My 3 stories: Never Let Anyone Tell You "You'll Fail" (and a singer who proved them wrong)

    Earlier this week I watched a video of a singer who was scared to sing on the Australian TV show "X-Factor" because people told him he would embarrass himself and he didn't have a voice. He was almost crippled in fear because of these harsh criticisms he endured throughout his life.   There's a lesson here, and I'll share THREE instances in my life where people told me I would fail and I was happy to prove them wrong.
   Anyway, this 34 year old man made his way through his version of Bette Midler's "The Rose" bringing tears to people in the audience (and me) and getting a rousing standing ovation (that was well-deserved). He said he sang it for his "Nan" (Grandmother) who was standing backstage, because he had sang at his grandfather's funeral.   The video is below (Thanks to our friend Derek for sharing it.

  ROB'S THREE "YOU'LL FAIL" THINGS:
"You'll Never Write a Book" -  When I was getting my English degree I remember someone (I believe it was a professor) saying "you'll never write well enough to author a book."  Twenty years later I wrote three of them and have 2 more in progress and some have helped people overcome their grief of losing a loved one.
  "You'll Never Get in Shape" - As a kid, I was always skinny. I felt like a "bone rack." But I admired superheroes and wanted to look that way. In the late 1970s I bought that Charles Atlas workout book and it inspired me. I also bought men's fitness magazines and put together 1 to 1 1/2 hour workouts that I did every night. I learned how to build muscle though isometric exercises and toned up. I never  dated while I lived at my parents' house through college because I knew I was gay and my parents couldn't deal with it - so I concentrated on exercise. Today, I still work out, and I'm still 140 pounds - the same weight I was in college. What's even more special for me is that I can go to Comic-cons dressed as The Green Lantern and be told that I have a superheroes' build.
   *You'll Never be a Meteorologist" - In 1991 when I started working for the USDA in Washington, DC, I would walk down a hallway and study the atmospheric maps posted daily by the USDA Weather Office (there was a weather office in the USDA that worked with agricultural agencies). One day, a young meteorologist who worked at the USDA stopped in front of the maps I was looking at and said "Hah! You'll never be a meteorologist!"  - Well, I went back to school, got a degree in meteorology, worked for the Weather Channel as a broadcast meteorologist, a private weather company, and now manage the hurricane page at NASA.
   Bottom line - NEVER BE DISCOURAGED. NEVER let anyone tell you "you can't." Believe in yourself and do what you want.
 
 Here's the video of that Australian Singer:
 

Post by 92.9.