The Dirt Floor To The Palace
Published on December 11, 2014
"How far can I go daddy"? the little boy asks. "As far as your imagination can take you" his wise father replies. As Emerson once said, "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you". That's it really. That thing that lies inside of you is greater than any of us will ever be able to truly comprehend. I know we have all heard this. I know we all wonder if its true. I know we all have had proof of its reality in our own lives from time to time. I know where I stand now pared against where I began proves it out. I hear great stories all the time of what others have achieved and the odds they have beaten. These "stories" or examples of life's potential have the capacity to allow us all to believe just a bit more. I came across one such story a few years ago that I hope kicks open the door on your own belief and humbles your doubt into extinction. While waiting to speak to the staff of the Globe and Mail I picked up the newspaper sitting on the coffee table. I leafed through it and found the lifestyle section. The two page spread of this story left me speechless and so inspired. The story featured a teacher in India who not only beat the odds, he pulverized them. Through his own personal journey he ended up taking in young students off the streets, feeding them, housing them and teaching them. Preparing them actually to write the entrance exam to IIT, the most prestigious engineering school in all of India and perhaps the world. Last year more than 500,000 wrote the entrance exam and less than 8,000 were accepted. Less than 2%. This teacher and his 30 barefoot boys have done what no other elite prep school has been able to accomplish. Near perfect acceptance. Over the past 8 years he has been teaching this class, during 3 of the years all 30 were accepted. In the other years they fell short by just a few. Mr. Kumar teaches in a tin roofed, dirt floored shed down an alley choked with trash, stray cows and sewage. The students sit on rough wooden benches and place their notebooks, limp in the humidity on planks in front of them. He intersperses math with motivational sermons, reminding his students that their background does not matter, that they are smart enough for any test, that all they need is to work and believe and they can do it. The graduates of IIT will go on to become some of the most sought after engineering minds in the world. For the 30 barefoot boys it will no doubt feel like they won the lottery. I hope you know what this means for you. "Wherever you are right now has nothing to do with where you can go". It was a question I found when I was young and the absolute proof in the example above I hope will do something very, very special for you. It will make you believe. Believe in yourself. More than anything - believe this. It is possible for us all to go from the dirt floor to the palace. Have an excellent day.
Be well,
Randy Taylor
