Did you think that achieving success was going to be easy? That you were going to get the lucky break that no one else in your position will get?
Come on now. Stop being delusional.
You have a dream — but so do a lot of other people. Look around you.
THE WORLD IS FULL OF PEOPLE WITH DREAMS.
Having a dream doesn’t make you special. It just makes you a person — a person just like everyone else around you.
It’s not your dream that determines your greatness. It’s your resolve. It’s your ability to put in the unrelenting effort that progress demands.
Tom’s story illustrates this like no other.
Tom Molineaux stood in a makeshift 24-square-foot boxing ring. In England. Ankle deep in mud and blood.
His own blood ran from his head and down his face. The blood of his opponent, Tom Cribb, stained his bare knuckles and naked chest. He didn’t pay attention to the cold December rain falling on his beaten body. Nor did he pay attention to the wind threatening to turn that rain to ice on his skin.
All he saw was the bloody and beaten man falling in front of him. And all he felt was victory.
Just years earlier, Tom Molineaux had been living his life as an American slave in Virginia. He was born into slavery in 1784.
Before he was ten years old, Tom was working from early morning light until dark on the plantation.
His body was blackened from days in the sun, but he learned to endure the elements at a young age. And he was no stranger to physical abuse. It was a regular thing on plantations for children to carry more than their little arms should be able to hold — working alongside grown men. He was expected to do the same amount of work. With the same intensity. And beaten when he fell short.
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