Desire (part 2)

We rounded the previous part of this chapter pointing out the fact, our desire to live, help others and win is the only ingredient we need to turn all obstacles into opportunities. Here are some examples of this principle.

One day, Charles Franklin KETTERING was trying to start his car using the crank on it, but the crank did not pull out of the gearing, so it bounced back and broke his arm. What did he do? Of course, he held his arm due to the sharp pain, but he thought within himself that it is a terrible thing to break your arm just because you want to start your own car; that means people will never buy cars. He thought there might a simpler way to start a car so, he invented the electric starter.

Charles GOODYEAR was condemned for contempt of court. While he was in prison, GOODYEAR did not waste his time in tears and recrimination. He became the assistant of the cook and continued to work on his idea of pneumatic. He discovered a way to  vulcanize the rubber. These few examples prove to us that what happens to us is not the most important. With with discipline, devotion, ferity and a profound desire, we can positively react and by so doing, we greatly increase our chances to win. More than education, talent and instruction, a profound desire to succeed, will help achieve what you want in ife. It is true that the path to failure is crowded with people ready to explain in details to whoever wants to listen, the reasons why something cannot be done, It is also true that each day that crowd is bypassed by thousands of people with less abilities and who have not learned what cannot be done and, therefore in their ignorance obstacles and turn them into marvelous opportunities.

To have you finally convinced ofthis truth, follow the wonderful tory of David LOFCHICK as told by his father Bernie LOFCHICK, motivational speaker and Canadian businessman. When David Lofchick was born, he was too young at that point in time to know what believing in himself was…But thank goodness, he had a father who did. You see, when young David was about 6 months old, his mother and his father Bernie, realized that there was something wrong with their son. They noticed that his head hung way too low on his right side, and he drooled way too much for a normal child. When Mr and Mrs Lofchick took young David to the Dr, the Dr examined him, misdiagnosed him, told his parents that it was something minor, and assured them that they should not worry about it, he would grow it out. However, you know that when it’s your child, you worry about it. So this time, Mr and Mrs Lofchick took David to a specialist. After a very careful examination, the specialist looked at Mr and Mrs Lofchick and said, “your son is a spastic, he has cerebral palsy. He will never be able to walk or talk or count to 10. So the best thing for you to do, in the interest of the normal members of the family is to put in a home for the handicapped. However, the Lofchicks could not conceive of the idea that their son, would grow up to be a vegetable, and an absolute nothing. That was not the idea they had for young David, especially his father. They had already got their two girls, and Here came the son which allowed for their joy to know no bounds.They as a family, collectively decided, hat they would not tolerate cerebral palsy.

So they asked the specialist if he knew of any other specialists where they could go and get a second opinion. The specialist got up on his high horse and said “the advice I gave you is the best you’re ever going to get, so I suggest you take it”, and just like that, he meeting was over. However, Bernie Lofchick, didn’t take it. In fact he took young David to see 30 more different specialists, and all of them told him he same thing, that his son was a spastic, he has cerebral palsy. He would never walk, talk, run , skate or ride a bicycle  or count to ten. But finally, Bernie Lofchick heard of a Dr Richard Pearlstein from Chicago Illinois, who was the world’s leading Doctor at the time on cerebral palsy. And even though Dr Pearlstein was fully booked for the next two years, Bernie Lofchick set his name down for standby, just in case anyone cancelled. And just as fate would have it, 11 days later a little boy from Australia  cancelled. The Lofchicks bundled up David and flew him from Winnipeg Canada to Chicago Illinois, United States. There the Doctors poked and probed young David like he had never been poked and probed before. When all was said and done, they confirmed to the Lofchicks what they had feared most. They said “this little boy is a spastic, he has cerebral palsy. He will never be able to walk or talk or count to ten…if you listen to the prophets of doom.”

What made it worst, Doctors at a leading University also examined young David and reported that he has no motor connections on the right side of his body. Therefore he will never be able to stand up straight, much less play and be a normal boy. Nevertheless, Dr Pearlstein said,“I am solution oriented, not problem oriented. David can have a normal life, but you must do everything I tell you, and once you start, you can’t stop, and you can’t give up. It is not something you can do for today, tomorrow, or the next five years. It’s something you will have to do forever.” Well you can imagine desperate parents saying to the Dr, “just tell us Doc, whatever it is, whatever it will take for our son to have a normal life, just tell us and we will do it.” So Dr Pearlstein gave them and exercise plan for David, and told them that they are going to have to work him beyond all human endurance, and then they will still have to work him some more. They would have to become patience personified, because it will be several months before they will ever even see any signs of improvement, but they must stick with it, because if they ever stopped, it would be right back to square one again. They said okay Doc, if that’s what it will take for our son to beat cerebral palsy, we will do it.

The Lofchicks went home. They didn’t have a lot of money, but they hired a body builder and a fitness expert to build a gymnasium in their basement for young David, and also to work with him. Two years passed before David could even move the length of his own body. Then finally, the Lofchicks got the call that they were dreaming of, waiting, praying and hoping for. Everybody rushed home, the sisters were there and also the neighbors. David was on the ground getting ready to do A SINGLE PUSH UP. And as that little body rose from the mat into the air, his effort were so great, there was not a dry inch of skin on his body. The exercise mat looked like someone had sprinkled water on it. And as that one single perfect  push up was completed, everybody, from trainer, to parents, to sisters, to neighbors, everybody broke down into tears . Tears of joy that is, because they all realized that happiness isn’t pleasure, happiness is VICTORY. By the time young David was 13 years old, he was doing as much as 1,100 push ups per day. He was running track , skating on the hockey team, and riding the wheels off his 3rd bicycle . He was a genius in 7th grade Science and Math. Because the Lofchicks were Jewish, when it was time for his Bar Mitzvah, young David Lofchick walked into that ceremony tall, straight, handsome, and strong. The same little boy the Drs said would never walk or talk or count to ten.