How to pass exams – Part 20 Superman, Muhammad Ali and the air steward!
The heavyweight boxer Mohammed Ali was amazing,
I saw him in a Leeds bookshop a few years ago.
He is probably the greatest sports star of all time and was known to be quick witted. Interviewers loved him as he bragged about being the greatest, or “the champ”.
At the height of his career, he was on an aeroplane in First Class, with his people around him. Everyone was excited that Mohammed Ali was on the plane. The air steward was walking up the aisle checking that everyone had fastened their seat belts. She walked up and down the aisle, staring at everyone’s lap, double-checking the seat belts.
As she walked past Mohammed Ali she said
“Excuse me Mr Ali, can you put your seatbelt on please?”
Mohammed Ali said to her
“Superman doesn’t need a seat belt”.
Ouch!
But the air steward came back quickly and said
“Yes, Mr Ali, but Superman doesn’t need an aeroplane”!
I wish I’d been there!
She was super quick and left Muhammad Ali lost for words.
Superman’s a fictional alien from another planet – a made up comic character – he doesn’t exist and Superwoman don’t exist either.
We don’t have super powers – we can’t do this school/college thing on our own.
We must always take responsibility for our own success but we are also responsible for each other’s success too.
We can succeed together.
Because we contribute to everyone else’s success, the way you act in school; the way you behave in lessons; the way you are with your mates; the way you encourage your mates instead of putting them down, makes a big difference.
You and your mates are in this together.
You’re a team…
[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – How to pass exams ]
Do you remember the rescue of the miners in Chile?
33 men got stuck 2000 feet underground.
It was 17 days before their families even knew they were still alive.
Then hundreds of people worked, prayed and hoped they would get back to the surface and on the 13th October 2010 (69 days later) the first miner Florencio Alvalos came back to the surface to hug his wife and his son.
It was truly amazing to watch. The world fixed its gaze on Chile as we saw every miner rescued safely.
Florencio said he didn’t want to celebrate until all 33 of them were back safely.
Probably the most amazing news story of recent years and it was filled with such hope, a real break from the doom and gloom of the normal news.
They all made it because they all got involved and even the engineers and families on the surface were just as much part of the rescue as the miners were themselves.
It’s like the whole of Chile contributed to their rescue.
They made it out because they were a team.
Hope kept them alive when many people said they wouldn’t make it.
You can make it too!
Honest 🙂
This an excerpt from Top UK motivational School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College” Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) here now.
