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 BACK
IN 1984, Adam and I lived in Santa Barbara one street over from
a beautiful park with a large pond and a flock of resident ducks.
They don’t fly south for the winter. They’re already
south.
One day there was a new duck on the pond.
I don’t know where it came from or how it got there, but
it was a stranger, new to the pond and not accepted by
the ducks who felt they owned the pond.
So here was this beautiful pond with maybe
a dozen ducks swimming around together; and over on the side
was this lone duck.
Over the next few days we watched this
newcomer try again and again to join the others, and again and
again they drove him off, quacking and flapping their wings and
chasing it away. Again and again and again.
But each time the new duck got just a little
bit closer before the others came flapping and chasing. And over
time, fewer of the ducks participated in repelling the new duck,
and they gradually showed less enthusiasm for it. Eventually
the old ones tired of continually resisting this new duck who
apparently had nowhere else to go and wasn’t about to leave.
The new duck must have had a strong desire
to join the others and it never gave up. It just kept
staying on the pond, determined to be part of the group.
And one day we walked by the pond and there
was no quacking or flapping. The new duck was cruising with the
others, who seemed on edge but tolerant. Eventually it was just
another duck on the pond, part of the group.
Whatever you want in life, be like the
duck on the pond. Don’t let anyone chase you off your dreams.
One of the greatest – maybe the greatest powers on
this earth is simple committed persistence. Keep at it long enough
and the thing you want shall be yours.
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