With the recent passing of Muhammad Ali it brought me to to do some internet research and Youtube viewing on his legacy. Everyone knows the most popular sayings of floating like a butterfly sting like a bee and many others. However, one that stuck out to me was:
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."
I thought a lot about what others used to think was impossible about my road to becoming an attorney. I told my son the other day if someone tells you something is impossible take that as a challenge to not only do it but to excel at it and accomplish it better than anyone else. I then told him about how I became an attorney. I explained a Spanish Teacher in college once went around the room and asked each student what we were going to college for. When she got to me I told her I wanted to be a criminal defense attorney. She laughed and told me that I was struggling with my "r's" in Spanish and that I would never be able to pass the Bar exam. Now I could have taken that opinion she had and made an excuse and changed my major and took an easy way out. I knew not only was the Bar exam going to be hard, law school was going to be hard, finishing my 4 year degree was going to be hard. In fact, getting an A in her class was going to hard. A lot of people would have thought all of this was impossible. But I had enough knowledge to realize that it was just her opinion that it was impossible for me to be an attorney. What I did do is eternalize what she said and I committed it to my memory and burned in every word she said into my brain. I knew I would need it one day. That day came on July 30, 1996. That was the first day of the Florida Bar exam. I remember sitting there as the exam was being handed out and thinking I was there to pass that exam I was told I could not pass. I also recalled while sitting there that I had made an A in her class which was supposedly impossible. I had completed my 4 year degree in 3 years which was supposedly impossible. I had completed law school and ended up receiving 5 different awards showing I was the best student in each respective course which was supposedly impossible. So as I readied to take the exam on that day I believed with every fiber of my body I was there to pass the exam to prove once again that nothing was impossible.
I remember these dates and the order of all this like it was yesterday because I lived it. I lived with that Spanish Teacher telling me I was not going to pass the Bar exam. I knew that impossible was just a word an opinion. It is a word that was not going to become part of my vocabulary. It is word that I actually take as a challenge now. So when you go about your daily activities and you are told something is impossible take that as a dare. If you are like me then you like dares and will go the extra mile to prove that nothing is impossible.
If you, a family member or friend are charged with a DUI, misdemeanor, felony, violation of probation (VOP) or any other criminal offense please call me immediately to discuss it.
Ben