In the “60 Minutes” broadcast on April 27, 2014, Bob Simon reported on how Nicholas Winton helped save hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II, a story that came to light 50 years later. Even the children he saved did not know about him.
The story is a fascinating tale about a person managing to do something against extraordinary odds. What’s particularly amazing is that this now 104 year old set out with absolutely no experience or idea about what to do. But he went to Prague to see if he could save some people. When Bob Simon asked him what made him think he could do it, he responded, “I work on the motto that if something’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing it.”
Isn’t that one of the most inspiring lines you’ve ever read? Doesn’t that bring to mind visionaries like Steve Jobs? Nelson Mandela? Martin Luther King, Jr.? But does it also bring to mind you, in your own small way? What problems do you have for which there is no apparent solution? Is the problem unsolvable? Not likely. So then, since it’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing it. If it’s physically possible, then by golly, there’s a glimmer of a chance that you can come up with a solution.
Steve Jobs liked to say that he didn’t want to provide something that people wanted, he wanted to invent something that people didn’t know they wanted until they saw it. Did anyone have any idea that we really, really wanted to be able to walk around listening to our digital music on our iPods? Jobs did and he came up with a way. He came up with many other ideas that we treasure now.
Sir Nicholas Winton was dedicated to that same principle. And the result is that 669 children escaped Nazi Germany. He didn’t do the impossible. He simply found a way, perhaps the only way, to make it happen.
What’s stopping you from overcoming what seems impossible? You may not save hundreds of children, you may not come up with the iPod, smart phone, iPad, etc. But you may just break through a barrier that you thought was impenetrable. Go for it.
Click here to see the “60 Minutes” show or read the transcript.
The story is a fascinating tale about a person managing to do something against extraordinary odds. What’s particularly amazing is that this now 104 year old set out with absolutely no experience or idea about what to do. But he went to Prague to see if he could save some people. When Bob Simon asked him what made him think he could do it, he responded, “I work on the motto that if something’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing it.”
Isn’t that one of the most inspiring lines you’ve ever read? Doesn’t that bring to mind visionaries like Steve Jobs? Nelson Mandela? Martin Luther King, Jr.? But does it also bring to mind you, in your own small way? What problems do you have for which there is no apparent solution? Is the problem unsolvable? Not likely. So then, since it’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing it. If it’s physically possible, then by golly, there’s a glimmer of a chance that you can come up with a solution.
Steve Jobs liked to say that he didn’t want to provide something that people wanted, he wanted to invent something that people didn’t know they wanted until they saw it. Did anyone have any idea that we really, really wanted to be able to walk around listening to our digital music on our iPods? Jobs did and he came up with a way. He came up with many other ideas that we treasure now.
Sir Nicholas Winton was dedicated to that same principle. And the result is that 669 children escaped Nazi Germany. He didn’t do the impossible. He simply found a way, perhaps the only way, to make it happen.
What’s stopping you from overcoming what seems impossible? You may not save hundreds of children, you may not come up with the iPod, smart phone, iPad, etc. But you may just break through a barrier that you thought was impenetrable. Go for it.
Click here to see the “60 Minutes” show or read the transcript.
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