There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.
Although the lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain, they sent out their best party of fighting men to bring the baby home. They first tried one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After climbing only a few hundred feet after several days of effort, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.
As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother—with the baby strapped to her back—coming down the mountain that they had been unable to climb. One man greeted her and said, “How did you climb this treacherous mountain when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?”
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.”
Your goal, your dream, your sense of personal destiny, is your baby. Nobody will care for it, rescue it, or work for it like you will. Don’t expect it of others. Do expect that kind of care and hard work on your part. And do expect that you will need to pursue your dream with that kind of single-minded focus.
Today’s the day!
Source: Wisdom for Winner, vol 1, by Jim Stovall