BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

A young jockey felt he was no good. He had fallen off his horse on his first attempt of riding in public. He was so disappointed because he had put so much into training for that day. His horse was strong and ready, his saddle was fixed and the tracks were all good. What then happened to him? Why did he fall? He felt he was not meant to be a jockey after all. He decided to quit. "Yes, I will quit and go back to being a stableman" he said to himself.

Few weeks later, an older man came to get a new horse for his own jockey and he met our young jockey friend. They got talking and the man discovered that this stableman knew so much about horse racing. "Why aren't you a jockey?" he asked. The young man narrated what had happened to him. The older man then said this to him: Just because you failed once doesn't make you a failure. You only fail when you refuse to get back up and try again. Have you tried riding again after that incident? You packed up and gave up. Now get back on that horse and ride.

The young man got on a horse and completed a lap in a record time. The older man was very impressed and made him a deal to be his second jockey. Later that year, he rose to be the state champion.

No failure is fatal. You may have failed but it doesn't make you a failure. Everyone is designed for greatness, we just need to look within us and reach for it. You may get knocked down a couple of times, just never back down. Always look up and keep believing that you can!