Never stay defeated

Maya Angelou once said: “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”. She was right. Oh yes she was!

When I did my first degree I failed my final level Auditing so dismally. I then enrolled to do it again but failed. I did it for the third time but got the supplementary. I wrote the supplementary and I failed again. I then told myself that due to my inability to pass this last Auditing course, I will never graduate my BCOM Accounting degree.  But at the point when I was about to give up, a certain child of God encouraged me not to stay defeated and she said “go do it again” and she even gave me the tuition fees. I tried one more time and I passed the course with 75% and the following year I graduated. At a later stage that person happened to be my wife.

In life there will come a time when you will fail but that does not mean you are stupid. So you should never stay defeated. The only time a person gets defeated is when he or she stops to try.  In his life, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting out of his 900 paintings but today he is the most recognised artist. Michael Jordan was rejected from his high school’s varsity basketball team but today is literally the most famous basketball player of all time. Nelson Mandela was locked in prison for 27 years but he became the world most respected president that has ever lived.

Today you might be on the verge of throwing the towel but I want to tell you that you can make it. Try it one more time. I assure you: - if you try again, there will come a time when you will look back on the journey that you had to take in order to get to where you are and you will smile and say “I never thought I could do it…but I did it”. That is what the grace of rising up and doing it again can do for you! A knockdown is not a knockout. A living dog is better than a dead lion. Inability is not disability. Your inability to be a lion is not your disability to bite. You can do it. Yes you can make it! That is who you are. You are wired to succeed and you know it. You have greatness within.

ARISE AND SHINE