Learning to bounce back..!
Views From Abroad
Robert Clements
Monday, May 31, 2010 - It was just the other night we friends sat together and as I looked around I asked the others, “Seen Mohan lately?” They all looked at each other, then looked at me and gave me the thumbs down sign. “No?” I shouted in disbelief, “ Mohan’s always been a success!”
I visited Mohan next day. His wife had left him, his business had collapsed and he lay sprawled on his sofa, a bottle of cheap country liquor next to him. “Its all bad luck Bob,” he said his eyes and voice full of self-pity. I spent that evening with him, tried to shake off his feeling of despair and finally left when I realised the man didn’t have the will to bounce back. Mohan had met with success so easily in everything he did, that he had never developed the bouncing back muscle. Ah what a muscle it is! There was this man who failed at his business at the age of 21, was defeated in a legisalative race at the age of twenty two, failed again at business at the age of 24, overcame the death of a sweetheart at the age of twenty six,had a nervous breakdown at the age of twenty seven, lost a congressional race at the age of thirty four, lost a senatorial race at the age of 45, failed in an effort to ecome vice president at the age of 47, lost another senatorial race at the age of 49, and was elected president of the United States at the age of fifty two. That man was Abraham Lincoln. Any lesser man would have buckled and given in, when the rebel states tried to break away from the union. Any lesser man who had not learnt to bounce back again and again and again would have never been able to stand by the power of his convictions and abolish slavery from the face of the earth.
Today as the world stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, they know that had it not been for this man’s bouncing back ability, the world would have still been divided into those who are free and those who are not. There are millions of other simple men and women who have the bouncing back quality and have bounced back to claim their prize; success.
Colonel Saunders at age 65, with an ancient jalopy as a car and 100 dollars in his pocket from social security, realised he had to do something. He rememered his mother’s recipe and went out selling. Can you guess how many doors he knocked on before he got his first order? It is estimated he had to knock on more than one thousand doors before somebody placed their order with him. How many doors do we knock on before we quit? One? Two? Five?
I remember so well that evening with Mohan. I remember telling him how as a salesman in my fathers company, as a teenager, I knocked on thousands of doors too. About how I had been thrown out by watchmen and yet persisted.
Mohan hardly listened. His life had been a bed of roses from the beginning and he’d never had the opportunity to develop his ‘bounce back’ muscle. What about you dear reader, are you wallowing in self-pity or are you exercising your bounce back muscle? The choice is clear, either a miserable Mohan or an immortal Abe ..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
I visited Mohan next day. His wife had left him, his business had collapsed and he lay sprawled on his sofa, a bottle of cheap country liquor next to him. “Its all bad luck Bob,” he said his eyes and voice full of self-pity. I spent that evening with him, tried to shake off his feeling of despair and finally left when I realised the man didn’t have the will to bounce back. Mohan had met with success so easily in everything he did, that he had never developed the bouncing back muscle. Ah what a muscle it is! There was this man who failed at his business at the age of 21, was defeated in a legisalative race at the age of twenty two, failed again at business at the age of 24, overcame the death of a sweetheart at the age of twenty six,had a nervous breakdown at the age of twenty seven, lost a congressional race at the age of thirty four, lost a senatorial race at the age of 45, failed in an effort to ecome vice president at the age of 47, lost another senatorial race at the age of 49, and was elected president of the United States at the age of fifty two. That man was Abraham Lincoln. Any lesser man would have buckled and given in, when the rebel states tried to break away from the union. Any lesser man who had not learnt to bounce back again and again and again would have never been able to stand by the power of his convictions and abolish slavery from the face of the earth.
Today as the world stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, they know that had it not been for this man’s bouncing back ability, the world would have still been divided into those who are free and those who are not. There are millions of other simple men and women who have the bouncing back quality and have bounced back to claim their prize; success.
Colonel Saunders at age 65, with an ancient jalopy as a car and 100 dollars in his pocket from social security, realised he had to do something. He rememered his mother’s recipe and went out selling. Can you guess how many doors he knocked on before he got his first order? It is estimated he had to knock on more than one thousand doors before somebody placed their order with him. How many doors do we knock on before we quit? One? Two? Five?
I remember so well that evening with Mohan. I remember telling him how as a salesman in my fathers company, as a teenager, I knocked on thousands of doors too. About how I had been thrown out by watchmen and yet persisted.
Mohan hardly listened. His life had been a bed of roses from the beginning and he’d never had the opportunity to develop his ‘bounce back’ muscle. What about you dear reader, are you wallowing in self-pity or are you exercising your bounce back muscle? The choice is clear, either a miserable Mohan or an immortal Abe ..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
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