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Everybody, at some point in their lives, has experienced failure. It could be something as simple as not getting the job you wanted, or getting fewer marks even after hard work. But what makes you is not your failure, but how you get back up after being hit.
Once, a young school boy was caught in a fire accident in his school and was assumed that he would not live. His mother was told that he was sure to die, for the terrible fire had destroyed the lower half of his body. Even if he were to survive, he would be lame throughout his life.
But the brave boy did not want to die, nor did he want to be lame. Much to the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. But unfortunately from his waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just hung there, lifeless. Eventually he left the hospital. But his determination to walk was unshakable. At home, when he was not in bed, he had to stay in a wheelchair. One day, he threw himself from the chair and pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He reached the fence, raised himself up and then began dragging himself along the fence, firmly determined. He did this every day, with faith in himself that he would be able to walk unaided. With his iron determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk on and off, then to walk by himself and then to run.
He began to walk to school, and then run to school, enjoying the joy of running. Later in college he was on the track team.
In February 1934, in New York City's Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, and who could never hope to run—this determined young man, Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile.
A good example of the power of positive thinking and faith in oneself, Glenn Cunningham continues to be an inspiration for many, and his story, a brilliant evidence of how one can bounce back even when all difficulties are piled against one, to the degree that death seems the preferable choice.