Quotes of the Day - On Adversity
Consider these famous people they have in common:
- Woodrow Wilson had a learning disability but still served as the president of the U.S. from 1913 to 1921.
- Francisco Goya, the celebrated Spanish painter, became permanently deaf at age 45 but went on to create some of his most powerful work.
- Albert Einstein is heralded as a scientific genius in spite of rumours that he suffered from a learning disability.
- Ludwig van Beethoven, the famous composer, had become deaf by the time he creaed his magnificent Ninth Symphony.
- Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.
- Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the company that he co-founded. He described that experience the best lesson to mature him as a leader and enabled him to be able to take Apple to a much higher degree of success today.
- After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, a 1933 memo from the MGM testing director said, “Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.
- A relatively unsuccessful marketer of restaurant equipment, Ray Kroc didn’t sell his first hamburger until age 52. At a time when many people prepare for retirement, Kroc built McDonald’s from a handful of hamburger stands into the world’s largest food chain.
- J. K. Rollin was on beneift for 18 months when she wrote her manuscripts on Harry Potter and received more than a year worth of rejection letters from countless publishers until Bloomsbury agreed to publish her little wizard book.
Facing adversity is NOT pleasant, but there is a positive side of it. Several great quotes on this:
- “There is no education like adversity.” – Benjamin Disraeli
- “Out of clutter, find the simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” - Albert Einstein - “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you strat.” – Nido Qubein, Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker
- “Adversity puts people in touch with themselves.” – Rose Lane
- “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Recently I ran into a story that illustrates how Mahtma Gandhi taught us a lesson on how to put our struggles into perspective. The story goes like this:
As Gandhi was boarding a train, one of his shoes slipped off and fell on the track below. Since the train was already moving forward, he was unable to retrieve it. To the amazement of his companions, he took off his other shoe and trew it back on the track close to the other one. When a fellow passerger asked why he did so, Gandhi smiled and said, “The poor man who finds the shoe laying on the track will now have a pair he can use.”
The spirit of Zen also shows us a way when it tells us:
“The past is already past.
Don’t try to regain it.
The present does not stay.
Don’t try to touch it.
From moment to memont.
The future has not come;
Don’t think about it
Before hand.
Whatever comes to the eye.
Leave it be.
There are no commandments
To be kep;
There is no filth to be cleansed.
With empty mind really
Penetrated, the dharmas
Have no life.
When you can be like this,
You’ve completed
The ultimate attainment.” – Layman P’ang
Perhaps a Japanese Zen saying summarizes this best: “The world is like a mirrow, you see? Smile, and your friends smile back.”
