Winners make it happen, Losers let it happen

Winners make it happen, losers let it happen!

Some people want it to happen,

Some people wish it could happen,

Some people make it happen.

Today, I would be sharing with you all a few cases of people from history who MADE IT HAPPEN.

Make no mistake my friends; they are the winners who make it happen and not those losers who let it to happen.

Firstly, Let me take the case of a high school biology teacher, who loved sports and left everything, to go on to become a sports coach in a university. His passion was to help young athletes improve their performance while running. He pursued his passion relentlessly and went on to become a coach of international repute creating record holders & Olympic champions. He even made it to the Hall of Fame gallery as one of the greatest track & field coaches of the United States of America.

But soon he realized that VALUE HAS NO VALUE IF ITS VALUE IS NOT VALUED, and pushed himself for invention. He was as certain as the morning sun that running shoes are the athlete’s best friend and if only an ounce could be removed from the shoe’s weight, then, in a one-mile race, almost 200 pounds of aggregate effort could be reduced.

As brave as a lion he approached the shoe manufacturers, but found no takers.   He went on to invent a waffle sole, which was far lighter and had a better grip than the ones that were manufactured at the time.

Yet again, people were blind as moles to his invention. He knew he had to help athletes perform better and that was all that mattered. With this in mind, he went on to become a shoe manufacturer himself with the little savings he had. Over time along with Phil Knight, a mid-distance runner went on to establish one of the biggest and most successful brands in marketing history with the omnipresent swoosh logo.

Yes, the same biology teacher who had both the will and skill without taking any pills, became the co-founder of Nike, and like the brand, enjoyed a cult status of his own. And still his passion remained running and improving performance of athletes.

He wanted the world to share his passion. His jogging phenomenon caught up like wild fire in the United States. The term also became the title of his book - JOGGING, selling a million plus copies.  

One passion: Running,

And many facets: Educator, trainer, all-time great track and field legendary coach, innovator, inventor, brand builder, and successful businessman and a change agent.

That was Bill BOWERMAN for you. And trust me, your success story is waiting to happen, for you will be successful not because you are destined, but you will be successful because you are determined.

As Martin Luther King Junior said: if you are a street sweeper, so be it. Clean your street so well that others are forced to acknowledge your existence and feel that “here lived a street sweeper who did his job well,” because anything worth doing is worth doing passionately.

Secondly, Lets take the case of this man Soichiro, who was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation in a job interview for an engineer during the World War II. He did not lose hope then but remained as focused as an arrow and went on to start HONDA.  

Friends, it is said that – a drop of honey is better than a gallon of vinegar, and that’s what perseverance can do to our personality.

To think is easy, to act is hard and the toughest is to act in accordance to one’s thinking.

My third case today is a case of rejection, realization and recognition.

20^th Century Fox rejected her saying she was unattractive. Little did FOX realize then that Marilyn Monroe would remain the quintessential Hollywood Diva everyone loves to love even years after her death.

Lastly, here’s a case, which illustrates “If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes”.

Kiran Majumdar Shaw started her company in her garage in Bangalore, now Bengaluru. Her company BIOCON was in the business of making enzymes for industrial use.  In 1970’s no one understood enzymes for ignorance is blindness and their mindsets which were as old as the hills didn’t allow them bet on a business headed by a weak, weedy, woman. She could not find anyone to work for her, not even a secretary. She did not cry foul and give up. She kept faith and hung on by saying “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”. In 2004 Biocon went public and by the end of the first day of trading, the company achieved a market valuation of 1.1 billion US $. When she was declared India’s wealthiest woman she quoted –

"You are as young as your belief, and not as old as your doubt.

  You are as young as your faith, and not as old as your fear.

  You are as young as your hope, and not as old as your despair."

So friends, we at toastmasters shall pledge together to remain winners by making things happen and not letting things to happen. Lets derive our motivation

·     From Einstein, who was a poor student and lacked interest in studies but gave us the famous law of relativity.

·       From Spielberg, who was learning disabled child, yet made some amazing movies, which stood the test of time.

·     From Beethoven, who was discounted as pathetic and hopeless, yet became an all time great composer.

·       From Michael Jordan, who struggled to find a place in his high school basketball team but led Chicago bulls to become world champions

·    From Churchill, who failed in his 6^th grade, but led his country from Transformation to Reformation to New Formation.

To conclude, let me part with these lines –

Love ends when you stop caring,

Hope ends when you stop believing,

Life ends when you stop dreaming.