Here we are again, a fresh new year ahead with, hopefully for all of you reading, a brand new start. In years past (just how many we will touch on next month), I have written about that fresh start, including how the fresh start occurring only at this time of year is really just a label; you can start over any time of the year.
However, it may all feel like some kind of lie to us no matter when we think of change, or trying again to get up a hill we have fallen down so many times before. So, I figured I’d use this year’s new years column to point out some people who really put the ‘resolve’ into resolution.
Steven Spielberg: We all know the name as one of the largest names in film history. Spielberg has produced and/or directed some of history’s greatest films, including E.T., the Indiana Jones series, Schindler’s List and many, many others.
So it may surprise you to learn that Spielberg was denied admittance to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts…twice.
Jim Abbott: You might know this one if you are a baseball fan but Jim Abbott was a professional baseball pitcher that besides winning many amateur sporting awards also spent ten years in Major League Baseball from 1989 until 1999.
Abbott also had no right hand and in able to pitch would hold the baseball glove with his right forearm until he released the ball to the batter and then would quickly put his fielding glove on his left hand.
It makes you really think about the disadvantages many of us complain about when a man gets to be a pro-athlete with such a major obstacle.
Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison: Both of these names are almost synonymous in our minds with the idea of intelligence, invention, and creativity.
It might surprise you then that Edison’s teachers expressed concern that Edison ‘could be taught nothing’ and that Einstein did not speak his first words until he was four years old and could not read until he was seven.
Jimmy Butler: Going back to sports, I thought we might touch on a person who is also a Texas native, being raised in a small town just outside of Houston. Jimmy Butler is now a millionaire shooting guard in the NBA and a individual who pushed on despite a huge obstacle life threw at him when he was just thirteen years old.
Growing up without a father, Butler was kicked out of his home by his mother, with her telling Butler she: “Just did not like the looks of him.”
Even more impressive was Butler’s take on the matter when this part of his history was found out just before the 2011 NBA Draft:
“Please, I know you’re going to write something. I’m just asking you, don’t write it in a way that makes people feel sorry for me… There’s nothing to feel sorry about. I love what happened to me. It made me who I am. I’m grateful for the challenges I’ve faced.
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I hope this article has inspired you to tackle your own challenges this year, no matter how large and daunting they may seem.
