Jim Henson
Creator of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.
Jim Henson was the voice of Kermit, Ernie, Rowlf, and Dr. Teeth. With the TV show Sesame Street, he taught and entertained generations of children simply by sharing -- and believing in -- his own idealistic dream.
He didn’t set out to be a puppeteer. He just wanted to work in TV.
But at seventeen years old, when he went looking for a job at a local TV station, they rejected him.
While there, he saw a sign on a nearby bulletin board. The TV station was looking for a puppeteer.
Jim Henson went to the library, checked out a book on puppetry, built a few puppets, and returned to the station.
"Now I am a puppeteer. Will you hire me?"
They gave him five minutes.
It was all Jim Henson needed.
I’ve got a dream too, but it’s about singing and dancing and making people happy. That’s the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with.
-- Kermit the Frog
But green’s the color of spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a mountain
Or tall like a tree.
-- Kermit the Frog
The Wright Brothers
Inventors of the world’s first flying machine.
When it was time to try building the first flying machine, Samuel Langley had incredible resources and tens of thousands in funding. Bicycle salesmen Orville and Wilbur Wright had a flying toy their father gave them as children and a dream they refused to give up on. Guess who won?
Every day, they knew they’d fail.
Every time they’d go out to fly -- every time -- they brought extra materials because they knew their fledgling design would crash.
Crash and rebuild. Crash and rebuild.
But never ever, ever give up.
If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.
-- Orville Wright
Roberto Clemente
Baseball legend. Hometown hero.
Being one of the best baseball players in the world would satisfy most people. Roberto Clemente got better every year. As a right fielder with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won twelve Gold Glove Awards and had the best batting average in four different seasons.
Being a baseball player made him famous.
Being a twelve-time Golden Glove winner made him rich.
So when an earthquake struck Nicaragua, he could have just written a check and gotten his name in the paper.
Instead, he got involved personally.
He funded three emergency relief flights.
All three were diverted by corrupt officials -- which is why Clemente decided to fly on the fourth plane himself.
It was packed with as much food and medicine as he could possibly bring.
The plane crashed in the ocean, killing everyone on the flight.
But Roberto Clemente isn’t a hero because the plane went down.
He’s a hero because of why he got on board.
If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth.
-- Roberto Clemente
He can run and throw -- and we think he can hit.
-- Draft report on Roberto Clemente for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Excerpted from Heroes for My Son by Brad Meltzer. Copyright 2010 by Forty-four Steps, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by HarperStudio, an imprint of HarperCollins.
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