Winston Churchill, though an Englishman had trouble learning English it took him three years to get through the eighth grade. It is somewhat ironic, that years later Oxford University asked him to address its commencement exercise! The crowd rose in appreciative applause as he approached the podium. Uju Onyechere writes:
He then removed the cigar and carefully
placed his top hat on the lectern. Looking directly at the eager audience and
with authority ringing in his voice, he cried, "Never give up!"
Several seconds passed. He rose to his feet and shouted again, "Never give up!" His words thundered across the audience. There was profound silence
as Churchill then reached for his hat and cigar, steadied himself with his
cane, and left the platform. His address was finished.
Churchill's six-word commencement address
was, no doubt, the shortest and most eloquent address ever given at Oxford. But
his message was also one that every person present remembered all the days of
their lives.
A young mother was trying to give liquid
medicine to her two-year-old son. The child would not cooperate.
The young mother coaxed, pleaded, threatened, and bribed, to no avail. He would not take his medicine. Finally, worn out, the
young mother gave in to self-pity. She sobbed throwing down the spoon as
she fled the room falling across the bed. A few minutes later, she heard laughter
coming from the kitchen. Her curiosity made her discover that Grandmother had
solved the problem.
After mixing the medicine with orange juice,
she put it in a water pistol and shot it into the wide-open mouth of the
delighted little boy!
A professor once tested his medical class
on a medical situation - an ethical problem. "Here's the family
history: the father has syphilis. The mother has TB. They already have four
children. The first is blind. The second had died. The third is deaf. The
fourth has TB. Now, the mother is pregnant again.
The parents come to you for advice.
They will go for abortion, if you give the go-ahead, what do you make of
that?''
After the student gave their various
opinions, the professor breaks them into mini groups for consultation. The
result - they all recommended abortion.
The professor congratulated them saying they
have taken to the life of Beethoven.
The great Chicago fire comes to mind. The
morning after the fire, a group of merchants stood speechless, dumbfounded looking
at the smoking remains of what used to be their store. They came together on
what to do, and they came up with two points. First on the list, is whether to start
afresh to rebuild their businesses, or leave the city of Chicago for another
part of the country to start all over. Except for one man others decided to
leave Chicago.
The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild
pointed a finger at the remains of his store telling others he would rebuild on the same spot even if it burns down many times.
That was a very long time ago. The store was
built. It stands there today; a towering monument to the power of determination exhibited by Marshall Field. Alexander Graham Bell was laughed at as he
crisscrossed New England trying to raise venture capital for his invention.
Walt Disney went bankrupt as he went around Hollywood with his little
"Steamboat Wilie" cartoon idea.
Johnny Carson was a failure in his first
effort at his own network show; today he is the standard by which all T. V.
Personalities are judged. George Washington... was snowbound and freezing in
Valley Forge. Glenn Cunningham, a world-record-holding sprinter... had his legs badly
burned in a school fire.
Enrico Caruso... was the first child to
survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen children. Franklin D. Roosevelt...
was struck down with infantile paralysis. Benjamin Disraeli... was subjected to
bitter religious prejudice.
Abraham Lincoln… was raised in abject
poverty. At the age of four, Itzhak Perliman, a concert violinist was paralyzed
from the waist down. Michael Jordan couldn't make the varsity team but had to
carry players' uniforms for a bus ride with the team.
Kanu Nwankwo underwent a heart operation.
Derrick Redmond kept hopping. Sir Walter Scott was crippled. John Bunyan was
imprisoned. In the case of Henry Ford, his first car had no reverse gear. Thomas
Edison spent over a million dollars, just for one invention, which you would
consider not productive. Idowu is paralyzed from the neck down but creates
masterpieces with his mouth.
Booker T. Washington,, Harriet Tubman,
Marian, Anderson, Martin Luther, King, Jnr., and George Washington Carver, were
all born into a society filled with racial discrimination. Nelson Mandela was
imprisoned for 27 years. The vast majority of good excuses for quitting,.. do
not exist!
Looking at successful
people,
we often assume they were more ‘’fortunate than others’’ rather than seizing the
right opportunity at the right time that it appeared they never stumbled along
the path The difference unlike others is that they never saw failure, never been
rejected.
The truth is that not many people accomplish
any great thing on the first attempt.
Every successful person never gets
disheartened when they fail, seeing themselves as failures in the process is
out of the plan. To them failing is not synonymous with failure. I’m not a
failure, even after failing. That someone fooled you doesn’t make you a
failure.
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