Kyle Maynard was born with no arms and no legs. He may have been classified as disabled, but his parents didn’t treat him as disabled. Kyle grew up doing many things that his “normal” friends did. It may have taken him longer to do something, but he’d always figure it out. He tried high school football and ended up falling in love with wrestling. Initially, like anything Kyle took on, wrestling kicked his ass, but he stayed with it-pushing back the self-doubt & self-defeat-always determined to figure it out. (Check out his book No Excuses)
In Daymond John’s book “Rise & Grind,” Kyle said that he’d always wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro which is the highest peak in Africa. Each year 20,000 people try to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, but with thin air and fierce storms, only half are able to check it off of their bucket list.
In the beginning, Kyle set out to climb Stone Mountain, a tiny mountain of only 900 feet in comparison to the 19,000 foot behemoth Kilimanjaro. The Stone Mountain climb was brutal for Kyle, tearing large patches of skin off of the ends of his arms in the process. When the climb was over, a beaten & battered Kyle told a friend of his dream to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She looked at him as if he were crazy, asking, “You just tore up your arms doing (tiny) Stone Mountain. How are you going to climb Kilimanjaro?”
Kyle answered her with three words, “I don’t know.”
But it was those three words that made him go to work to conquer his dream of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. (And he did it.)
What happens when you say the words “I don’t know?” Do you use the words as a crutch? Explaining that you’re not experienced enough… that you’re too short, too fat, too skinny, or the wrong skin shade? Do you say the words, I don’t know, because you’ve been conditioned all of your life to accept life as it is because you were raised in the projects; had to live with Big Mama, had no dad, had a drug addicted mom, were fired, demoted or bankrupt? Specifically what has, I don’t know, done to you? …but what can it do for you?
I don’t care where you’ve been, hell been only makes for a good story when you soon tell of your massive success. Don’t let “I don’t know” be a handicap & work against you. Make, I don’t know” work for you by going to work to figure it out.
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