THE MAN IN THE GLASS

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And world makes you king for a day;
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife,
Whose judgement upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life,
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think you are a straight-shooting chum,
And call you a wonderful guy;
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum,
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end;
And you have passed your most dangerous, difficult test,
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down your pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass;
But your final reward will be heartache and tears,
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

- Anonymous

BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE

THE HISTORY BOOKS are full of stories of gifted people whose talents were overlooked by a procession of people until some one believed in them. Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before before he could read. Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school. A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had “no good ideas”. Werner von Braun failed ninth-grade algebra. Haydn gave up making a musician of Beethoven, who seemed a slow and plodding man with no apparent talent.
There is a lesson in such stories. Different people develop at different rates, and the best motivators are always on the lookout for hidden capacities.