Tony Williamson - Dollar for your thoughts

Overcoming discouragement

If you have never seen the movie Seabiscuit, I strongly urge you to buy or rent the DVD, sit back and watch some of the greatest lessons of life.

This particular version of Seabiscuit was directed by Gary Ross and stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper. Truth be told, these persons are not the true stars. The real star, the true hero, is a 'broken-down racehorse', discarded as a hopeless loser, cursed, abused and sold to millionaire Charles Howard for a rock-bottom price.

At the end of the movie, Seabiscuit's jockey summarised this remarkable true story. "We found a broken-down racehorse and thought we would fix him. But in a real sense, he fixed us." The ownership of this small, unlikely hero of a horse was to redeem and restore the life of a very discouraged man, a millionaire who had tragically lost his young son, and who suffered the break-up of his marriage.

The loving relationship with this horse also took his jockey, Johnny 'Red' Pollard, out of deep discouragement from the hand that life had dealt him, for he was abandoned by his parents and left in the Great Depression to fend for himself.

Turning point

Seabiscuit 'fixed' the life of his eccentric trainer, Tom Smith, a man who was living on the edge of poverty, but whose love of horses was the turning point in the life of Seabiscuit. His entry into the storyline was at the point where they were about to destroy another racehorse because it was lame. He intervened and begged them to spare the life of that horse, "What good would that do?" they asked. "He's lame, he will never run again." Then Tom uttered what was for me the most memorable line of the movie, a line what would eventually preserve the career of the injured jockey and possibly saved the life of Seabiscuit when he tore a ligament. He said, "You don't throw away a whole life just because it's banged up a little."

The redemption of Seabiscuit's own life is an example to illustrate that one can come back from defeat, rise from the ashes of failure to achieve greatness. Life dealt Seabiscuit a cruel hand as a young horse. He was beaten, abused, cursed and thought to be useless. The way the young horse was treated affected his mind. He became discouraged, bitter and angry. No one had shown him love except his mother, from whom he was snatched as a baby. By the time Charles Howard bought him, he was useless and no good - or so his previous owner thought. Until his new trainer befriended him, his new jockey loved him and his new owner cared for him.

Words of kindness

Remarkably, as the trainer and jockey began to speak words of kindness to him, ceased his whippings and began to tell him that he was a good horse, a hidden power within Seabiscuit began to emerge. The curse of discouragement which covered him like a shroud began to lift and the horse began to believe in himself and to relate to the kindness that was being shown to him for the first time in his life.

I have had to counsel scores of persons over my life. People come to me on the verge of suicide, in the depth of despair. Some are bitter, many are angry. The most common problem I unearth during these sessions is the emotional and psychological damage done to these people as children. Many were brutally beaten by savage parents but, strangely, the physical beatings are not the problem. It's the verbal abuse that scarred them, parents who told them they were dunces, idiots, worthless, that they would amount to nothing.

Empower your children

Verbal and emotional abuse of children can scar them for life. Child abuse of any kind is abominable, but it may surprise you how powerful an effect verbal abuse has. If it can negatively affect an animal, imagine what it can do to a young, impressionable child. Bless your children. Do not curse them. When Seabiscuit began to be blessed with words of encouragement and love, he changed into the hidden champion he was born to be. We shall see, as his story unfolds, how this horse was to put his past behind him and rise to the top.

Tony Williamson is an international motivational speaker, sales trainer, author and lifestyl consultant.Email tonywilliamson_57@ yahoo.com.