Faith that the thing can be done is essential to any great achievement.
Thomas N. Carruther
Predicting a person’s potential is riskier than predicting the stock market. If you don’t think so, just go back to your high school yearbook and check up on those kids everybody thought were losers. You’ll discover some of them became super achievers while a few considered most likely to succeed — didn’t.
The New York Opera Newsletter carried a story by Nancy Stokes about a dinner Nancy and her husband, Sherrill, were having with a well-known singing coach. They played a recording of a young, college-age man and asked the coach, "What do you think?" "Not a chance," the famous voice teacher replied. "Don’t encourage him. Tell that guy to get a day job."
Only then did Nancy — whose full name is Nancy Stokes Milnes — reveal that the voice on that tape actually belonged to her husband, one of opera’s most accomplished baritones, Sherrill Milnes.
And the voice coach said, "You know, I’ll never discourage another young singer again."
Yes, like a stone in the hands of a skilled sculptor or a seed in the care of a good gardener, potential is something that’s impossible to see and difficult to predict.
The size of a dream has to be determined by the dreamer. The world is filled with people who, through determination and perseverance, outperformed the limits others had set for them.