QUOTE of the WEEK: “The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; the last sixteen years; or the last fifty years of life, doesn’t mean anything... All that matters is: what are you going to do, Right Now?” (Anthony Robbins) STORY of the WEEK: Never Give Up Karoly Takacs was born in Budapest and joined the Hungarian Army. By 1936, he was a world-class pistol shooter, but he was denied a place in the Hungarian shooting team for the 1936 Summer Olympics on the grounds that he was a sergeant and only commissioned officers were allowed to compete. This prohibition was lifted in Hungary after the Berlin Games, and Karoly had expectations of success at the 1940 Summer Olympics, scheduled to be held in Tokyo. Those expectations vanished one terrible day in 1938, when while training with his army squad, a faulty hand grenade exploded in Karoly’ right hand, and the shooting hand was badly injured. Karoly spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. However, Karoly did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, “Why not?” Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have - a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have – incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion. For months Karoly practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream. In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Karoly to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Karoly won! The Olympic Games scheduled for 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to World War II. It looked like Karoly’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Karoly kept training and he surprised the world by winning the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, aged 38, beating the favorite Argentine Carlos Valiente, who was the reigning world champion, into second position, and setting a new world record. Four years later, Karoly won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics - giving him a place among the Olympic heroes – becoming the first shooter in the world to win two Olympic gold medals in the 25 meter rapid fire pistol event. Moral of the Story: “To achieve anything worthy in life one needs attitude and will. Skills and techniques can learned, can be taught, but not will. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. The people who thrive create a list of things they can absolutely do & forget about the things out of their control.”
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 05:48:27 +0000
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