I was directed to this video by Dave Kellett who is the creator of Sheldon (great strip!). The video lists many great individuals who either faced adversity and/or were told that they would never amount to anything, often specifically in the fields in which they ultimately became great.
Today is our medal ceremony, the day before graduation when we present medals to our honors scholars who are graduating. This week I have had to deal with many students who will not be graduating with honors for various reasons. All were upset, understandably, and many insisted that I didn’t know what they are truly capable of. I hope so, I hope they, like those in the video, go on to do tremendous things in their fields. What the video does not go into is the fact that each of the individuals, like Michael Jordan who, the video reminds us, when cut from the high school basketball team went into his room and cried, eventually came out of that room and worked harder than anyone else to succeed. Failure is not the end and rejection is not the final verdict. It may indicate that you are in the wrong field but it can also spur one on to work harder than they have before and so to reach their full potential.
