Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

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Larry Bird on Hard Work

Larry Bird was one of the greatest basketball players of all time, having won every major distinction that pro basketball gives to its players. How did he achieve so much? In his own words: ?I think hard work is what got me here. I didn?t get all the stuff I can do by sitting around. I worked hard for it. I don?t think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You?ve got to keep going and pushing to get to that next level. And that?s what I try to do. I feel I owe it to the fans and the Boston Celtics to be the best I can possibly be year after year, and that?s why I keep working.?

Success as Showing Up

?Eighty percent of success is showing up.? Woody Allen

Climbing the Ladder, Waiting for the Elevator

"For every person who climbs the ladder of success, there are a dozen waiting for the elevator." Kathy Griffith

Work Away Your Worry

?I have always found, when I was worrying, that the best thing to do was put my mind upon something, work hard and forget what was troubling me.? Thomas Edison

Idleness Exhausts Me

Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: ?I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.?

Henry Ford on the Object of Living

?The object of living is work, experience, happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else?s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.? Henry Ford

How Much Effort People Put Into Work

?The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 percent.? Andrew Carnegie

Keep Your Feet Moving

It is great to have your feet on the ground, but keep them moving. (P-K Sidliner)

Joe Dudley Perseveres

Don't let your handicaps, your shortcomings get you down. They are only dead ends if you let them be. Joe is a guy who used his trials and shortcomings as a springboard to motivate him to become all he was meant to be. Here's his story... Joe was born into a large family that eventually had 11 children. His parents raised them in a three-room farmhouse in the little town of Aurora, North Carolina. His family was poor, but that wasn?t Joe?s biggest problem. He was born with a speech problem that caused his teachers to label him as mentally retarded. School was not Joe?s favorite place as a boy. One of his favorite places, however, was Sunday School. "We were involved in Sunday school," said Joe. "When my teacher read those stories, it gave me hope. If you have hope for the future, you have power for the present." Also, Joe had a mother that believed in him, despite what the teachers said. She said, "Joe, I don?t care?.I believe that slow people could rule the world, because when a slow one gets it, they got it." A turning point came in Joe?s life through a girlfriend?s rejection. Joe was now 17 and deeply in love. She said to him, "Joe, I want to get married. But I want smart kids and you?re retarded." She left Joe for a smarter boy who she soon married. This was the impetus for Joe to finally buckle down and pay attention to his studies. He went all the way back to the first grade books and studied each one, first, second, all the way up to 10th grade, until he learned everything that he?d ignored the first time. Joe said, "I decided that day that I was gonna put something in my head and nobody could ever take that away from me." Joe decided that he was going to be somebody and he was willing to do whatever it took. "I think that was one of the determined points in my life that changed me around," Joe said. "Every time I wanted something, I realized you can go to the library and you could find it and I studied. That was the beginning." Dudley left North Carolina to join the ranks of Fuller Brush salesmen in Brooklyn, New York. He knocked on doors where people would come to the door and teach him how to correctly pronounce the words he was using in his sales script. "It didn't bother me, because I knew I didn't know today, but tomorrow I would," said Joe. "That's how I got started. It was hard. My first day I sold $2.60. I made about $1.20." Joe Dudley sold brushes during the day and went to college at night, finally finishing when he turned 26. Joe was trying to expand the items that he sold, but the Fuller Brush Company couldn?t help him. So, Joe turned to his old friend, the public library for information. He returned to North Carolina to sell his own products that he learned how to make through a library book. His wife would type out the labels for the containers and he would make the products on the stove. He would go to beauty salons to pick up old containers that would be refilled and sold again. He and his wife would make the products every night and he?d sell them every day. Eventually Joe became such a good businessman that the President of the Fuller Brush Company called him and asked him to buy the company. Which he did. Currently Joe?s company grosses over $35 million in business every year and employs 400 people. In the spirit of learning, Joe sponsors an employee reading program to help his employees find the same freedom he learned between the covers of books. President Bush once called Joe?s business one of America?s "points of light." Joe tells his story for others who may feel that they have no future and are bound by their circumstances. He called it "Walking by Faith." (C.K. Miller, adapted from Christian Broadcasting Networks' Amazing Stories series. http://cbn.org/living/amazingstories/finance-joedudley.asp)

Do Things When You Should Do Them

?Hard work is an accumulation of easy things you didn?t do when you should have.? Cuba City [Wis.] News-Herald

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