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Grit and success

By
Sonja Karp, NLJ Sports Editor

Honda has done it. They have hit the nail exactly on the head with their latest ad campaign entitled, “Unstoppable Dreams.”

I’ve always posited that failure is the key to success, and that if we use our failures to learn, we can turn them into the greatest achievements.

Honda has used a reverse poem format to illustrate how personal setbacks can be powerful in pushing us to achieve our dreams, and that how we respond to failure is simply the starting point to reaching the pinnacle of our success.

The poem is as follows:

You won’t remember my name

This is the last time

You will see me at the top

My doubts

Will destroy

My dreams

The more I seem to learn

The more I seem to lose

I want to carry on

But not today

This is the point I give up

Presented in this order, this poem is a very disheartening story of someone who has lost all hope. However, read it the other way and it is an inspiring story of grit and determination:

This is the point I give up

But not today

I want to carry on

The more I seem to lose

The more I seem to learn

My dreams

Will destroy

My doubts

You will see me at the top

This is the last time

You won’t remember my name

If you let failure define you, it is likely that the first way you read the poem will be the end of your dreams.

But, if you take a moment to grieve your failure and
then determine to learn and grow from it, success is still within your reach.

As our Dogies wrap up their fall sports seasons and look to the winter, hopefully they will adopt this mind-set and reflect on whatever
failures they experienced
and use them to become stronger, smarter and more dedicated to the seasons
to come.

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