"Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary."

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Three Unlikely Successes

3.

Unknown to some people, Tom Hiddleston knew of the production of Thor long before it actually happened, as he was involved in a play with the man who was hired to direct Thor, Kenneth Branaugh. Almost as soon as he heard about it, Hiddleston ran into Branaugh's room with a makeshift Thor costume and asked what Branaugh thought. Branaugh laughed and gave a simple, "We'll see".

True enough, when it came time for casting to begin, Hiddleston was one of the first to audition for the title role. However, filmmakers deemed him as 'not exactly they type they were looking for' for the role of the Asgardian avenger. 
But after reviewing the audition tapes, they agreed that he had talent which could not be ignored. So they cast him in the film, as one of the best villains Marvel has ever produced:



2.                                                                                                                                                    
To quote (and sum up) from a wonderful film concerning this next example:
"You ever been to Kansas City? You know Missouri at all? Well, it's mighty cold there in the winters. Bitter cold. My dad... he owned a newspaper delivery route there. A thousand papers, twice daily! A morning and an evening edition. And dad was a tough businessman. He was a 'save a penny any way you can' type of fella, so he wouldn't employ delivery boys, no, no, no, he used me and my big brother Roy. 
I was eight, back then, just eight years old.
And, like I said, winters are harsh. And old Elias, he didn't believe in new shoes until the old ones were worn through. Honestly... sometimes those snowdrifts were so big they were over my head! And we'd push through that snow like it was molasses, cold and wet seeping through our clothes and shoes, skin peeling from our faces. Sometimes I'd find myself sunk down in that snow, just waking up. Must've passed out or something, I don't know. Then it was time for school and I was too cold and wet to figure out equations and things and, well, then it was right back out in the snow again to get home just before dark. Mother would feed us dinner. And then it was time to go right back out and do it again for the evening edition.
'You'd best be quick there, Walt, you'd better deliver... get those newspapers up on that porch and under that storm-door or papa's gonna lose his temper again and show you the buckle end of his belt.'
... I don't hate my dad. I love my dad. But rare is the day when I don't think of that eight year-old boy delivering newspapers in the snow, and old Elias Disney with that strap in his fist."




1.                                                                                                                                          
In 1850's Michigan, there was boy named Thomas. Thomas had been sent home from school one day with a note from his teacher saying 'Your son is completely stupid. We can't slow down the other students to oblige his difficulties. He's expelled. Don't send him back'.
However, when the boy asked his mother what the note said, she told him it said that he was so smart that the teachers didn't know how to teach him, so they were asking her to teach him.

Thomas grew up believing his mother, forever clinging to her words, and exploring the world around him. He never seemed to get anything right, but that didn't stop him from caring about others. 
Once, on his paper route, he saw a child playing on the tracks in a rail yard. He also saw the train cars thundering towards the child. So he dropped his papers and threw himself towards the child, throwing him out of the way. The child's father, the yard supervisor, rewarded Thomas with a freight car to conduct his scientific experiments in. The gift was later revoked after Thomas accidentally set fire to the car, but that still didn't stop him from pursuing his experiments.   

   Thomas faced hundreds more problems along the road, including progressive deafness, the death of his first wife, and mental difficulties.

But today, he is known as 'the Wizard of Menlo Park', Thomas Alva Edison.


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