Transcript:
Hi there. My name is Jeff Arthur with The Values Conversation, here today to talk about taking a challenge. Now I’ve got my paper here and I’ve got my glasses and I’m gonna have to read some of this because it’s too specific of information, I don’t want to mess it up. But, to make sure I get this right, in 1954, a gentleman by the name of Theodore Geisel accepted a challenge to write a children’s book because back in the 50’s, there was some debate about whether the standard Dick and Jane books, whether they was really doing the job.
So, a friend of his and publisher by the name of William Spaulding challenged Geisel to write a book that, quote unquote, that the first graders of their generation, the first graders of their time, that the first graders couldn’t put the book down. And they gave him a list of 236 words that he had to use. The vocabulary had to be restricted to 236 words. So Geisel, frustrated with the list of words he had been given, finally decided he was just gonna write a book on the first two words out of his list that he could put together that rhymed, cat and hat.
Now, you would think that when I read Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat, that that would be a quick book to write. It actually took him over a year to work through all the things he needed to work through to get the book where he wanted to get it. But it never would have been, if he had not accepted the challenge to change things up, that the standard quo was not good enough, that he was going to take the challenge and take on what was not working, and try to make things better.
I think a lot of us in our life realize that things could get better in our life, but we have to take the challenge first. We have to be willing to break the status quo to find out what’s on the other side of the mountain to really enjoy the profits and the blessings that life can bring us.
This is Jeff Arthur, Values Conversation, just reminding us all that it’s okay to push ourselves and try new things and break the status quo. You can find out more about us online at TVCLeadership.com.