Focus On The Finish Line,
Not The Starting Line

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
—Mark Twain

Many people believe one of the myths of success: that in order to achieve anything significant in life one must come from a background full of resources.

There are those who look at where they are in life and conclude that it’s impossible to make it to the top. Have you met people like this, those who blame their failure on their past?

Somewhere in their subconscious they believe their past (where they started in life) is the reason they are barely surviving today. This is far from the truth. When I look at how far I have come to be where I am today, I can’t help thinking that you and I have more inside us than we could ever imagine.

Against All Odds

I was born in extreme poverty in a tiny village in Haiti. Haiti is located south of Florida, with the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. While not all people on the island are poor, the people in my village certainly were.

The village is about two miles long and one mile wide. It is located on the extreme southside in the backwoods of Haiti. We had no running water, no plumbing, and no electricity. We didn’t have access to medical care.

I still remember the first time I saw lights. They were the headlights of an old and battered truck they called Voici Phane (vwah-see fahn), which means here is Phane…the truck owner’s name.

Things were difficult in my village. By the time I was five or six years old, I was walking long distances on narrow and dangerous pathways to collect drinking water from a wellspring, and to fetch wood for cooking.

I started climbing coconut and mango trees for survival. As a little boy, I remember using my hands to eat because we had no silverware. For plates, we used half calabashes, which are like big watermelons grown out of a tree (except they are not edible).

The folks would cut them in half, clean out the inside, and let them dry in the sun so that they would become the consistency of wood.

Every child in my village was poor; but I was worse off—most of them had at least one parent present. When I became aware of my surroundings, I realized I didn’t have my father or mother around me.

My father, who was no help to me, had children all over Haiti. He traveled from very far to take advantage of young, innocent women; and he abandoned Maman while she was still pregnant with me. I learned that my mother left me when I was only nine months old.

The neighbors told me Maman suffered very much because she was so poor. One morning she decided to venture to the city, Port-au-Prince, to discover what life had in store for her—and to end a lifetime of poverty.

She left me behind with a lady named Betila. They told me Maman had planned to send for me as soon as she could, but life in the city was tough and things didn’t turn out the way she expected. It would be a long time before she could send for me.

As soon as Maman took off, I became ill. Many deadly diseases vowed to end my existence so much so that I often lost all my strength. My unhealthy diet, which mostly consisted of breadfruit, added to my misery.

Do you know what breadfruit is? It looks like pineapples on the outside but tastes like extra tough potatoes. My already weak digestive system could not process this much starch; but since I survived by eating breadfruit night and day, my stomach was always bloated. I had constant indigestion, and parasites were eating me alive.

I wanted to give up many times because my body was so weak, but my spirit refused to do so. It wanted me to stay in the ring and fight one more battle.

I spent most of my time during the day sitting on a dirt floor fanning flies off my face; and at night, I shooed away the mosquitoes. I was so alone. There were times when I wondered whether I had been brought to this earth by a spirit who had then abandoned me.

Every day I cried for my mother’s help. I heard that I had a sister and a brother in the City with Maman. I wanted to be close to my family. Perhaps then I could be touched, even held.

Psychologists tell us that children who are not cuddled, held, and touched have a tendency to shrink and die early. I desperately needed some type of affection.

The Cynical Predictions Of The Lay Fortune Tellers

Yes, I suffered the blows of poverty; and I endured the pain of sickness and loneliness—but the highest mountain I had to climb was dealing with the teasing and ridiculing of the people in the village. They made fun of my swollen tummy and my skeletal body.

Some villagers belittled me. They called me Kokobay and Souyan. Kokobay is an actual Creole word, which means crippled. I found out that there was an actual person named Souyan. He was crippled with a flat behind. He, too, had to put up with teasing and name-calling.

When the strong tropical wind blew in the village, I ran and braced my feeble body against trees in order to avoid being blown away. My condition had deteriorated so much that some people predicted I would not survive to adulthood.

They even told me so, but God proved them wrong. I made it. Do you remember the cigarette commercial for Virginia Slims? That’s the way I feel: I have come a long way baby!

What I went through is only my experience. While my family was living on the edge, there were those living a good life. Some were driving expensive cars, living in hilltop mansions, and traveling the world. These people can’t identify with my story, but they are not the majority.

What about you? How long have you traveled to get where you are today? Where did you start in life? Some people, particularly Haitians, often ask if I’m embarrassed to share so much of my early life with strangers.

Why should I be embarrassed? It doesn’t matter where you start; what matters is where you finish. Society does not evaluate me based on my past.

A Fortune 500 company never looks at my past before hiring me to speak to their employees. Instead, they hire me because of what I have accomplished. It is who I am today that earns me respect and admiration.

Regardless of where we start—whether it’s the ghetto or a tiny village in Haiti—with a strong vision, solid goals, and a sense of direction, we can have a great finish. Where we come from is not as relevant as where we are going.

When I stand on a platform staring at three thousand souls waiting for me to boost their batteries, to touch their souls—they are interested in one thing: what I can offer them in that moment!

Been There, Done That And Got The T-Shirt

I am not looking for pity. I just want to illustrate that I am not sitting on a mountaintop preaching to the masses. When I say, “It doesn’t matter where you start, what matters is where you finish,” I am speaking with conviction.

I’ve been there—poverty-stricken, hungry, tired, and diseased. I know that no condition is ever permanent. My goal is to convince you that your world is limitless— that it is important to remember your past but that it should never stop you from reaching for the top.

Your future has very little to do with your past unless you think so. What matters most is not your current position. Hard work and preparation can unlock the doors of your future regardless of where you are or where you started.

Your starting point is just a way of getting in the door; it’s your launching pad, although it has nothing to do with how high you can fly. If you want to have a great finish, you must decide now to make it happen.

My greatest concern is that people look at where they start, and from there they determine there is no way to ever accomplish anything significant. There is no dead-end! We decide what roads to take, what paths to pursue.

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