February 7, 2014
“[Poverty] wasn’t the only obstacle I had. As an elementary school student I really didn’t think that I was very bright, and all my classmates agreed with that assessment, and the teachers agreed with the assessment. … It’s a horrible thing to have doubt about your capabilities, to have fear. … Those who tend to be very successful are the ones who can move forward and face their fear, who can use those experiences, even if they fail, to help them find success the next time.”
Click here to listen to the talk. There are a couple of glitches in the audio, but they are just for a few seconds. Run time is 48 minutes.
Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., had a childhood dream of becoming a physician. Growing up in a single-parent home with dire poverty, poor grades, a horrible temper, and low self-esteem appeared to preclude the realization of that dream until his mother, with only a third-grade education, challenged her sons to strive for excellence. Young Ben persevered and [became] a full professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and directed pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for over a quarter of a century.1
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