| Sometimes things work exactly the way you want | | | | Block after block, hands and feet growing numb, until |
| them to. Sometimes, I have trouble remembering | | | | finally he came to the high school entrance. It was |
| when that has happened for me but I'm sure it has | | | | locked. A custodian looked out at him, |
| at least once in my life. But that is the point I make. | | | | "Are you crazy? No one is going to come out on a |
| We don't really remember the times when every | | | | night like this! The school is closed!" Then he shut the |
| thing falls into place just perfectly. Why is that? | | | | door. |
| Maybe it is because we work so hard to have | | | | How many of us would have made the trip in the |
| complete control over our lives in every last aspect | | | | first place? Very, very few, for sure. But, even if we |
| and every nook and cranny, that we are surprised | | | | had, how many of us would have cursed the closed |
| with the "unexpected". When really, the unexpected | | | | door, the custodian, the snow, the wind, the day, the |
| should be just the opposite, expected. What we | | | | circumstance? |
| most often focus on is when the unexpected is less | | | | Now he had to turn around and retrace his steps. As |
| than positive. Usually, it is a kick in the shin or a slug | | | | the wind whipped around him and the snow |
| in the gut that takes the wind out of us. But when | | | | continued to fall he came to a realization. Out of two |
| the unexpected is something that is positive, it is | | | | thousand students, he was the only one to make his |
| "surprising" to us and we call it inspirational. | | | | way through the night and these awful conditions |
| I submit that many times most anything is | | | | toshow up for class. He was the only one that did |
| inspirational if we choose to look at it with the right | | | | what it took to go the extra mile, to show the extra |
| attitude. That is, without anger, blame and with faith | | | | effort, to reach deep inside when every fiber of his |
| we can learn a lot from the unexpected. Take, for | | | | being wanted to quit, and to keep going when all |
| example, the following story. | | | | others didn't. |
| Bernard Castro immigrated to New York City from | | | | At that precise moment he knew he had what it |
| Sicily while in his teens. One night it was snowing with | | | | takes to succeed. From that moment, which he |
| the kind of cold that chilled to the bone. He was | | | | chose to view with extraordinary perspective, he |
| signed up for a night class at DeWitt Clinton High | | | | knew the will that had pushed him across New York |
| School to learn English. Fromhis cheap room on the | | | | City on that cold and miserable night would sustain |
| East side he watched the snow come down until it | | | | him. He never forgot that moment or that night. |
| was a foot deep and traffic was stopped. The wind | | | | This happened many, many years ago and Bernard |
| was howling and he did not want to go all the way | | | | Castro worked his way through the Great |
| over to the West Side to the class because he didn't | | | | Depression and opened his own business. Which was |
| have any money and he would be walking the entire | | | | quite an achievement in itself. What is remarkable |
| way. | | | | about him is that his ability to see the hidden value |
| He was exhausted from working all day as an | | | | and potential around him resulted in a discovery made |
| upholsterer and knew his coat would be no match | | | | many years later that changed his life forever. |
| for the cold wind and his shoes too thin to keep the | | | | His upholstery business grew into an interior design |
| freezing wet snow from turning his feet to ice. As he | | | | business and then into making furniture. One day he |
| stood looking at the weather outside his window, he | | | | watched as a bunk on a friend's cabin cruiser was |
| remembered something he had read in the | | | | folded up and convertedinto a seat. He had an idea. |
| newspaper a few days before. A columnist had said | | | | He designed the Castro convertible sofa bed which |
| that the difference between success and failure was | | | | was slimmer and more attractive than the design of |
| often the simple willingness to make the extra effort, | | | | the day. It made him famous and wealthy. |
| go the extra mile and endure the extrahardship. | | | | However, he became a success a long time before, |
| Either you had this quality or you didn't. | | | | that one night on the icy cold streets of New York |
| Slowly he pulled on his thin coat and put a scarf | | | | City. |
| around his neck and made his way into the night. | | | | |