Success in a Minute Stories
by Alan C. Elliott

"Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture." William James

Alex Haley, in his book Roots contributed a new chapter to the American Dream. For millions of Americans, Haley showed the value of knowing who you are, where you came from and the value of your heritage. The pinnacle event of the Roots miniseries was a long time coming for Haley. After retiring from the Coast Guard, he was determined to become a writer. During his first year, he eeked out a measly $2,000 working 16-hour days. At one point he took stock of his situation. He had two cans of sardines and eighteen cents to his name. Sensing it was his low point, he put the items in a sack as a reminder. The next day, he received a check for an article. Today, that sack hangs like a "trophy" in his library.

Haley had made some progress as a writer when he began to write Roots . He remembers going deeply into debt as he spent much of his time sifting through courthouses and searching old records. "I owed everybody I had been able to borrow from." He missed five deadlines and was bogged down in the description of Kunta Kinte's travel from Africa to America aboard a slave ship. Somehow, he found someone who would loan him more money and he booked passage on a freighter. There, he spent 10 days in the cargo hold stripped to his underwear, and trying to imagine what it had been like for Kunta. He felt as if he could sense the feelings of his forbearers, and was able to complete the story.

CONSIDER THIS: If you believe in what you want to become, you will overcome the valleys of depression and humiliation with strength to rise up again and do the task at hand.