WE CAN DO ANYTHING
One of the oldest rivalries in college football is between University of Southern California in
Los Angeles, California and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend,
Indiana. It just so happens that I grew up in South Bend and my family had
season tickets the Notre Dame games. I was a big fan. We went to all the home
games and I knew about the USC rivalry. So when we went to the USC games, I
played close attention to everything that happened. And at one of these games,
my life changed.
Somewhere, during the first half, the USC
running back made a nice first down and time out was called. During that time
out, the play-by-play announcer just casually happened to mention that the USC
running back was an Academic All-American… who also had the distinction of
graduating from his high school at age 15. Then he started USC the fall of that
year. I was 9 years old at the time so I found that very interesting. But that
wasn’t the end of the story. The announcer went on to say that this
young man had already finished all of his academic graduation requirements and had
entered into medical school at USC. So, while he was on the football
team he was also going to medical school—at
the same time! I was
flabbergasted, dumfounded, literally stunned! Here’s why.
My father, grandfather, grandmother and one of
my uncles were all physicians. For years I had heard stories about how hard,
extremely stressful and all-consuming it was to get into and then graduate from
medical school. So the idea of playing on a football team while going to
medical school at the same time seemed impossible to me. How could anyone do
that? I could hardly manage elementary school and I didn’t play any sport.
Well, suffice to say I was fascinated about
this. And although I had no name for it, didn’t know what to call it, at that
moment my interest in the concept we now call Peak Performance and the Psychology
of Achievement began. And I wanted to know more about this stuff.
I left the stadium that day feeling
challenged. I wanted to look at my life and see if I could do any more than
just muddle along like I’d always done. Could I possibly be really good at
something? This is what I asked myself for the first time.
THE LESSON HERE IS YES,
WE CAN DO GREAT THINGS. We have to understand, as I did thanks to that
football game experience long ago, that if other people can do great things—can
excel to great heights, achieve mastery over something, do wonderful things in
sports or business or any facet of life—if others can do it, we might be
able to do it too. At a minimum, we can always to better. This is what I
learned at that football game on a cold winter day in South Bend when I was just a kid. And I’ve
never forgotten it.
Life's lessons come at interesting times Richard. Thanks for sharing your story. Probably only one of many lesson you've learned so far :)
ReplyDeleteDave Jones
DDP