In the year 1936,
Within the freezing cold nethers of Hungary,
There lived a champion shrouded in mystery and secrecy.
A mortal man who surpassed all sense and logic,
A man destined to step into the halls of his ancestors as a fighter worthy of their respect and lineage. Karoly Takacs.
Karoly was a man on a mission. His mission was to achieve glory.
His arena? The olympic shooting range and his crown? The gold medal.
Karoly Takacs had already reached the status of the best pistol shooter in the world around the year 1936.
With two olympic gold medals he was a master of the handgun,
A man with no equal in the art of shooting to kill. The world knew he was great. He was spectacular.
However,
I started this lesson by saying he was a mystery.
Why?
Because although the world knew of Karoly's greatness in the art of shooting, in their eyes he was just an olympic gold medalist.
A champion, but one of many.
One among the rest of the 100s of athletes who win that glorious title.
But there’s more..
What the world didn't know was Karoly was not just an athlete or a champion shooter.
No he was not,
You see my friend,
Karoly was something entirely different.
This magnificent man had managed to awaken something within him,
A desire to go beyond excellence,
A will of the gods.
He had, with sheer will and determination, unlocked the true potential of the human mind.
Something truly godlike.
Let me tell you what happened to Karoly,
This will show you what true champions mentality looks like.
It will set your heart ablaze with a passion to go beyond excellence.
Karoly was a sergeant in the Hungarian army.
In the year 1938 two years after he was already the best shooter in the world,
Karoly was the best draw to win gold in the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo.
To mark the world with his stamp of a triple gold,
He practised relentlessly.
Blood and sweat was shed and not an inch was spared in dedication.
The world looked at him for inspiration.
He was going to create history with a triple olympic gold medal in shooting.
But all stories of greatness have a twist of fate.
An attempt at mockery of the human spirit by the forces that write our destiny.
Such was the case with Karoly.
In the summer of 1938, On a training exercise at army camp,
He lost the one thing his hopes, dreams and ambitions rested on.
The one thing that was dearest to him, His shooting hand, his right hand.
A faulty grenade exploded ripping apart his arm leaving behind a bloody stump and shattered dreams. This news shook the world.
A champion shooter loses his shooting arm.
What a devastating blow.
Karoly was rushed to the hospital & throughout his treatment, He was eerily quiet,
Never spoke a single word for 3 whole days.
Then he just retired to his home and nobody heard of him for a long long time.
Gone into exile.
Imagine that,
Being so good at something that you have the whole world looking up at you as someone beyond great.
Feeling invincible, all powerful, respected, desired and accomplished.
Then losing it all in the blink of an eye.
Think now,
What would you do if you were him?
Drown your sorrows in booze and weed?
Look for sympathy and hope a kind man offers help?
Curse your fate and blame circumstance till your mouth runs dry?
I would not blame you if you picked any of these,
After all, we are regular men. Karoly wasn't.
In the spring of 1939,
The Hungarian National Pistol Championship took place.
Shooters from all over the country gathered to take the spot Karoly had left vacant.
Like vultures swooping down on prey, They hungered to take his throne for their own.
His absence being their only saving grace.
To their surprise,
Karoly arrives on the scene after more than a year of silence.
Looking tired and weak,
But with a spark in his eye that they just couldn't identify.
Something that made them feel uneasy.
Feigning empathy,
They pretend to console him for his loss,
They mock him saying they were happy he was present to see them shoot.
Giving fake assurances that they hope he could be happy with being a spectator.
But to everyone’s dismay, Being the warrior that he is,
Karoly simply smiles and nods,
Then he utters his first words in public that shook every single man who was present that day -
"I'm not here to watch, I'm here to shoot".
Silence all around,
Utter disbelief.
This man has lost his mind?
He lost his arm, He wants to shoot?
Surely he is not serious?
The event begins, Marksmen take stage.
The shooting begins and the vultures are doing exceptionally well.
All while giving a smug smile to Karoly who simply stood in silence.
Stoic, unmoved, an Oak in the storm.
It was his turn now,
Everyone present expects a feeble attempt to pull the trigger with his right hand
A desperate attempt by a forgotten hero to quench his emotional thirst for shooting. A man desperately clinging to his past tales of legend.
But on that day, This man had a desire to rewrite history in his favour.
What happened next was something special.
A display of pure human will power and a mindset that could engulf the sun.
This was the day Karoly showed the world what it means to be a champion.
Remember he wasn't a mere mortal, Not a man who bows down to defeat and accepts it with a smile, This was a man who had transcended human limitation,
Who had looked at fear, death and defeat square in the eye and stated,
"Move along, you will find no victim here."
To everyone's surprise,
He picks up the pistol, But with his left arm.
Unshaking, firm, determined, He takes aim,
Steadies his breath, And fires the perfect shot,
Beating everyone there with a bullseye.
Cementing his name as a champion again.
A marksman sent down by the gods.
In a mere second, he had regained all his past glory times a hundred.
You see,
Karoly didn't disappear to mope and whine or wallow in self pity,
Solitude wasn't his escape, It was his redemption.
Lying in a hospital bed with one arm,
All he could think of was how to get back to where he was again,
He disappeared for a year, Not to rest and recuperate,
But only to train his left hand.
In the span of a year, He took his left hand,
The one that could not hold a spoon to eat,
And turned it into a world class, Olympic level, Shooting arm.
The next time he took his place at an olympic shooting ring,
Not only did he win gold,
He shattered the world record for rapid fire pistol shooting.
And he did it with his left hand.
This is the mindset of a champion.
This story always inspires me,
Like karoly I have overcome failure after failure in life.
I am blessed, I haven’t been harmed physically like he was,
But everytime I fail, I put myself in his shoes,
I think of looking at a target from a 100 yards away,
A pistol in front of me, I ask myself this,
Will you shoot or will you accept defeat?
What can we learn from Karolys story?
How can you learn to think and act with the mentality of a champion?
How can you bounce back twice as strong and fierce after a setback?
I will tell you next lesson.
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