It Matters If You Just Don't Give Up!

I came across an awe-inspiring story, could not help but share it. In the age of internet and social media, we do get to read/hear frequently about people who have achieved extra-ordinary feats. This particular instance really stands out for 3 reasons:

o   Mental discipline it involved

o   Period at which it was done

o   Courage and strength involved

 I am going to tell you a story of someone who just did not know what giving up meant. He was a Hungarian shooter, Karoly Takacs.

Takacs was born in Budapest in 1910 and he joined the Hungarian army. By 1936 he was a world class shooter. Naturally his dream was to win an Olympic gold. In 1936 he was denied a place in the Hungarian shooting team because he was Sergeant and back then in Hungary only commissioned officers were allowed to compete, a minor setback none the less. He continued his practice. After 1936 Olympics the prohibition was lifted and Takacs could compete. He was on track with his preparation. During his army training a faulty grenade exploded in his hand and his right hand (shooting hand) was badly injured, a heart break!! He spent a month in the hospital recovering from the accident. Dejected, he went into hiding. A couple of months later, he showed up at a local shooting competition. Some of his friends thought he had come there to support them. They thought he had gone crazy when he said he had come there to compete. To say that they were mildly surprised when he won the competition shooting with his left hand is an understatement.

How was it even possible!!?? This is just my guess. After the accident, he would have spoken to himself - "What has happened has happened. I have a choice to make. I can either play the victim or show the world that the fighter in me is still alive." And for the next one to 2 months he practiced day in day out to shoot with his left hand.

If you understand the scale of change, his brain got completely rewired to make his left hand the dominant hand within that short period, to the same accuracy his right hand had. Such is the power of human will. The story does not end there.

In 1939 he won Hungarian national pistol shooting competition. He was also a member of the national team when Hungary won the UTI world championship. He was all set for Olympics and then the second world was started. 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games were cancelled. Finally in 1948 Olympics, he won the gold medal at the age of 38 beating the reigning world champion. He won a second gold medal in the same event in 1952. At the age of 46 he attended the 1956 Olympics but finished 8th.

It took 12 years from the time he was a world class shooter to the time he got a chance to compete in Olympics. He kept his dream alive amidst so many road blocks, disappointments, heart breaks and years of uncertainty during the war. It was very easy for him to have given an excuse or get distracted during this time. To overcome all the odds and be in a frame of mind to compete at the highest level shows his tenacity and persistence. Let this serve as a reminder for us when we are going through some minor setbacks in life. We fail only when we accept defeat. 'It ain't over until we win' should be the motto.