A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1929, Page 5

A DAILY MESSAGE

THE WILL TO WIN WILL WIN!

Takk a glimpse down the corridors of time. Think of the men and women whose achievements have won for them a place in the world’s Hall of Fame. Were they always wealthy—healthy —well-educated? Was their road to lame a smooth one?

How often they were poor, afflicted, uneducated! But they possessed a greater wealth than riches or strength; they possessed the incomparable wealth of the “will to win.” What incredible victories over circumstance the will to win has , won in every sphere and in every ago! “ For forty years,” said Darwin’s soil, “ my father never knew one day of health.” But the will to win urged him on to a might task—one that a man in all the glory of a Samson’s strength might well have shrunk from. George Stephenson was one of eight children, whose parents were so poor that they all lived in a single room, and, although young Stephenson had to watch cows for a neighbour, he man* aged to secure the time to make engines of clay. He had the “ will to win,” and though he could neither read nor write, at seventeen years of age he had charge of a steam engine of his own invention, with his father as fireman.

Napoleon possessed the will to win. What else could have taken him over the Alps in mid-winter? “ Is it possible to cross the Alps? ” asked Napoleon of the engineer sent out to inspect the pass of St. Bernard. “ Perhaps.” was the hesitating reply. “ It is within the limits of possibility only.” “ Forward, then,” said Napoleon. It was the “will to win” that carried that army over.

The story of Michelangelo—immortal sculptor and painter—is 'one which shows what the “ will to win ” can do against dire poverty and tremendous handicaps. His was the master-hand that chiselled the majestic figures of Moses, one of the sculptural masterpieces of the ages. Mis was the hand that painted the immortal picture, “The Last Judgment.” His was the brain that designed the dome ol St. Peter’s—one of the peerless gems of architecture. Yet, when he was already famous, and was at work upon liis great bronze of Pope 'Julius, such was his poverty that he could not have his brother to visit him, because he had hilt one bed, in which lie and his- three assistants slept. But he had that which was greater than wealth. The “will to win” is the motive power that has enabled the big men ot history to do the big deeds. Their place in the world’s Hall of Fame is no accident and no mystery ; they had the “ will to win,”, which surmounted all •obstacles—for the “ will to win ” wins. Have you the will to win? If you want to win—you can.

__M. PRESTON STANLEY