Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

Last night on Primetime Live, John Quinones interviewed Jeannette Walls, a tv reporter and writer who grew up in a very poor family in Appalachia. She recently wrote a memoir in which she talks about her upbringing. It was inspiring that she became so successful. She could have given up. She could have lived in the same small town the rest of her life. Instead, she got on a bus to NYC and got a job, and worked her way up to the top of the career ladder. Although her parents were "unconventional," they instilled in her the idea of working hard and dreams of a better life.

A lot of people give up on their dreams every single day, and they don't have nearly the impossible odds that Walls faced.

Also in the broadcast, Cynthia McFadden interviewed Ronan Tynan, an Irish tenor, doctor, and gold-medal athlete, who also happens to be a double amputee. Born with a birth defect of both feet, his parents never gave up on him, and they never let him quit, either. They said he would walk, and he walked. Later on, after he had both legs amputated below the knee, he decided to become an athlete and won gold medals in the Paralympics. Then he decided to become a doctor. And then, at the age of 33, he won a television competition, singing opera. He got to go to the Royal Academy in London to study, and became an accomplished Irish tenor. He often sings during the seventh inning stretch of Yankees baseball home games.

He credits his success to his own will, but also to his mother, who told him "Get up, get up, get up!"

Would that we all have such supportive and encouraging parents.