Samples:

The Professor Turned Insurance Salesman
My High School Football Coach
George Dantzig

 
George Dantzig

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't,
you are probably right.
Henry Ford, 1863 - 1947

If I asked you what your potential is, what would be your answer? Maybe you would ask me to clarify what I meant: potential in what? Well, I want you to think for a minute about your potential earning capacity, your potential to accumulate wealth, your potential for doing good, your potential for helping others, and your potential for leaving a lasting legacy.

While you're thinking over these things, let me tell you a story. This is an actual incident that happened in the life of George Dantzig. George had obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland. After that, he got an MA in math from the University of Michigan. George had read some very interesting statistics papers published by Professor Neyman at Berkeley and decided that he wanted to pursue his doctorate studies in statistics under Neyman. So he wrote Berkeley and eventually got a teaching assistantship.

One day, George was a little late for class and missed the first part of the lecture. But there were two problems on the board, and George assumed the problems were a homework assignment, so he copied them down. George found the problems difficult, but he persisted, and after a few days, he had solved the problems. He took his homework to Neyman and apologized for handing it in late, and he actually asked Professor Neyman if he still wanted them. Well, Neyman took the homework and just tossed it in the pile of papers that littered his desk. Poor George was afraid that the homework would be lost forever.

About six weeks later, one Sunday morning around 8 a.m., there was a knocking at the door. It was Professor Neyman and he was extremely excited about the problems. "I've just written an introduction to one of your papers," he said. "Read it so I can send it out right away for publication."

Only then did George learn the truth about what had happened that day he was late for class. Neyman had told the class that the two problems on the board were currently very famous unsolved statistics problems.

George did not know the problems could not be solved. Had he known that the problems had stumped all the brains in statistics, he probably would have accepted the fact that they could not be solved. And if he had accepted that, do you think he would have solved the problems? Of course not.

Now, about your potential. No matter what area of your life you choose to think about, if you are like most people, you have accepted as fact someone else's limitations on your potential. The simple truth is, we are all capable of much more than we accomplish. We don't put all our energy into solving problems and reaching goals - partly due to the fact that most of us believe certain problems cannot be solved or the goals cannot be reached

Your potential is much greater than you realize. But unless you attack the problems of life like George Dantzig, unless you assume that they can be solved and that you can do whatever you set your mind to do, you will never achieve your potential.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill, 1883 - 1970

Read another lesson: The Professor Turned Insurance Salesman | My High School Football Coach

Or sign up for my free weekly newsletter:

All text copyright © John Chancellor, 2007. All images copyright © Cheryl A. Chancellor, 2007. Site design and coding by Copper Moon Creative.