PURSUING YOUR DREAMS
So American Idol is back on, yahooooo, love that show!! What I don’t love so much is when we discuss Idol on the air and Rob and Arnie say the people that made it thru to Hollywood have NO shot!!! This I just do not understand. Of course I know that there will only be one winner of Idol, however if everyone that made it to Hollywood week took the advice of the nay Sayers, we actually would end up with NO winner!!!! If you have an undeniable passion for your dream, if it keeps you living, if it keeps you going, if you are doing everything you can to achieve your dream than I say DO NOT listen to the nay Sayers. You can’t, you must not. It’s YOUR dream. I realize some of us don’t always find our true talent and may end up chasing the wrong dream, but how do you really know? I will tell you how when YOU decide you have been chasing the wrong dream not when someone else tells you so. You have to know that you gave it your all, the passion for the dream has to die within you first before you can abandon it, not when someone else says it should die. Remember to believe in what your dream is, be willing to go the distance, and have the strength to not let the failures bring you down, but rather learn from them so you can get closer to your dream. To help keep you inspired I found the following story of some folks who were told they would never make it and some who had to try for YEARS before they did. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at some of their stories and I am glad they did not give up so they could help this to be A Wonderful Life!
Failure Leads to Success
In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company. The executives were not impressed. While turning down this group of musicians, one executive said, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." The group was called The Beatles.
In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married." She went on and became Marilyn Monroe.
In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired a singer after one performance. He told him, "You ain't goin' nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." He went on to become the most popular singer in America, named Elvis Presley.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process."
In the 1940's, another young inventor named Chester Carlson took his idea to 20 corporations, including some of the biggest in the country. They all turned him down. In 1947 - after seven long years of rejections! He finally got a tiny company in Rochester, New York, the Haloid Company, to purchase the rights to his invention, an electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid became Xerox Corporation we know today.
Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contacted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to walk without it. By 13 she had developed rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day she actually won a race. And then another. From then on she won every race she entered. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.
The moral of the above Stories: Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do. And remember, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace. A winner is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS! In LIFE, remember that you pass this way only once! Let's live life to the fullest and give it our best.
Author Unknown