Here’s a powerful truth bomb for you before Friday dawns, wee Gazer – charged from the depths of my heart after reading one of the most powerful HONY posts going. So stop what you’re doing, please. Belt up – and listen good.
Don’t EVER let anyone tell you you’re not capable of achieving what you want or that your dreams are too big or your mind too small.
EVERY time I’ve been told this – EVERY time – they were wrong.
A prep school teacher told my mum my twin and I would never in a million years pass the 12+. We did – and both went on to do more than ok – me becoming a lawyer at a top firm and my sister becoming an entrepreneur running her own highly successful interior design business.
Then there was the handsome but seriously limited Physics teacher– Mr Sparks was his name – (honestly) – who was so bad at identifying the potential in his students that we resorted to extra tuition (on Sundays!) – which saw us catapult from the bottom of the class to the top (redheads rule). His accusation on seeing our results – that we must have cheated – not just for our high marks but because we got identical marks (surprising ignorance from a science teacher given our identical natures!) – said so much more about his limitations than ours.
It didn’t stop there – as I’m sure many of you also experienced in your formative (and, by the way – most crucial) years.
An A-Level English teacher at a top school (whose senior job label was only matched by her poor teaching and judgment) told me, most encouragingly pre-A-Level exam, I’d probably just about scrape a B. She didn’t know me very well. I swept through with 93% and a First Class Degree in English Literature 5 years later. The Devil in me wanted to write to her but the Angel in me felt a little mean 
Then there was the well-meaning vicar who told said twinnie and I we couldn’t possibly read at our brother’s funeral. Ok – that’s more understandable and he probably did mean well – but little did he stop to listen – listen to the tunes of our hearts and souls – little did he understand us. No way were we going to let our stupendous big bro – a bloke who’d inspired pride of steel in everyone who knew him – leave our lives without the send-off he so richly deserved. Just – no – chance!
My point? They were the ones with the small minds – the small dreams – the limited visions – the glasses half dirty and half empty.
So if you’re blessed with passion, hope and grit – as I think you are, wondrous one – you go after your dreams with EVERYTHING you’ve got. Don’t EVER let anyone tell you can’t do something. No matter how unlikely or extraordinary. Because you know what? The most extraordinary people achieve the most unlikely of things. Look at all the greats – Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson. Do you think any of their career advisors thought their dreams were achievable?! I – think – not!
I’ll leave you with this truly inspiring tale from the cracking beauty below interviewed by Humans of New York. Belt up now – cos this is a woman who took no sh*t – this is a woman who OWNED her dreams, who fought with everything she had – and didn’t have, supposedly.
THIS is what SUCCESS looks like. Hard-won – determined – gritty – glorious success.
“I had a child when I was sixteen. I got kicked out of high school because of all the absences. My family and community pretty much wrote me off. But right away I got a job at a sporting goods store. Soon I was able to get a job as a receptionist at a tax company, and they gave me enough responsibilities that I learned how to do taxes. Eventually I learned enough to become an associate. Then I got offered a job at a smaller company, and even though it was a pay cut, they offered me responsibility over all the books– accounts payable, accounts receivable, everything. It was less money but I wanted that experience so I took the risk. And I’m so glad I did, because six months later, the controller of that company left and I was given that position. They told me they couldn’t officially call me the controller because I didn’t have a college degree. So I finished my degree 5 months ago– just to make it official! So after having a child at sixteen, I made it all the way to controller of a company, without even having a college degree. Can you believe that? Honestly, I’ve been waiting to tell that story so long that I told it to a customer service representative on the phone last week. She was nice about it and pretended to care.”
