Page 122 - Think Like a Champion

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THINK LIKE A CHAMPION
People who have endured great hardship often say they sur-
vived because they kept some sort of hope going, a vision of the
future, despite horrible immediate circumstances. They may not
have had a big picture in mind at the time, but they had a sem-
blance of one. Try to emulate their example; it is obviously an ef-
fective thought process for survival. Sometimes a dead end can be
a new beginning.
My father used to tell us this story he thought was really funny,
although I never thought it was that funny. I think he was trying
to tell us something about remaining determined. Anyway, it went
like this: A guy loved soda. Just loved soda. So he decided to go
into the business and named his product 3-Up. It was a failure. So
he started over again and named his new product 4-Up. It, too,
failed. So he started again and named his soda 5-Up. Once again,
it failed. Once again, he tried again and named his soda 6-Up, and
it, too, failed. Well, he decided he’d had it with the soda business,
and he gave up. That was the end of my father’s story! As we all
knew, 7-Up became a very successful and famous brand of soda.
So that must’ve been his message to us: The soda guy simply gave
up too soon!
We’ve had some good examples, from Thoreau to Churchill
to my father, so let’s pay attention to them and keep them in mind
in the years to come. I think it will do us all good.

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