141 – Black Eyes and Brakes
It’s Soap Box Derby Season here in the States and in my tiny little town of Ogallala, NE we actually have an official Soap Box Derby Track – so it’s a very popular thing here – I applaud the many individuals that give their time and talents to run this show.
Starting age? SEVEN – which means my daredevil son finally gets to try it out. AND it was a total and utter disaster!
He was all gung ho about it, until he actually saw the hill and people driving down it.
So, we coaxed him into trying it. Starting half way down (they do this with all first-timers). And when you’re by yourself and that low to the ground, even 15 mph seems fast. And he decided he was done for the day and his derby career came to an end. And with that his sisters of age (8 and 7) were DEFINITELY not going to try it.
But, he talked it over all weekend and decided to give it another go.
And upon this second chance, he froze and didn’t hit the brake at the end and slammed into the safety cones and tires at the bottom of the hill and gave himself a black eye with a nasty cut. Oh yeah, there were tears.
Lots of tears. And worse yet, mom wasn’t there. Just dad. And Dad doesn’t always cut it with tears. But somehow, Dad was able to talk him into ending the day in victory instead of fear.
I promised I would never ask him to race again, but I told him that he learned from his mistakes that he deserved to at least have one race where things went right and to end his racing wit h a win.
So scared and shaking, he climbed back into that small cocoon of certain death and tackled his fears.
And decided he better do it again, about three more times.
And now we’re officially a soap box derby family.
And even got his big sister to try it – once.
Lots of lessons here folks, I hope you listen in but to summarize:
- Rarely do things go right at first.
- Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly, at first.
- The victory is when you get back up.