Did you know that Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old,
and did not read until he was seven? His parents and teachers worried about his
mental ability.
Beethoven's music teacher said about him, "As a composer he is hopeless." What
if young Ludwig believed it?
When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid he could
never learn anything. He once said, "I remember I used to never be able to get
along at school. I was always at the foot of my class... my father thought I was
stupid, and I almost decided that I was a dunce." What if young Thomas believed
what they said about him?
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."
When the sculptor Auguste Rodin was young he had difficulty learning to read and
write. Today, we may say he had a learning disability, but his father said of
him, "I have an idiot for a son." He uncle agreed. "He's uneducable," he said.
What if Rodin had doubted his ability?
Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have
no "good ideas." Caruso was told by one music teacher, "You can't sing. You have
no voice at all." And an editor told Louisa May Alcott that she was incapable of
writing anything that would have popular appeal.
What if these people had listened and become discouraged? Where would our world
be without the music of Beethoven, the art of Rodin or the ideas of Albert
Einstein and Thomas Edison? As Oscar Levant has accurately said, "It’s not what
you are, it's what you don't become that hurts."
You have great potential. When you believe in all you can be, rather than all
you cannot become, you will find your place on earth.
From Steve Goodier's RICHES OF HEART.
Thanks to Life Support
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