WINSTON CHURCHILL: JOURNEY TO SUCCESS

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill after giving his famous speech

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, a British Conservative politician, is best remembered for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the darkest years of Second World War. He failed many times in life. He first failed in sixth grade. Churchill’s early political career was tumultuous; and he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the age of 62.

During Churchill’s political career, he made numerous decisions that would turn into failures.
In the First World War, he led the troop who invaded Turkey in order to establish a southern link with Russia, which resulted into a complete failure and loss of many young soldiers from Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, ANZAC.
In the Second World War he was chiefly responsible for taking over Norway and he was defeated by the German army.

In spite of all the failures and criticism, Churchill is regarded as one of the greatest leaders and orators of the 20th century.

In 1953 he received the Noble Prize for Literature for the book ‘The Second World War’. In 1963, the US Congress granted him an honorary American citizenship. In 1940 and in 1949, the Time magazine honoured Churchill with the “Man of the Year”.

He wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.”

“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill stuttered(stammered) as a child. His father, who had wanted his son to become a barrister, thought Churchill was retarded because he did poorly in school, most of the time finishing near the bottom of his class. Churchill failed the sixth grade, took three full terms to get to the next class in mathematics, and was rejected by both Oxford and Cambridge. Churchill’s father advised him to pursue a career in the Army. Following his father’s advised, he then applied to join the Royal Military College at Sand Hurst, the British equivalent to West Point in the United States, but he failed the entrance examination two, twice! After intense tutoring and a lot of cramming, Churchill squeaked by the third time round.

ONE OF WINSTON’S FAMOUS STORIES

Once lived a man called Fleming, he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

“I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”

“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.

“Is that your son?” the nobleman asked

“Yes,” the farmer replied proudly

“I’ll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.” And that he did. Farmer Fleming’s son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman’s son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman?
Lord Randolph Churchill.

His son’s name?
Sir Winston Churchill.

We can all learn a lot from Sir Winston Churchill’s story. Most of all, we can pick up a few things which may seem so little to us but above all very valuable. For all of us who are striving hard to reach a goal, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for each an everyone, it’s left to you to adhere to good advice and also put in a lot of hardwork to whatever you want to achieve. Above all you can make it, do your best, be hardworking and yes the best is yet to come.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

From Left-Right: Winston as a young boy, as a teenager, as a Man

Posted by Simeon