If you really want something and are determined to get it, it requires hard work and persistence. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. Seek and you shall find. Bill Whittle and Zo Rachel explore “the inevitability of hard work and persistence.” The hot forge of the American dream still works, if you can take the heat.
Watch the two videos Bill mentions in this one.
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Listen to the Audio Version
10 replies on “Hard Work: The Hot Forge of the American Dream Still Works If You Can Take the Heat”
Congratulations, Bill.
Long life and health to all of you.
Spud Webb made it to the NBA at 5’6″-5’7″. 🙂
Excellent points gentlemen. The line that came to mind as you talked about this process came from The Crisis, “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.” ~ Thomas Paine.
Thanks for all the hard work!
Your acting was okay Bill…obviously Zo’s more seasoned at it, but you did fine too.
Imagine our grandfathers were correct – hard work and discipline pay off eventually, if it is channeled in a direction that makes sense.
I was never going to supplant Willie Randolph as Yankees second baseman. I was just not sufficiently athletic. Though I was bigger than Freddie Patek, I had neither his soft hands or lateral quickness.
But I made a pretty good engineer and business person. So I guess I went the right way, my rudder was generally steering in an acceptable direction.
But still without some effort on one’s own part, you can’t get anywhere in life.
I don’t know about the assertion that a 5 ft player not having a chance in the NBA. Spud Webb was one of the shortest players in NBA history, being listed at 5 ft 6 in. Is that 6in difference really such a large barrier to prevent success? Probably … but I argue that is is not certain.
Spud and Mugsy are such outliers. Spud especially was an athletic freak. 42 inch vertical and quick as anyone. He could also shoot pretty well. Led the league in FT % one year. So his height limitation was overcome by superior abilities elsewhere.
Yep. Freaks happen. However, I doubt that Spud would have achieved what he did without the hard work required to develop those skills. I know from personal experience that hard work is required to overcome the laziness that accompanies such gifts.
Oh, absolutely. Shooting and dribbling are acquired/learned skills. Athletic ability helps, but you have to work on those.
For a period in my life I was involved in Landmark Education. In the “Self-Expression & Leadership” course they teach you how to deal with getting stopped. We all have the potential to create. I assume that we all have unexpressed and unfulfilled dreams. What I learned was that there are ways to overcome the “no’s” and the “can’ts”. I got so blown away that despite being a busy surgeon and husband and father I re-upped as an “instructor” a couple of times in these spread-out-over 3 month blocks.
My point is that beyond discipline and perspiration there are ways to enlist others, as Bill has done, to help fulfill your dreams and purpose. If your “pitch” is heartfelt and you lay out the plan you’d be surprised how others can become just as creative and hard-working as you, and help carry out the project to the end.
There are tons of great ideas out there waiting for you and tons of people waiting to be inspired.