What made a grocery store guy a superstar ?
We often talk about those who succeed in fulfilling their dreams. We read and listen to their stories for motivation. And we seek successful people to become our mentors so that we can follow their path to achieve our goals.
To that end, let’s make an imaginary story about Usain Bolt, the Jamaican former sprinter.
Imagine this. A teenage kid Bolt is running for fun in a small town in Jamaica and he doesn’t know if running is even a sport or if he can even make some money from it. One man observes him running. He sees Bolt disappear from his eyes in no time as he runs at a blinding speed. When he gets a chance to chat with Bolt, he shows him a video of how people become successful athletes to the very thing that he already has. The man tries to convince him to give professional sports a shot. Bolt sees the video and laughs at his advice and says, “Man, don’t you see them running in a beautiful playground?”
Now, since this is an imaginary story of ours, we can make any number of strange arguments that Bolt would have made. Like, “I don’t have those running shoes… I don’t know how to get a visa to go there… I don’t even have a passport… And, I don’t have money to buy a ticket…”
The man replies, “Do you think you can win a race against the guy in the video?”
“Of course, I can defeat anybody. I’ve never lost to anyone in my whole life,” Bolt replies with super confidence.
The man says, “Then you don’t need to worry about anything. All you need is to get selected in your local running competition.”
“I don’t know anyone in sports and what about our grocery store?” “My father needs me to work for him every day. I don’t have time to do all such things and really, I feel shy to run in front of people. I have to go now but thank you anyway,” Bolt replies and leaves.
This young kid who is working in his father’s grocery shop in a small town in Jamaica doesn’t know that there are 8 gold medals, 11 world championship medals, more than 100 million dollars, and the whole world waiting to cheer for him.
What do you think? Who is stopping Bolt from achieving all these wonderful things in this case? His country, his situation, or his father? The answer is Bolt himself.
And, how?
There are probably two things that are stopping Bolt. First, Bolt doesn’t try to understand the value of his talent and secondly, he doesn’t know how to capitalize on it.
In real life, Usain Bolt didn’t apply for a visa. He didn’t borrow money from anyone to buy a ticket, he didn’t have to ask his father’s permission, he didn’t guarantee millions of dollars from anyone in advance and he didn’t wait for the audience to clap for him. Instead, he went to study in a nearby school and began to polish his talent for a few years by competing with his fellow schoolmates. The rest, as they say, is history.
By doing two things, Bolt got two results. First, Bolt valued his talent, and then the world valued him too, although he was playing other sports, but he knew he was made for running. And secondly, Bolt began his journey from the bottom, and then one day, he experienced being on the top.
The imaginary story of young Bolt is quite similar to my own story.
I’m a storyteller by nature. I know if I continue writing stories, I will get what I want. But my negative self is stopping me from trusting my talent. It’s my own mind which makes me doubtful.
While writing this story, I don’t have any audience to motivate me and appreciate my talent. I’m sitting alone in this room and pressing keyboard buttons. I feel exactly like an imaginary young Bolt… I don’t know if my stories have any value and if it’s going to have any impact on someone’s life. But after seeing a helpless kid working in a small grocery shop become a superstar, I feel like I can make it too.
My stories may not change the life of everyone but if it’s changing my mind, hopefully, it will help some of you too.
I do have negative thoughts but I am not going to stop anyway and I want you all to never give up on your dreams. No matter how long it takes…
