Inspiring people
BULA readers, as we continue to move into uncertain and uncharted waters for all our citizens I thought to reminisce a little bit about the time before the dreaded COVID-19.
As most of you would know I interview people on a whole host of topics and hopefully find a companionate and interesting story about each subject’s life.
I would have interviewed well over one thousand individuals across a wide spectrum of society from the stars of Hollywood to the icons of Bollywood. From the superstars of sports to singing sensations of the world music industry and all have a unique story to tell.
A few weeks ago I was interviewed by a media company asking me to name my most interesting and memorable interviews for television. I didn’t have to think for long as I already had the answers ingrained in my mind and can remember these meetings like it was yesterday.
A lot of the interviews I have to go back to the videos to study and remember what we were discussing, but these few interviews are very vivid in my mind.
What I have asked myself this week is why were they so captivating and why were these individuals so successful in their given field.
It comes down to one thing and that is these individuals ability to overcome adversity and flourish. This is no easy feat and only a handful of people would be able to go through the trails and tribulations of their struggles and come through the other side to be hailed as legends and icons in their field.
What I will do today is give you a quick overview, not of these individuals’ successes but what hurdles they had to go through to succeed.
Quite simply known as ‘The Greatest’, this gifted boxer won Olympic Gold for his country, the USA in 1960. He went on to win sports most coveted title the heavyweight championship of the World in 1964 aged 22.
With the world at his feet, came adulation, fame and fortune, but at the peak of his skills in 1967 he was stripped of his title until 1970 and given a suspended jail sentence for not willing to enlist in the army to fight a war he felt was unjust against Vietnam thousands of miles away from America.
His best boxing years were taken from him hold as the American people turned on him and he quickly went from hero to enemy number one of the country. Three prime years of his boxing life were taken and all his wealth was spent keeping him out of jail until 1970 when the Supreme Court overruled his conviction and he once again won the hearts of the people and went on to become the greatest athlete of all time.
Halle Berry is one of the most talented and charismatic actors of her generation. She has won a prestigious Oscar award and ranks as one of the great actors of the twentieth century, but her life wasn’t always this good.
Starting out Halle moved to New York to seek her fame and fortune, alas it didn’t turn out that way. Her ambitions were severely tested when she become homeless with no money and first having to sleep in a car and eventually moving into a homeless shelter briefly.
If that wasn’t bad enough her health gradually declined and left her in a coma, it was diagnosed later that she had Type 1 Diabetes and has had to manage this condition.
Today after overcoming all of this, she is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood and has various endorsement deals with multi billion dollar organisations.
Often referred to as the Queen of Country Music, Reba might not be a household name in our region, but in the USA she is truly an American icon. Growing up in a poor country town she has risen above her low social economic setting and gone on to sell more than 100 million records and become a stage, television and radio personality.
Tragedy struck when her whole band were killed in a private plane accident and she was following them in the next flight. This hit her hard and it was described like loosing all your family at once. Regardless of this Reba picked herself up and carried on.
I remember asking Reba what she felt contributed to her success. She says “there’s nothing wrong in a hard day’s work and living a clean and uncomplicated life”. She has certainly lived the dream being a music icon for more than 30 years now.
Kgalema Motlanthe was the former president of South Africa presiding over a country of 60 million people and the land mass being over 1.2 million square kilometers. He has enjoyed the trappings of success that comes with this position, but this wasn’t always the way.
In fact Motlanthe served 10 years in jail with the most famous prisoner in history, Nelson Mandela — and was with Mandela on the infamous Robben Island Prison.
It was there that he was tortured, spat on, urinated on and even human feces was put in his food. Regardless of this, after 10 years of hard labour in prison Mr. Motlanthe left with no hatred for his captives.
I asked him if he could have ever imagined that he would rise to the presidency one day while being incarcerated in prison. He said, “forget about the presidency I was not even sure I would get out of prison alive”.
A triumph for the human spirit to leave a prison institution after 10 years for a crime that you were wrongly convicted for and still have love in your heart for your captives.
To top it off he ascended to the presidency of his beloved nation, an inspiring figure indeed.
A true global icon who has been a superstar of Indian cinema for more than 40 years now, but it didn’t start to well for the chosen one. Bachchan was struggling badly at the beginning of his career and seen as a failed newcomer to the Bollywood film industry who, by the age of 30, had twelve flop films and only two hits.
This would deter almost anybody to find another career path not Bachchan, who turned his fortunes around and today is regarded as the greatest superstar in Indian cinema history and continues to be a force on many media platforms across the globe.
I hope these short stories of persistence and fortitude have given you a sense of encouragement and inspiration.
The moral of the story is, if you can overcome your problems like these strong minded individuals have been able to do, you to can flourish and succeed in your life ambitions. Keep focused my friends and stay positive.