Motivational story: Bouncing Back Quickly to Win
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Inspiring/Motivation I
toastmasters
Columnists:
Sangeetha
Sridhar,
Dr.Rajan Philips,
Hasan Kamoonpuri,
Dr.Ramesh Kamath
Karoly Takacs.
Karoly Takacs. You’ve probably never heard of
him. However, in Hungary, he’s a national hero – everybody there knows his name
and his incredible story.
In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army,
was the top pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the
1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo.
Those expectations vanished one terrible day
just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand
grenade exploded in Takacs’ right hand, and Takacs’ shooting hand was blown off.
Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed
at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. At that point
most people would have quit. And they would have probably spent the rest of
their life feeling sorry for themselves. Most people would have quit but not
Takacs. Takacs was a winner. Winners know that they can’t let circumstances keep
them down. They understand that life is hard and that they can’t let life beat
them down. Winners know in their heart that quitting is not an option.
Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself
up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand!
His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, “Why not?”
Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have – a
world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have –
incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be
developed to shoot like a champion.
For months Takacs practiced by himself. No one
knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who
most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream.
In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the
Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached
Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the
strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t
come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Takacs
won!
The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled
because of World War II. It looked like Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a
chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1944 he qualified for
the London Olympics. At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal and set a new
world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold Medal
again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Takacs – a man with the mental toughness to
bounce back from anything.
Winners in every field have a special trait that
helps them become unstoppable. A special characteristic that allows them to
survive major setbacks on the road to success. Winners recover QUICKLY. Bouncing
back is not enough. Winners bounce back QUICKLY. They take their hit, they
experience their setback, they have the wind taken out of their sails, but they
immediately recover. Right away they FORCE themselves to look at the bright side
of things – ANY bright side, and they say to themselves, “That’s OK. There is
always a way. I will find a way.” They dust themselves off, and pick up where
they left off.
The reason quick recovery is important is that
if you recover quickly, you don’t lose your momentum and your drive. Takacs
recovered in only one month. If he had wallowed in his misery, if he had stayed
“under the circumstances,” if he had played the martyr, and felt sorry for
himself much longer, he would have lost his mental edge – his “eye of the tiger”
and he never would have been able to come back.
When a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten
seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight.
Remember that next time you get knocked down.
Takacs definitely had a right to feel sorry for
himself. He had a right to stay depressed and to ask himself “Why me?” for the
rest of his life. He had the right to act like a mediocre man.
Takacs could have let his terrible accident
cause him to become permanently discouraged, to take up heavy drinking, to quit
on life alltogether, and maybe even to end his own life. He could have acted
like a loser.
But Takacs made the DECISION to dig deep inside
and to find a solution. To pick himself up and to learn to shoot all over again.
Winners always search for a solution. Losers always search for an escape.
Next time you get knocked down, DECIDE you will
act like a winner. DECIDE to act like Takacs. Get up quickly, take action, and
astound the world!
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