Chicken Soup for the Soul: All Your Favorite Original Stories

by Jack Canfield

  Proposal after proposal was sent out and rejected. Finally, after the 155th grant proposal had been turned down, all of Rick’s support began to crumble.

  Rick’s parents were begging him to go back to college and Ken Greene, an educator who had left his job to help Rick write proposals, said, “Rick, I have no money left and I have a wife and kids to support. I’ll wait for one more proposal. But if it’s a turndown, I’ll have to go back to Toledo and to teaching.”

  Rick had one last chance. Activated by desperation and conviction, he managed to talk himself past several secretaries and he secured a lunch date with Dr. Russ Mawby, President of the Kellogg Foundation. On their way to lunch they passed an ice cream stand. “Would you like one?” Mawby asked. Rick nodded. But his anxiety got the better of him. He crushed the cone in his hand and, with chocolate ice cream running between his fingers, he made a surreptitious but frantic effort to shake it loose before Dr. Mawby could note what had happened. But Mawby did see it, and bursting into laughter, he went back to the vendor and brought Rick a bunch of paper napkins.

  The young man climbed into the car, red-faced and miserable. How could he request funding for a new educational program when he couldn’t even handle an ice cream cone?

  Two weeks later Mawby phoned. “You asked for $55,000. We’re sorry, but the trustees voted against it.” Rick felt tears pressing behind his eyes. For two years he had been working for a dream; which would now go down the drain.

  “However,” said Mawby, “the trustees did vote unanimously to give you $130,000.”

  The tears came then. Rick could hardly even stammer out a thank you.

  Since that time Rick Little has raised over $100,000,000 to fund his dream. The Quest Skills Programs are currently taught in over 30,000 schools in all 50 states and 32 countries. Three million kids per year are being taught important life skills because one 19-year-old refused to take “no” for an answer.

  In 1989, because of the incredible success of Quest, Rick Little expanded his dream and was granted $65,000,000, the second largest grant ever given in U.S. history, to create The International Youth Foundation. The purpose of this foundation is to identify and expand successful youth programs all over the world.

  Rick Little’s life is a testament to the power of commitment to a high vision, coupled with a willingness to keep on asking until one manifests the dream.

  ~Adapted from Peggy Mann

  The Magic of Believing

  You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.

  ~Charles C. Noble

  I’m not old enough to play baseball or football. I’m not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren’t going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn’t need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I’ll just hit them out of the park. Then I’ll be able to walk.

  ~Edward J. McGrath, Jr.

  An Exceptional View of Life

  Glenna’s Goal Book

  Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion.

  You must set yourself on fire.

  ~Arnold H. Glasow

  In 1977 I was a single mother with three young daughters, a house payment, a car payment and a need to rekindle some dreams.

  One evening I attended a seminar and heard a man speak about the I x V = R Principle. (Imagination mixed with Vividness becomes Reality.) The speaker pointed out that the mind thinks in pictures, not in words. And as we vividly picture in our mind what we desire, it will become a reality.

  This concept struck a chord in my heart. I knew the Biblical truth that the Lord gives us “the desires of our heart” (Psalms 37:4) and that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). I was determined to take my written prayer list and turn it into pictures. I began cutting up old magazines and gathering pictures that depicted the “desires of my heart.” I arranged them in a photo album and waited expectantly.

  I was very specific with my pictures. They included:

  1. A good-looking man

  2. A woman in a wedding gown and a man in a tuxedo

  3. Bouquets of flowers (I’m a romantic)

  4. Beautiful diamond jewelry (I rationalized that God loved David and Solomon and they were two of the richest men who ever lived)

  5. An island in the sparkling blue Caribbean

  6. A lovely home

  7. New furniture

  8. A woman who had recently become vice president of a large corporation. (I was working for a company that had no female officers. I wanted to be the first woman vice president in that company.)

  About eight weeks later, I was driving down a California freeway, minding my own business at 10:30 in the morning. Suddenly a gorgeous red-and-white Cadillac passed me. I looked at the car because it was beautiful. The driver looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back because I always smile. Now I was in deep trouble. Have you ever done that? I tried to pretend that I hadn’t looked. “Who me? I didn’t look at you!” He followed me for the next fifteen miles. Scared me to death! I drove a few miles, he drove a few miles. I parked, he parked... And eventually I married him!

  On the first day after our first date, Jim sent me a dozen roses. Then I found out that he had a hobby. His hobby was collecting diamonds. Big ones! And he was looking for somebody to decorate. I volunteered! We dated for about two years and every Monday morning I received a long-stemmed red rose and a love note from him.

  About three months before we were getting married, Jim said to me, “I have found the perfect place to go on our honeymoon. We will go to St. John’s down in the Caribbean.” I laughingly said, “I never would have thought of that!”

  I did not confess the truth about my picture book until Jim and I had been married for almost a year. It was then that we were moving into our gorgeous new home and furnishing it with the elegant furniture that I had pictured. (Jim turned out to be the West Coast wholesale distributor for one of the finest East Coast furniture manufacturers.)

  By the way, the wedding was in Laguna Beach, California, and included the gown and tuxedo as realities. Eight months after I created my dream book, I became the vice president of human resources in the company where I worked.

  In some sense this sounds like a fairy tale, but it is absolutely true. Jim and I have made many “picture books” since we have been married. God has filled our lives with the demonstration of these powerful principles of faith at work.

  Decide what it is that you want in every area of your life. Imagine it vividly. Then act on your desires by actually constructing your personal goal book. Convert your ideas into concrete realities through this simple exercise. There are no impossible dreams.

  ~Glenna Salsbury

  Another Check Mark on the List

  There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you do not do them.

  ~Charles D. Gill

  One rainy afternoon an inspired 15-year-old boy named John Goddard sat down at his kitchen table in Los Angeles and wrote three words at the top of a yellow pad: “My Life List.” Under that heading he wrote down 127 goals. Since then he has completed most of those goals. Look at the list of Goddard’s goals that appears below. These are not simple or easy goals. They include climbing the world’s major mountains, exploring vast waterways, running a mile in five minutes, reading the complete works of Shakespeare and reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.

  Explore:

  ✓ 1. Nile River

  ✓ 2. Amazon River

  ✓ 3. Congo River

  ✓ 4. Colorado River

  5. Yangtze River, China

  6. Niger River

  7. Orinoco River, Venezuela

  ✓ 8. Rio Coco, Nicaragua

  Study Primitive Cultures In:

  ✓ 9. The Congo

  ✓ 10. New Guinea

  ✓ 11. Brazil

  ✓ 12. Borneo

  ✓ 13. The Sudan (John was nearly buried alive in a sandstorm.)
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br />   ✓ 14. Australia

  ✓ 15. Kenya

  ✓ 16. The Philippines

  ✓ 17. Tanganyika (now Tanzania)

  ✓ 18. Ethiopia

  ✓ 19. Nigeria

  ✓ 20. Alaska

  Climb:

  21. Mount Everest

  22. Mount Aconcagua, Argentina

  23. Mount McKinley

  ✓ 24. Mount Huascaran, Peru

  ✓ 25. Mount Kilimanjaro

  ✓ 26. Mount Ararat, Turkey

  ✓ 27. Mount Kenya

  28. Mount Cook, New Zealand

  ✓ 29. Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico

  ✓ 30. The Matterhorn

  ✓ 31. Mount Rainer

  ✓ 32. Mount Fuji

  ✓ 33. Mount Vesuvius

  ✓ 34. Mount Bromo, Java

  ✓ 35. Grand Tetons

  ✓ 36. Mount Baldy, California

  ✓ 37. Carry out careers in medicine and exploration (Studied pre-med and treats illnesses among primitive tribes)

  38. Visit every country in the world (30 to go)

  ✓ 39. Study Navaho and Hopi Indians

  ✓ 40. Learn to fly a plane

  ✓ 41. Ride horse in Rose Parade

  Photograph:

  ✓ 42. Iguaçu Falls, Brazil

  ✓ 43. Victoria Falls, Rhodesia (Chased by a warthog in theprocess)

  ✓ 44. Sutherland Falls, New Zealand

  ✓ 45. Yosemite Falls

  ✓ 46. Niagara Falls

  ✓ 47. Retrace travels of Marco Polo and Alexander the Great

  Explore Underwater:

  ✓ 48. Coral reefs of Florida

  ✓ 49. Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Photographed a 300-pound clam)

  ✓ 50. Red Sea

  ✓ 51. Fiji Islands

  ✓ 52. The Bahamas

  ✓ 53. Explore Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades

  Visit:

  ✓ 54. North and South Poles

  ✓ 55. Great Wall of China

  ✓ 56. Panama and Suez Canals

  ✓ 57. Easter Island

  ✓ 58. The Galapagos Islands

  ✓ 59. Vatican City (Saw the pope)

  ✓ 60. The Taj Mahal

  ✓ 61. The Eiffel Tower

  ✓ 62. The Blue Grotto

  ✓ 63. The Tower of London

  ✓ 64. The Leaning Tower of Pisa

  ✓ 65. The Sacred Well of Chichen-Itza, Mexico

  ✓ 66. Climb Ayers Rock in Australia

  67. Follow River Jordan from Sea of Galilee to Dead Sea

  Swim In:

  ✓ 68. Lake Victoria

  ✓ 69. Lake Superior

  ✓ 70. Lake Tanganyika

  ✓ 71. Lake Titicaca, South America

  ✓ 72. Lake Nicaragua

  Accomplish:

  ✓ 73. Become an Eagle Scout

  ✓ 74. Dive in a submarine

  ✓ 75. Land on and take off from an aircraft carrier

  ✓ 76. Fly in a blimp, hot air balloon and glider

  ✓ 77. Ride an elephant, camel, ostrich and bronco

  ✓ 78. Skin dive to 40 feet and hold breath two and a half minutes underwater

  ✓ 79. Catch a 10-pound lobster and a 10-inch abalone

  ✓ 80. Play flute and violin

  ✓ 81. Type 50 words a minute

  ✓ 82. Take a parachute jump

  ✓ 83. Learn water and snow skiing

  ✓ 84. Go on a church mission

  ✓ 85. Follow the John Muir Trail

  ✓ 86. Study native medicines and bring back useful ones

  ✓ 87. Bag camera trophies of elephant, lion, rhino, cheetah, cape buffalo and whale

  ✓ 88. Learn to fence

  ✓ 89. Learn jujitsu

  ✓ 90. Teach a college course

  ✓ 91. Watch a cremation ceremony in Bali

  ✓ 92. Explore depths of the sea

  93. Appear in a Tarzan movie (He now considers this an irrelevant boyhood dream)

  94. Own a horse, chimpanzee, cheetah, ocelot and coyote (Yet to own a chimp or cheetah)

  95. Become a ham radio operator

  ✓ 96. Build own telescope

  ✓ 97. Write a book (On Nile trip)

  ✓ 98. Publish an article in National Geographic

  ✓ 99. High jump five feet

  ✓ 100. Broad jump 15 feet

  ✓ 101. Run a mile in five minutes

  ✓ 102. Weigh 175 pounds stripped (still does)

  ✓ 103. Perform 200 sit-ups and 20 pull-ups

  ✓ 104. Learn French, Spanish and Arabic

  105. Study dragon lizards on Komodo Island (Boat broke down within 20 miles of island)

  ✓ 106. Visit birthplace of Grandfather Sorenson in Denmark

  ✓ 107. Visit birthplace of Grandfather Goddard in England

  ✓ 108. Ship aboard a freighter as a seaman

  109. Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica (Has read extensive parts in each volume)

  ✓ 110. Read the Bible from cover to cover

  ✓ 111. Read the works of Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Dickens, Thoreau, Poe, Rousseau, Bacon, Hemingway, Twain, Burroughs, Conrad, Talmage, Tolstoy, Longfellow, Keats, Whittier and Emerson (Not every work of each)

  ✓ 112. Become familiar with the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ibert, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Rimski-Korsakov, Respighi, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Toch, Tschaikovsky, Verdi

  ✓ 113. Become proficient in the use of a plane, motorcycle, tractor, surfboard, rifle, pistol, canoe, microscope, football, basketball, bow and arrow, lariat and boomerang

  ✓ 114. Compose music

  ✓ 115. Play Clair de Lune on the piano

  ✓ 116. Watch fire-walking ceremony (In Bali and Surinam)

  ✓ 117. Milk a poisonous snake (Bitten by a diamond back during a photo session)

  ✓ 118. Light a match with a 22 rifle

  ✓ 119. Visit a movie studio

  ✓ 120. Climb Cheops’ pyramid

  ✓ 121. Become a member of the Explorers’ Club and the Adventurers’ Club

  ✓ 122. Learn to play polo

  ✓ 123. Travel through the Grand Canyon on foot and by boat

  ✓ 124. Circumnavigate the globe (four times)

  125. Visit the moon (“Some day if God wills”)

  ✓ 126. Marry and have children (Has five children)

  ✓ 127. Live to see the 21st Century (He will be 75)

  ~John Goddard

  Look Out, Baby, I’m Your Love Man!

  It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.

  ~Whitney Young, Jr.

  Les Brown and his twin brother were adopted by Mamie Brown, a kitchen worker and maid, shortly after their birth in a poverty-stricken Miami neighborhood.

  Because of his hyperactivity and nonstop jabber, Les was placed in special education classes for the learning disabled in grade school and throughout high school. Upon graduation, he became a city sanitation worker in Miami Beach. But he had a dream of being a disc jockey.

  At night he would take a transistor radio to bed where he listened to the local jive-talking deejays. He created an imaginary radio station in his tiny room with its torn vinyl flooring. A hairbrush served as his microphone as he practiced his patter, introducing records to his ghost listeners.

  His mother and brother could hear him through the thin walls and would shout at him to quit flapping his jaws and go to sleep. But Les didn’t listen to them. He was wrapped up in his own world, living a dream. One day Les boldly went to the local radio station during his lunch break from mowing grass for the city. He got into the station manager’s office and told him he wanted to be a disc jockey.

  The manager eyed this disheveled young man in overalls and a straw hat and inquired, “Do you have any background in broadcasting?”

  Les replied, “No, sir, I don’t.”

  “Well, son, I’m afraid we don’t have a job for you then.” Les thanked him politely and left.
The station manager assumed that he had seen the last of this young man. But he underestimated the depth of Les Brown’s commitment to his goal. You see, Les had a higher purpose than simply wanting to be a disc jockey. He wanted to buy a nicer house for his adoptive mother, whom he loved deeply. The disc jockey job was merely a step toward his goal.

  Mamie Brown had taught Les to pursue his dreams, so he felt sure that he would get a job at that radio station in spite of what the station manager had said.

  And so Les returned to the station every day for a week, asking if there were any job openings. Finally the station manager gave in and took him on as an errand boy — at no pay. At first, he fetched coffee or picked up lunches and dinner for the deejays who could not leave the studio. Eventually his enthusiasm for their work won him the confidence of the disc jockeys who would send him in their Cadillacs to pick up visiting celebrities such as the Temptations and Diana Ross and the Supremes. Little did any of them know that young Les did not have a driver’s license.

  Les did whatever was asked of him at the station — and more. While hanging out with the deejays, he taught himself their hand movements on the control panel. He stayed in the control rooms and soaked up whatever he could until they asked him to leave. Then, back in his bedroom at night, he practiced and prepared himself for the opportunity that he knew would present itself.

  One Saturday afternoon while Les was at the station, a deejay named Rock was drinking while on the air. Les was the only other person in the building, and he realized that Rock was drinking himself toward trouble. Les stayed close. He walked back and forth in front of the window in Rock’s booth. As he prowled, he said to himself.

  “Drink, Rock, drink!”

  Les was hungry, and he was ready. He would have run down the street for more booze if Rock had asked. When the phone rang, Les pounced on it. It was that station manager, as he knew it would be.

  “Les, this is Mr. Klein.”

  “Yes,” said Les. “I know.”

  “Les, I don’t think Rock can finish his program.”

  “Yes sir, I know.”

  “Would you call one of the other deejays to come in and take over?”

  “Yes, sir. I sure will.”