“It is very easy to forgive others for their mistakes. It takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.” – Jessamyn West, American author

“My friend shows what I can do, and my foe what I should.”  – Friedrich von Schiller, German poet and philosopher

Many years ago, a 10-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, “how much is an ice cream sundae?” “Fifty cents,” the waitress replied. The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on. The boy squinted up at the waitress. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” He asked. The waitress sighed and rolled her eyes. “Thirty-five cents,” she said with a note of irritation.

Again, the boy counted his coins. At last, he said, “I’ll have the plain ice cream, please.” He put a quarter and two nickels on the counter. The waitress took the coins, brought the ice cream, and walked away. About ten minutes later, she returned and found the ice cream dish empty. The boy was gone. She picked up the empty dish—then swallowed hard. There on the counter, next to the wet spot where the dish had been, were two nickels and five pennies. The boy had had enough for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave her a tip.  >> Source: Mr. Little John’s Secrets To A Lifetime Of Success

In a world that tells us to “get all we can,” every so often it’s good to be reminded to “give something away.”

“Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability” – John Wooden

“If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.  Be public. Be easy to follow!  But the biggest lesson here – did you catch it?  Leadership is over-glorified.  Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he’ll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened: It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.  There is no movement without the first follower.  We’re told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.  The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.”

We have probably all seen the classic Peanut’s cartoons, where Lucy wants Charlie Brown to kick the football.  Poor Charlie Brown goes to kick the ball and Lucy takes it away, making Charlie fall on his back and sigh.  We’ve all had people give up on us, or worse we have given up on ourselves.  So whether Lucy lives within us or is around us, never give up and always remember to keep on keeping on.

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”  — Abraham Lincoln

A wealthy man requested an old scholar to wean his son away from his bad habits. The scholar took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping suddenly he asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant growing there. The youth held the plant between his thumb and forefinger and pulled it out. The old man then asked him to pull out a slightly bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, roots and all.

“Now pull out that one,” said the old man pointing to a bush. The boy had to use all his strength to pull it out.  “Now take this one out,” said the old man, indicating a large tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it out. But it would not budge.  “I – It’s impossible,” said the boy, panting with the effort.  “So it is with bad habits,” said the sage. “When they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold they cannot be uprooted.”