Are you thirsty enough?

We were chatting the other night, my daughter and I. “Dad,’ she said, “Do you know my friend’s father bought a Mercedes?”

“Good for him,” I said happily, “he deserves it.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“I’ve seen him work hard,” I told her.

“And do you know something?” she asked, “This other friend of mine admires him for how he has come up.”

“Good for him,” I said wryly.

“And he plans to also get a Mercedes one day.”

“He won’t,” I said.

“Why?” she asked eyes flashing.

“Because he has no thirst to do well,” I said simply, “He is simply a dreamer. He has no thirst to do well!”

A man had an operation, and the doctor, by mistake, left a sponge in him. A friend asked him if he had any pain because of it. “No,” said the man, “but I sure do get thirsty.”

And that’s the kind of thirst you need to have, as if a sponge is inside you. Or like a man in the desert who hasn’t sipped a drop of water for hours. That and only that will help you succeed. It’s true, isn’t it, that the people who get thirsty — not for water or beverages — but thirsty to pursue a dream or achieve a goal, are the ones who eventually succeed.

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