Dedication and Success
Booker T Washington is an inspiring person because though he was born into slavery, he really succeeded in life and didn't let his circumstances keep him down.
He seemed to have a spirit of great determination. Early in his life he had very little money, and at one point someone stole what little money he had. But this is what he wrote: "I will not say that I became discouraged, for as I now look back over my life, I do not recall that I ever became discouraged over anything that I set out to accomplish. I've begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed. I was determined to face the situation just as it was."
A Determination That Refused to Break
And so he ends up working as a janitor at the school that he wants to study at. He ends up working nights as a waiter to earn some extra money to study. He was determined to find a way to achieve what he wanted to achieve. And he really did.
Many years later, he was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard, and he writes this on page 167: "As I sat upon my veranda with this letter in my hand, tears came into my eyes. My whole former life, my life as a slave on the plantation. My work in the coal mine. The times when I was without food and clothing. When I made my bed under a sidewalk. My struggles for an education, the trying days, when I did not know where to turn for a dollar, the ostracism and sometimes oppression of my race. All this passed before me."
Remembering Where God Has Brought Us From
At one point when a great event was thrown in his honour, when he'd become such a great leader, he realised that this party thrown for him was held very close to a place that he used to sleep under the sidewalk on the side of the road. How far he'd come! And yet this is what he said about success: "I've learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which he has overcome when trying to succeed."
And so here is a man who did overcome many obstacles with a spirit of determination, a strong faith, and not an ounce of self pity. What about you and I? Can we learn from him today? Whatever you're facing, don't let it stop you from doing what you are called to do.
If Booker T could come so far from sleeping in the gutters and growing up as a slave to become one of the nation's leading educators and thinkers, what could God do in your life if you refused to let anything get you down?
