“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.” This was spoken by a young man who had a dream. I think it is a good thing to encourage yourself because true enough, this man had his chance after several electoral attempts and setbacks. He eventually won and became a U.S. President and he was indeed prepared for the most important job he ever held- serving people.
His name was Abraham Lincoln and I learned this, by the way, from the memoir of another US President that goes by the name of William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton entitled, My Life.
Take note! He did not wait on someone to tell him those words. He persevered even though he lost several times in various elections and political positions. If he was in the Philippines, he could be the perennial also-ran, a “nuisance candidate”. But his chance came to pass, as he prophesied in his life, and went on to become one of the best Presidents America ever had.
Before becoming President, he was one of the few people who kept studying, reading and preparing. He constantly reminded himself every day that one day he will be victorious. When he was not yet a lawyer and a president, it was reported that while others are taking a nap during work break, he was reading a book. His voracious appetite for reading led him to the world of law. So, without ever going to law school, he asked for permission to take the bar exam and passed.
Dr. Benjamin Carson became a leading neuro-surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US. He ran for President but his campaign fizzled out and Trump eventually was nominated. As a kid, he was always at the bottom of the class. It has always been that way and his classmates expected that of him being a black kid. He himself thinks he is dumb. But his mother insisted, in fact, forced him to borrow books from the library and read them. She even required a book report for every book read by her son. The strategy worked and Benjamin jumped from the bottom to the top of the class. His mind was definitely renewed.
He wrote in his book, Think Big, that our minds can actually contain all information even from the time of Adam and Eve and still have available space left for new things. Amazing! Don’t ever underestimate the power inside your head. Just renew and upgrade it.
Renew your mind. Overhaul it. So it will run smoothly like a well-oiled car engine. It may not make you a genius. But good and right thinking produce ideas. It may give you the needed boost to start going after your dreams.
Here is an interesting fact. A survey was conducted in the United States about businessmen who became millionaires. Over fifty percent of them never finished college. Over fifty percent of CEO’s in Fortune 500 companies only have an average grade in college. This survey proves that lack of education or low IQ is not a guarantee that we will fail in life. We only have to renew our mind to acquire a mindset of pursuing excellence.
Someone said, “Anyone who stops learning is old whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young”.
