American writer and motivational speaker
Jack Canfield (born August 19, 1944) is an American author and motivational speaker. He is the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print in over 40 languages. In 2005 Canfield co-authored with Janet Switzer The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
Daniel and the Pelican
As I drove home from work one afternoon, the cars ahead of me were swerving to miss something not often seen in the middle of a six-lane highway: a great big pelican. After an eighteen-wheeler nearly ran him over, it was clear the pelican wasn’t planning to move any time soon. And if he didn’t, the remainder of his life could be clocked with an egg timer.
I parked my car and slowly approached him. The bird wasn’t the least bit afraid of me, and the drivers who honked their horns and yelled at us as they sped by didn’t impress him either.
Stomping my feet, I waved my arms and shouted to get him into the lake next to the road, all the while trying to direct traffic.
“C’mon beat it, Big Guy, before you get hurt!”
After a brief pause, he cooperatively waddled to the curb and slid down to the water’s edge.
Problem solved. Or so I thought.
The minute I walked away he was back on the road, resulting in another round of honking, squealing tires and smoking brakes.
So I tried again.
“Shoo, for crying out loud!”
The bird blinked, first one eye then the other, and with a little sigh placated me by returning to the lake.
Of course when I started for my car it was instant replay.
After two more unsuccessful attempts, I was at my wits’ end. Cell phones were practically non-existent back then, and the nearest pay phone was about a mile away. I wasn’t about to abandon the hapless creature and run for help. He probably wouldn’t be alive when I returned.
So there we stood, on the curb, like a couple of folks waiting at a bus stop. While he nonchalantly preened his feathers, I prayed for a miracle.
Suddenly a shiny red pickup truck pulled up, and a man hopped out.
“Would you like a hand?”
I’m seldom at a loss for words, but one look at the very tall newcomer rendered me tongue-tied and unable to do anything but nod.
He was the most striking man I’d ever seen — smoky black hair, muscular with tanned skin, and a tender smile flanked by dimples deep enough
20% of America’s millionaires never set foot in college, and 16 of the 492 Americans listed as billionaires in 2014 never got their college diplomas; 2 never even finished high school! So although education and a commitment to lifelong learning are essential to success, a formal degree isn’t a requirement.
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A young woman entered a cafeteria in New York City, placed her suitcase by a table where another person was eating, and went off to get some food. While she was away, a young man came by, picked up her bag, and walked off with it. In only one out of eight trials of this experiment did the customer at the table make an effort to stop him. When the same woman again entered the cafeteria and placed her bag down by a table where someone else was sitting, but then asked that person to keep an eye on it while she got some food, her table mate stopped the young man when he began to make away with it every time. On another day, the same young woman visited a beach, spread out her blanket, left a radio on it, and went off, either saying nothing to the nearest bystander or else asking that person to keep an eye on her things. Moriarity got the same results. At both locations, nearly all of the bystanders she asked to watch her possession tried to stop the “thief,” but of those she did not ask, only a few — one in eight in the cafeteria and one in five at the beach — did so. 4 — Pryor Report, February 1992
But it was option three that won out. Always one to savor new adventures, I opted to bathe Oscar the old-fashioned way — shampoo and water, in the shower. Weighing the situation, I concluded that Oscar had the advantage of quickness, cunning, claws that could remove all skin from my body, and a lack of concern for human life. I had the element of surprise, strength, and the advantage of battlefield selection.