NO MONEY, NO
PROBLEM
If you still
see poverty as an excuse for non-success, then you are yet to read about the
man called Jimmy Carter. A onetime American president and a former governor of
Georgia, James Earl Cartar, Jr was born on October 1, 1924 as the oldest of
four children. At the time of his birth, his poor parents lived in the plains
of Georgia, a farming community of a paltry 600 people.
Jimmy’s
father lived and died a peanut farmer and storekeeper. Yet Jimmy managed to
become the first member of his clan to graduate from college (in 1946) and
subsequently became American president in 1977.
Oprah
Winfrey’s family was so poor that even the poor in her neighborhood prayed
earnestly that God would remember Oprah’s family. One day, a waitress
confronted Bill Gates for giving her a $1 tip when his (Bill’s) son always hand
her $100 and above. Bill Gates simply answered, “My son is the only son of the
world richest man. I am the son of a wood cutter!”
John Logie
Baird (1888-1946), a Scottish engineer and television pioneer, wrestled with
both poverty and poor health. By 1925 he was still living from hand to mouth,
supporting himself as a shoe shiner and a razor blade salesman. Yet, through
relentless effort and a strong determination to succeed, he invented the first
commercially viable apparatus to transmit and receive visual moving images.
What of
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)? The great
Tupelo Mississippi born entertainer was a mere truck driver until Sam Philips
signed him up. African richest man and industrialist, Aliko Dangote was so poor
that he could not initially afford a formal education. He had the brains but
his background kept him barred from school gates. He started his very first
business with a little sum he borrowed from his uncle.
Joe DiMaggio
(1914-1999), the greatest hitter and center fielder in baseball history, was
born and raised by a poor, immigrant fisherman. Sylvester Stallone, the 1946
New York City born actor, famous as Rambo, was once an ordinary cleaner in the
lion cage of a zoo. He met with little success as a prize-fighter and later
authored many film scripts that impressed no one except himself-until 1975.
Stallone will later tell the press: “I am not the smartest or most talented
person in the world, but I succeeded because I kept going and going and going”.
That’s the spirit!
Refuse to be
stopped. Never allow temporary lack to shove you from seeing the big picture of
your great destiny. Remember Abebe
Bikila (1972-1973)? The Ethiopian born Olympic gold winning athlete was so poor
that he couldn’t afford a canvas. He ran and won the 1960 Olympic game marathon
in Rome, bare footed!
Boris
Yeltsin (1931-2007) was the man who signed for the breakup of the USSR and also
led the famous transition from Communism to a Capitalist democracy in Russia.
Born in Sverdlovst Oblast, Boris was a poor son of a poor peasant farmer. His
grandfather, a once prosperous peasant farmer, had lost almost everything
during the reign of Joseph Stalin.
However,
Yeltsin found purpose from what his father and grandfather went through under
communism. Poverty shaped his political thoughts. His overriding passion and
lifelong aspiration became to put an end to communism. This landmark he finally
achieved on December 1991 despite a long battle with ill health and heart
diseases plus political oppositions.
Mao Zedong
(1893-1976) was much like him. The foremost Chinese communist leader of the 20th
century was so poor that the poor called them poor. Yet Mao rose to become the
principal founder of the People’s Republic of China.
Saddam
Hussein (1937-2006), a former President of Iraq (1979-2003) was not only born
poor, in a poor faming family near Tikrit, Saddam was raised by his widowed
mother single-handed.
Heard of
Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949)? I’m sure you well know of Bank of America.
Amadeo is its founder. Born in San Jose California, extreme poverty forced Deo
to leave school at the age of 13! Having no true real parents, Deo joined his
step father’s wholesale food business to make ends meet. Yet by the age 19, Deo
had worked so hard that he became a partner in the firm and made it so big that
he was quite wealthy enough to retire at age 31.
Three years
into retirement, Deo lost his father-in-law and subsequently inherited a seat
on the board of directors of a local bank. Thus, Deo developed a mounting
interest in banking. Shortly after that, the once poor Deo later birthed the
renowned Bank of Italy which metamorphosed into Bank of America.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
lived to become an American military leader and later the 34th
president of the United States of America (1953-1961).Yet, Dwight was born by a
poor unaffectionate road side mechanic. As a child, he worked assiduously
alongside his brothers, to feign for their large house hold on a family garden.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook,
wrote in his autobiography: “I am a poor high school dropout. I never had
opportunity to live the luxurious life my peers lived. I always cry every night
for I am financially and emotionally down. Emotionally down because nobody want
to talk to a pauper!”
As Denis Whitley will put it,
“Simply accept yourself as you are right now- an imperfect, changing, growing
and worthy person”. Weep not for you are a WIP (work in Progress). You are
qualified. There is still just nothing good you can’t become.
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