I DARE YOU TO TRY
Sometimes we don’t know what we want until someone tells us we can’t have it. That’s what happened with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He was wounded three times during the Civil War, and while home on medical leave he decided to go to law school. His father, a renowned physician who dominated his family, scorned the young man’s decision. “What the use of that? A lawyer can’t become a great man.” Many years later, while still serving on the U.S. Supreme Court at the age of ninety, Holmes recalled his father’s words and how they spurred him to pursue his dream and prove his worthy as a lawyer.
~ John C. Maxwell, Leadership Principles for Graduates