Have you ever experienced a window of time in which everything went wrong simultaneously? You take a small step forward and a nail punctures your foot. You take another step, looking down this time, and bang your head on a low-hanging potted plant. It swings off its hook and falls on your other foot. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Nelson and Dennis and Brian Alter and their families went through three whole years like that. The bad luck began when Brian's teenage son, Daniel, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family was at the hospital with him when they received word that the family jewelry store had just burned down. And it could not possibly have happened at a worse time, as this was the first week of the vital, Christmas selling season. The loss of business during the critical Christmas season would have put most jewelers out of business, but somehow the Alter family miraculously held on.
More than two years of moving the jewelry store from one temporary location to another were compounded by the tragic news of other family members being stricken with rare, debilitating illnesses. Good news was rare. Cash, rarer still. Yet never, during any of this, did the Alters ever whine or complain.
The boxer, James Corbett, won the heavyweight title from John L. Sullivan in 1892. He was talking about people like the Alters when he said, “You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round.”
The 30th president of the United States, Cool Cal Coolidge, expanded on Corbett's thought with these words, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
I spent last Sunday and Monday in celebration with the Alter family of Beaumont, Texas. It was an extraordinarily pleasant trip. After standing quietly by them for more than 1,000 long days, I shook Daniel's hand as he left for Washington, DC, to decide which college he was going to let have him. The Alters' magnificent new jewelry store has been open for about three months now and business has been nothing less than spectacular. More importantly, the family is still intact. Maybe stronger than ever.
Did you step on a nail recently and puncture your foot? Have you banged your head on a potted plant and watched it fall on your toe? Don't despair. Remember the Law of Singularity.
Fight one more round.
Roy H. Williams
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The Wizard Academy Reunion for 2002 will be Saturday, October 19. For more information contact JG at (800) 425-4769 or email JG@wizardacademy.org