I have a friend
named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Isidro. He has let me use his
house to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.
The last time I was
there he introduced me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let Jack use my
horse. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an
itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race
track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s
high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was
asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.
“That night he
wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch.
He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a
200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the
track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that
would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.
“He put a great
deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his
teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a
large red F with a note that read, `See me after class.’
“The boy with the
dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, `Why did I receive an F?’
“The teacher said,
`This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You
come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch
requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the
original breeding stock and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees. There’s
no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher added, `If you will rewrite this
paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.’
“The boy went home
and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His
father said, `Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I
think it is a very important decision for you.’ “Finally, after sitting with it
for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all.
He stated, “You can
keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.”
Monty then turned
to the assembled group and said, “I tell you this story because you are sitting
in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still
have that school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The best part of
the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to
camp out on my ranch for a week.” When the teacher was leaving, he said, “Look,
Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a
dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately
you had enough gumption not to give up on yours.”
No comments:
Post a Comment