ONE chance is all U need ....

1831 : Lost his job

1832 : Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature

1833 : Failed in Business

1835 : Sweetheart died

1836 : Had a nervous breakdown

1838 : Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker

1843 : Defeated in run for nomination for US Congress

1848 : Lost re-nomination

1849 : Rejected for Land officer position

1854 : Defeated in run for US Senate

1856 : Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President

1858 : Again defeated in run for US Senate

1860 : ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

That looks a pretty glum resume, making one wonder how he became one of the greatest presidents of USA.He is none other than Abraham Lincoln. Just imagine, had he given up in between, the world would have missed a great leader.

What can we learn from this success story ? When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, we are near contentment. And that is exactly what I have tried to portray in the picture above. Our little friend, hmmm..let's name him Mr.TODAY was a failure yesterday. Instead of learning from his mistakes and moving ahead, he kept cribbing at his past. And what happened in the process ? He failed to see that Victory was in store for him the next day.

There are numerous examples that can be given to prove that yesterday's failure can be turned into tomorrow's success story. Can you believe that a man who had speech difficulty as a child and who failed in his university entrance test is today considered as the Father of Science ( Albert Einstein ). A lady (read Sudha Chandran) who lost her leg in an accident has today danced her way to fame at the international level with the support of a Jaipur Foot. A man who had less than 50% of survival chance after being detected with stage three testicular cancer is a Cycling legend today with record breaking victories at the Tour de France for 7 times. (Read Lance Amstrong).

Deaf, Blind and mute and yet she (Read Helen Keller) has attained her nation's highest civilian honour, Presidential Medal of Freedom. Think of Hollywood and comes to our mind, Tom Cruise. But do you know he was severely dyslexic as a kid and lived his entire childhood in poverty. Same is the case of the legend who gave MONALISA to the world (Surprised? Leonardo Da Vinci had disabilities like dyslexia and attention deficit disorder).

To site a real life hero, Ben Underwoodtaught is blind, both of his eyes were removed (cancer) when he was 3. Yet, he plays basketball, rides on a bicycle, and lives a quite normal life. He taught himself to use echo location to navigate around the world. With no guide-dogs, he doesn't even need hands: he uses sound. Ben makes a short click sound that bounces back from objects. Amazingly, his ears pick up the echos to let him know where the objects are. He's the only person in the world who sees using nothing but echo location, like a sonar or a dolphin.

To put it in a nutshell, I would like to bring forth a reality of life. Too many times we stand aside and let the waters slip away, till what we put off till tomorrow has now become today. So don't you sit upon the shoreline and say you're satisfied. Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide. As Kahlil Gibran rightly says, "Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream". It is upto you whether you want to turn your dream into reality !!!