Failing gets a bad wrap. Failing is not the problem. Failing is often a necessary component of progress. It weeds out the wrongs so you can get to the right and succeed. What is the problem is negativity. Negativity is like quicksand. Negativity is the biggest roadblock in succeeding. A negative attitude is the greatest of all limiters.
Don’t believe it? Think about and read about all the people who had challenges or little going for them yet managed to rise above. Here are just a few:
When Lou Brissie was in Italy serving in W.W. II, he was hit by artillery fire that shattered his shin bone into 30 pieces breaking his foot and ankle. Doctors wanted to amputate his leg, but Brissie convinced them from doing so. It took over twenty operations over a two-year period but he finally made it to baseball’s major league and was able to pitch with a leg brace. He managed to finish his career with a 44-48 record in 897.2 innings pitched. He also had 436 strikeouts and a 4.07 career earned run average. He was selected to the 1949 All-Star team and pitched 3 innings.
Tom Landry legendary coach won no games his first season coaching the Cowboys. Skip ahead and he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Cowboys having won five Super Bowls under his watch.
Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a formal education.
One day when Natalie du Toit was riding home from swim practice on a scooter, she got hit by a car and ended up losing her leg. Determined not to let the injury stop her through commitment she went on and won 4 gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic games. Knowing she could do even more Natalie qualified to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and became the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics where she placed 16th in a field of 24 in the 10,000m swim.
Helen Keller needs no narrative.
The following all have dyslexia, Ozzie Osbourne, Charles Schwab, Henry Winkler, Ingvar Kamprad (founder of IKEA).
Amazing activist Sojourner Truth was born a slave.
Babe Ruth was an orphan. He learned to play baseball growing up in orphanages.
Bo Diddley’s parents were too poor to care for him. He was adopted.
Malcolm X’s father died when Malcolm was still a boy. His mom had a breakdown and was institutionalized. He was put in an orphanage.
Sarah Reinertsen is an amputee and an Ironman athlete.
The list goes on and on just as the circumstances and challenges do. The point is, it isn’t the circumstances, it is the attitude that matters.