Enthusiasm is the most powerful engine of success. When you do something, do it with all your might. Put your soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Gordon Parks was a remarkable man, who accomplished much in his lifetime, despite a start that seemed bleak – at best. He was born in 1912, the youngest of 15 children in a poverty stricken Kansas family. After his mother’s death when he was 15, he dropped out of school and left home, supporting himself as a busboy, waiter, semi-pro basketball player, self-taught piano player and big band singer. But, before her death, his mother had planted a seed in Gordon that would later bear fruit. “She would not allow me to complain,” he said, “about not accomplishing something because I was black. Her attitude was: ‘If a white boy can do it, then you can do it, too and do it better.’” While in his twenties, he became interested in photography, and purchased a pawnshop camera for $12.50. This marked the start of a distinguished career, including 20 years as a photographer for Life magazine. However, Park’s interest extended well beyond photography. He wrote poetry and several books, composed a piano concerto and the music for a ballet. He went on to become the first African-American to direct a Hollywood movie, and his film, Shaft, received an Academy Award. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan presented him with the National Medal of Arts in honor of his life of achievements. Gordon Parks died in 2006 at the age of 93, a onetime high school dropout, who had received more than 40 honorary degrees. What was the secret of his remarkable success? It can be described in a single word – enthusiasm. “Enthusiasm,” he wrote, “is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit. Enthusiasm is natural; it is being alive, taking the initiative, seeing the importance of what you do, giving it dignity and making what you do important to yourself and others.”
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AuthorMusings from Gammon Irons. To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for us all; and surely a good haven to sail. Archives
February 2020
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