Too Many Beetles
Too busy? Distracted? When we attempt to do too many things at once we often get rattled and accomplish even less. The story is told of young Charles Darwin that one day he was eagerly holding one rare beetle in his right fist, another in his left and then suddenly he caught sight of a third beetle that he simply knew he must have for his collection. What to do? In a flash he put one of the beetles in his mouth for safekeeping and reached for the third beetle with his now free hand. But the mouth-imprisoned beetle squirted acid down Darwin’s throat—so that in a fit of coughing he lost all three beetles.
Four Steps to Your Dream
Years ago a young black child was growing up in Cleveland, in a home which he later described as “materially poor but spiritually rich.”
One day a famous athlete, Charlie Paddock, came to his school to speak to the students. At the time, Paddock was considered “the fastest human being alive.” He told the children, “Listen! What do you want to be? You name it and then believe that God will help you be it.” That little boy decided that he too wanted to be the fastest human being on earth.
The boy went to his track coach and told him of his new dream. His coach told him, “It’s great to have a dream, but to attain your dream you must build a ladder to it. Here is the ladder to your dreams. The first rung is determination. The second rung is dedication. The third rung is discipline. And the fourth rung is attitude.”
The result of all that motivation is that he went on to win four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He won the 100 meter dash and broke the Olympic and world records for the 200 meter. His broad jump record lasted for twenty-four years. His name? Jesse Owens.
Thinking Big
It’s tremendous to be learning that no matter how big you see things or how simple you keep them, you’ll never reach the ultimate. No man has ever seen things as big as they could have been or kept them as simple as they might be. Sometimes we do well in one area at the expense of the other—like the little boy on the corner with his flop-eared pup.
A salesman passed the corner each day, and after a week he began to pity the boy who was striving to sell his puppy. The salesman knew the boy didn’t See It Big. He stopped and said, “Son, do you really want to sell this dog?”
The boy replied, “I certainly do.”
“Well, you’re never going to sell him until you learn to See It Big. What I mean is, take this dog home, clean him up, doll him up, raise your price, make people think they’re getting something big, and you’ll sell him.”
That noon the salesman came by and there was the boy with a puppy that was groomed, perfumed, and beribboned alongside a big sign: TREEMENNDOUS Puppy For Sale–$5,000.
The salesman gulped and realized he had forgotten to tell the boy about Keeping It Simple. That evening he stopped by to tell the boy the other half of the formula, only to discover that the boy was gone, the puppy was gone and the sign lay there “SOLD” written across it in big letters.
The salesman couldn’t believe it. This kid couldn’t have sold the dog for $5,000. His curiosity got the best of him and he rang the boy’s doorbell. The boy came to the door and the salesman blurted, “Son, you didn’t really sell that dog for $5,000 now, did you?”
The boy replied, “Yes, sir, I did and I want to thank you for all your help.”
The salesman said, “How in the world did you do it?”
The boy replied, “Oh, it was easy. I just took two $2,500 cats in exchange!”
–Charles E. “Tremendous” Jones