-- Jamie Buckingham, Look Out, World (Altamonte Springs, FL: Strang Communications Company, 1993). Good Housekeeping, May 1995, p. 163.

Olympic champion Jesse Owens once put it like this: ‘There is something that can happen to every athlete, every human being - it’s the instinct to slack off, to give in to the pain, to give less than your best . . . the instinct to hope to win through luck or your opponents not doing their best, instead of going to the limit and past your limit, where victory is always to be found. Defeating those negative instincts that are out to defeat us is the difference between winning and losing, and we face that battle every day of our lives.”

A schoolmaster in France was once very discouraged with one of his students, and wrote of him: “He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class.” Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest living Frenchman. By popular vote, that smallest, meekest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name was Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. At the age of seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. Being too old and weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, he sent a message to be read by his son. It said: “The future belongs not to the conquerors, but to the saviors of the world.”
Size and disposition are not requisites for being successful or unsuccessful. Success comes from confidence and a willingness to work for what you believe in.

-- Edward Chinn, Wonder Of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co. Inc, 1987), P 18.

When the Gallup organization polled Americans about their most important criteria for judging personal success, here is what they found:
Good health was cited most often, being listed by 58 percent of those polled. An enjoyable job was second, listed by 49 percent. These were followed by: a happy family (45 percent), a good education (39 percent), peace of mind (34 percent), and good friends (25 percent). Such materialistic factors as unlimited money, a luxury car, and an expensive home brought up the rear.

Thomas S. Haggai tells about an old man who, year after year, had a line waiting for him to shine shoes at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. When asked how he could shine shoe after shoe with such vigor and determination, he smiled with a warm, wide grin and said simply, “I’m not just shining your shoes, I’m working to make you proud of how you look.”
There’s a man with a mission. No wonder people are lined up at his stand.

-- Today (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1989).

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

-- Muhammad Ali

Luetta C. Milledge, Head, Department of English, Savannah State College, delivered a commencement address some years ago and began with this classic illustration:

“I wish to speak today of eagles. May I begin by relating the parable of the eagle as told by James Aggrey of West Africa. A certain man went through a forest seeking any bird of interest he might find. He caught a young eagle, brought it home and put it among his fowls and ducks and turkeys, and gave it chicken’s food to eat even though it was an eagle, the king of birds.
“Five years later, a naturalist came to see him and, after passing through his garden said: “That bird is an eagle, not a chicken.’ ‘Yes,’ said the owner, ‘but I have trained it to be a chicken. It is no longer an eagle, it is a chicken, even though it measures fifteen feet from tip to tip of its wings.’
‘“No,’ said the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle still; it has the heart of an eagle, and I will make it soar high up to the heavens.’
‘“No,’ said the owner, ‘it is a chicken, and it will never fly.’
“They agreed to test it. The naturalist picked up the eagle, held it up and said with great intensity: ‘Eagle, Thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to this earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.’
“The eagle turned this way and that, and then looking down, saw the chickens eating their food, and down he jumped.
“The owner said: ‘I told you it was a chicken.’
‘”No,’ said the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle. Give it another chance tomorrow.’
“So the next day, he took it to the top of the house and said: ‘Eagle, thou art an eagle; stretch forth thy wings and fly.’ But again the eagle, seeing the chickens feeding, jumped down and fed with them.
“Then the owner said: ‘I told you it was a chicken.’ ‘No,’ asserted the naturalist, ‘it is an eagle, and it has the heart of an eagle; only give it one more chance, and I will make it fly tomorrow.’
“The next morning he rose early and took the eagle outside the city away from the house, to the foot of a high mountain. The sun was just rising, gilding the top of the mountain with gold, and every crag was glistening in the joy of the beautiful morning.
“He picked up the eagle and said to it: ‘Eagle, thou art an eagle; thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth; stretch forth thy wings and fly.’
“The eagle looked around and trembled as if new life were coming to it. Yet it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight at the sun. Suddenly it stretched out its wings and, with the screech of an eagle, it mounted higher and higher and never returned. It was an eagle, though it had been kept and tamed as a chicken.’
“My people of Africa, we have been created in the image of God, but men have made us think that we are chickens, and so we think we are: But we are eagles, stretch forth your wings and fly. Don’t be content with food of chickens!!”
James Aggrey’s words could be applied to all of us. Many of us have been content to feed with the chickens and have forgotten that God has called us to be eagles. -- Vital Speeches

It is said that the famous French author Balzac fancied himself to be an expert at interpreting handwriting. He believed that he could determine the character of a person simply by analyzing their script.   One day an old lady brought him a little boy’s homework book and asked this great writer and handwriting expert to give his opinion of the child’s potential. Balzac studied the irregular, untidy script very carefully and then asked, “Are you the boy’s mother?”
“No,” replied the old lady. “Perhaps you are related?” he asked. “Not at all,” she answered. “Then I will tell you frankly,” he said, “the youth is slovenly, probably stupid. He will never amount to much.” “Ha!” said the woman, “It might surprise you to know that this notebook was your own when you were a little boy at school.”

Potential can only be measured by accomplishment. No other system is as accurate.

• Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old, and did not learn to read until he was seven.
• Beethoven’s music teacher said that, “As a composer he is hopeless.”
• When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid that he could never learn anything.
• When F. W. Woolworth was 21, he got a job in a store, but was not allowed to wait on customers because he “didn’t have enough sense.”
• Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have “no good ideas.”
• Sometimes we have to look very hard to see potential in others or ourselves. Each of us is uniquely gifted, though. We all have something to contribute to the world.

All but forgotten today, Bertoldo de Giovanni was in his own time an important sculptor. In fact, his name might have been lost from memory forever, except for the fact that he had a pupil whose name was Michelangelo.  Michelangelo was only fourteen years old when he came to Bertoldo. It was apparent to Bertoldo, however, that his young pupil was enormously gifted. Bertoldo knew that gifted people are often tempted to coast rather than to grow, and he was therefore persistent in seeking to instill a desire in Michelangelo to give himself completely to his work.   On one occasion he came into the studio and found Michelangelo toying with a piece of sculpture far beneath his abilities. Bertoldo grabbed a hammer, stomped across the room and smashed the work into tiny pieces, saying, “Michelangelo, talent is cheap; dedication is costly.” --

Gary Inrig, A Call To Excellence (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985).