining moment, as the day his life changed for the better - forever. When asked 'Why?' Henry says:'Because that was the day I realized it was my choice to be a bench-warmer or a player.'
In life, its all about CHOICE and not chance. Make a CHOICE rather leaving things to chance. You choose to be happy or unhappy. You choose to be suceessful or unsuccessful. You choose to define your own meaning of success. Nothing is left to chance. You are what you choose and believe to be.
Here is a story.
A young boy was af?icted with a condition that caused him to wear braces on his legs. This was a pretty serious handicap for a youngster, especially for this boy who loved and lived for football.
One Sunday, this young guy got the thrill of a lifetime when he went to see the Cleveland Browns play football. His hero was number 32, the great running back Jimmy Brown, who at the time held just about every record possible for a fullback in pro football.
Now the great Mr. Brown had a pretty full dose of his own importance; that is to say, he was well known for his arrogance. And even though this little kid had waited for ages near the locker room after the game just to get a glimpse of his hero, when number 32 finally appeared, he curtly brushed right past the boy. The youngster called after him, 'Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown - You're the greatest football player of all time!' At that, Brown stopped and returned to autograph the kid's outstretched program. 'And,' the youngster excitedly continued, as he beamed up gratefully at the great football star, 'some day, I'm going to break every one of your records!'
The great Jimmy Brown looked at the youngster with all the metalwork round his legs, laughed, shook his head, and walked away.
But that was a little boy with the big purpose - and a big name to match: Orenthal James Simpson. He grew up to be known to the world as O.J. Simpson, who did, indeed, break every one of Jimmy Brown's records.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.-- Elaeanor Roosevelt
What you believe yourself to be, you are.-- Claude M. Bristol
O.J Simpson believe in himself and did not feel inferior after being laughed at. Like what I always feel, if you do not care how others look at you, you will not even care what you are doing will bring you embarassment.
Another story.
A very wealthy businessman once began a speech by saying, 'It's true that I am successful, probably the most successful person in this room. Would you like to know why? It is because I have failed more times than anyone here.'
Check out this impressive track record of another famous success story:
… Fired from his job in '32.
… Defeated for legislature in '32.
… Declared bankruptcy in '33.
… Elected to legislature in '34.
… Sweetheart died in '35.
… Had a nervous breakdown in '36.
… Defeated for Speaker in '38.
… Defeated in nomination for Congress in '43.
… Elected to Congress in '46.
… Lost bid for renomination in '48.
… Rejected for Land Officer in '49.
… Defeated for Senate in '54.
… Defeated for nomination for Vice President in '56.
… Defeated for Senate a second time in '58.
. . . And in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States of America.
Story #3.
Thomas Edison had a dream of making a working electric incandescent light bulb. Yet time after time after time, his experiments failed. After about the hundredth time, one of his frustrated young associates said to him, 'Can't you see that this isn't destined to work, that you're not going to succeed? You've failed one hundred times already!'
Edison replied, 'I have not failed at all, I have successfully determined one hundred ways that it will not work; therefore, I'm one hundred ways closer to the one way it will work.'
Failure and success are just another of those things we make up. To Edison's assistant, the great inventor had failed a hundred times. But to Edison, himself, he succeeded a hundred times in learning what not to do.
The difference between sucess and failure is marginal, the fear of failure is what denies success. When you had failed enough, it will get to a point where you cannot stand it anymore and you will start succeeding, "backward motivation" they call it. Maybe after falling once, and maybe that one time is enough to let us wake up our bloody idea, to look at things we once took for granted for, be it people, academics or anything at all, bring out and take away the smartasses in us, in becoming a better person.
Story #4.
There's a wonderful story of the three bricklayers at a new building site. A visitor walks over to the first bricklayer and asks, 'What are you doing?' The first worker looks up from his bricks and says, 'What does it look like I'm doing? I'm laying bricks, you idiot!'
The man walks over to the second worker and asks again, 'What are you doing?' The bricklayer looks over at him, slightly annoyed, and replies, 'Can't you see, I'm building a wall.'
Finally, he approaches the third bricklayer and asks for the third time, 'What are you doing?' The third bricklayer sits back, looks up at him and says, 'I'm building a hospital for sick kids, so they can come here for help and get cured.'
Attitude is pertinent to success. Positive attitude. I had always believed in this. Enough said.
Story #5.
A doctor once had a patient, a 13-year-old girl, who needed blood to live. The doctor walked over to the girl's younger brother, who was sitting in the visitor's room, and asked, 'Davy, I need your blood to save your sister; will you help us?'
The little boy gulped, but said, 'Yes,' without hesitation. Davy would do anything to help save his sister's life.
The doctor laid Davy down on a table and started removing blood from one of Davy's veins, and transfusing the blood directly into his sister. The family and the doctor prayed as they watched the girl in silence. Miraculously, in a half hour she was over the crisis. She would live. They were all elated, including Davy.
Then, through a teary eye, her brother Davy asked, 'Doctor, when do I die?'
Davy thought that he was giving all of his blood to his sister.
Davy thought that he had agreed to die for his sister.
This story really touches me when I was reading it. Davy is willing to save his sister thinking that by doing so he will die. Courage. The courage to do what the others dare not do, had not done before, and are not willing to do.
Story #6.
Ask yourself:
'Will my children [and if you don't have kids, use your spouse, your parents] ever starve to death?'
Take this question seriously; what's your answer?
The truth is, you have no proof for making that statement.
The truth is, you really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow - or two, or 200 tomorrows from now. How could you possibly control the future? You can't. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that your kids (spouse, parents) will not starve - yet you will state with total certainty that it will never happen to them.
How can you do that?
You can do that because you are committed to it. That's all. There is no more to say.
That is commitment at its clearest and most compelling. It has nothing to do with how a thing will or will not be accomplished.
Commitment is simply, powerfully and without question, what you say will be done. The how of it all doesn't matter - at all - to the making of the commitment itself. Commitment has nothing to do with how. Commitment is what will happen - no matter what.
Story #7.
Henry Peterson had a dream of being the very first person in his family ever to graduate from college. He applied and was accepted to Georgetown University.
Henry had another dream. He wanted to play college football. He never considered going pro; he just wanted to play for his college team. He tried out for the team and made it.
For four years, Henry sat on the bench.
One week before the final game of the season in his senior year, tragedy struck Henry's family. His father died. Henry was torn. If he went home, he let the team down; if he stayed and played, he failed his family.
He asked his coach for advice. The coach told him, 'Go home, Henry. Your family needs you more than the team does.' So Henry went home.
About an hour before the big game, who should show up in the locker room but Henry, suited up and ready to play! The coach, seeing him there, blew his top - 'Henry,' he shouted, 'I thought I told you to go home!'
'Coach,' Henry replied quietly, 'I need a favor.'
'What?!' replied the upset coach. After a moment, he cooled off and told Henry, 'Anything, Henry. What do you want?'
'Coach, I need to start the game today.'
'What!' said the coach, with some anger returning. 'Well, not anything, Henry... Look, you've sat on the bench for four years. I can't start you - '
'Coach,' Henry repeated firmly, 'just this once - please?'
'All right,' the coach relented, 'but the first time you compromise the team effort I'll take you out, Henry. It's nothing personal. The game is just bigger than you or me.'
So Henry started - and he was awesome.
He blocked. He faked. He carried the ball play after play after play, gained over 100 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns on the way to helping his team win a resounding victory.
At the end of the game, the coach ran up, gave Henry a bear hug and screamed, 'Henry, Henry, why didn't you tell me you could play like that?'
'Did you ever meet my dad?' Henry asked in return.
'No, son,' the coach said, 'I never had the pleasure.'
'Did you ever see my dad and me walking around the field for hours and hours, talking, arm in arm?'
'No, son,' the coach said and asked, 'What's your point, Henry?'
'Coach,' said Henry, looking at the older man with tears in his eyes, 'my dad was blind. Today was the first game he was ever able to see me play.'
Henry fulfilled his dream of being the first in his family to graduate from college - and, he went on to build a very successful business career, as well. Henry points to that day and that football game as his shining moment, as the day his life changed for the better - forever. When asked 'Why?' Henry says:'Because that was the day I realized it was my choice to be a bench-warmer or a player.'
In life, its all about CHOICE and not chance. Make a CHOICE rather leaving things to chance. You choose to be happy or unhappy. You choose to be suceessful or unsuccessful. You choose to define your own meaning of success. Nothing is left to chance. You are what you choose and believe to be.
posted by The Custodian at 9:26 PM
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