Last night I was inspired to watch the film ”Cool Runnings”. At the time I was expecting to simply sit back and relax over a film that had always been on of my favorites ever since childhood. However, as I began to watch the film unfold I found a deeper meaning that I had never fully grasped in previous viewings. Over the past months I have been reading a book titled “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill which is arguably the most popular book ever written on analyzing proven principles used to aquire wealth. This book was written in 1937, published during the great depression, and to this day has sold 30 million copies, not bad.
As I watched “Cool Runnings” unfold on the screen it was as if “Think and Grow Rich” was coming to life right in front of me, particularly through the character of “Derice”. Hill writes in “Think and Grow Rich” that one of the single biggest hindrances of success is people giving up after facing the slightest bit of defeat. How many times have we encountered a simple obstacle or been told ”NO” just once and rather than persevering onward we simply throw in the towel. I know I have.
“Cool Runnings” shows us the power of DREAMING. We all have dreams, ideal lifestyles that we would live if we “could”. But even more prevalent than our dreams our are inner voices that tell us that we could never achieve those dreams. “Derice” absolutely personifies a dreamer, but even more than that, he personifies what success is made of. Which is: The ability to have a dream and relentlessly pursue it until its fruition no matter what obstacles are encountered along the way.
In the case of “Derice” the majority of people would have quit after being tripped and made unable to finish the biggest race of their lives. Nearly everyone would have gave up after the first encounter with the character of “Irv Blitzer” who threatened to smash ”Derice’s” head with a pool stick rather than teach him how to bobsled. ”Derice” literally didn’t even know what bobsledding was when he decided that he was going to compete in the olympics against those who had mastered the sport over a lifetime of practice. Everyone in the world told him he was crazy, but that did not hinder him. What mattered to him was he had a dream and a burning desire to see it come true.
I can think of some people who fit this category, maybe you’ve heard of them. Let’s see, Martin Luther King, Einstein, The Wright Brothers, Ghandi, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, just to name a few. As you watch “Cool Runnings” you’ll begin to realize that these aforementioned people, ”Derice” and the Jamaican Bobsled Team as a whole were not much different at all. In fact they were very much the same.
The Jamaican Bobsled team raised a simple yet profound toast days before their Olympic Race. The toast was, ”To Following Your Dreams”, let us do the same.
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