persevere through good failures

Although it can be difficult to separate the two, there

are benefits to making two piles instead of just one. By

separating the two types of failures, it is easier to

persevere through good failures. It may hurt to have your

Business proposal shut down for the fifteenth time, but

it isn't necessarily a bad failure.

By separating the two, you can also avoid more bad

failures. If you fail because of laziness, indecision or

poor planning, you can quickly correct those in the

future. Knowing the difference between good and bad

failures keeps you from repeating stupid mistakes.

through the night

But I did make it through the night and early in the morning the neurosurgeon decided to

operate. However, he quickly informed my family and Sharon that my chances of surviving the

surgery were only 40/60. If this were not bad enough, the neurosurgeon further shocked my

family by telling them what life would be like for me if I beat the odds and survived. He

said I probably would never walk, talk, or be able to understand even simple commands.

My family was hoping and praying to hear even the slightest bit of encouragement from that

doctor. Instead, his pessimistic words gave my family no reason to believe that I would ever

again be a productive member of society. But once again I beat the odds and survived the

three and a half hours of surgery.

Granted, I still could not talk, my entire right side was paralyzed and many people thought

I could not understand, but at least I was stable. After one week in a private room the

doctors felt I had improved enough to be transferred by jet ambulance to Del Oro

Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston.

coupled with my physical

My hallucinations, coupled with my physical problems, made my prognosis still very bleak.

However, as time passed my mind began to clear and approximately six weeks later my right

leg began to move ever so slightly. Within seven weeks my right arm slowly began to move and

at eight weeks I uttered my first few words.

My speech was extremely difficult and slow in the beginning, but at least it was a

beginning. I was starting to look forward to each new day to see how far I would progress.

But just as I thought my life was finally looking brighter I was tested by the hospital

europsychologist. She explained to me that judging from my test results she believed that I

should not focus on returning to college but that it would be better to set more "realistic

goals."

delight at the jingle

We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder as anyone knows who has ever seen an infant's delight at the jingle of keys or the scurrying of a beetle.

It is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.

At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. Music, for Casals, was an elixir that made life a never ending adventure. As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, "Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. "Enthusiasm" comes from the Greek and means "God within." And what is God within is but an abiding sense of love -- proper love of self (self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.

the early work

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, "Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience."

How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, "I can do it!" when others shout, "No, you can't."

It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn't let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

Queen of France

Charm in a man, I suppose, is his ability to capture the complicity of a woman by a single-minded acknowledgment of her uniqueness. Here again it is a question of being totally absorbed, of really forgetting that anyone else exists, for nothing more fatally betrays than the suggestion of a wandering eye. Silent devotion is fine, but seldom sufficient; it is what a man says that counts, the bold declarations, the flights of fancy, the uncovering of secret virtues. A man is charmed through his eyes, a woman by what she hears, so no man need to be too anxious about his age: As wizened Voltaire once said: "Give me a few minutes to talk away my face and I can seduce the Queen of France."

But charm isn't exclusively sexual; it comes in a variety of cooler flavors. Most children have it--till they are told they have it--and so do old people with nothing to lose; animals, too, of course. With children and smaller animals, it is often in the shape of the head and in the chaste unaccusing stare; with young girls and ponies, a certain stumbling awkwardness, a leggy inability to control their bodies. But all these are passive and appeal by capturing one's protective instincts.

on the streets

"Well, young man, I ve got a little surprise for you. I am one of the wealthiest men in the world. I have probably everything any man could ever want. I originally come from the Northeast and have all the things that money can buy. But a year ago, my wife passed away, bless her soul, and since then I have been deeply reflecting upon life. I realized there were certain things I had not yet experienced in life,one of which was what it would be like to live like a bum on the streets. I made a commitment11 to myself to do exactly that for one year. For the past year.1 have been going from city to city doing just that. So, you see, don t ever judge a book by its cover, for a cover can fool you.

"Number two is to learn how to read, my boy. For there is only one thing that people can t take away from you, and that is your wisdom. " At that moment, he reached forward, grabbed my right hand in his and put them upon the books he d pulled from the shelves. They were the writings of Plato13 and Aristotle-immortal classics from ancient times.

The bum then led me back past the smiling old woman near the entrance, down the steps and back on the streets near where we first met. His parting request was for me to never forget what he taught me.

I haven’t.