I Don't Want to Know the Odds

It may seem funny, at first glance, to call Barack Obama a hero. I mean, he's not a war hero—we know that. So let's look at him like a hero in literature. The hero always comes at a time of crisis, a time when the crisis has worn on, and the people really need a change.

Now you see, everybody's involved by that. The people really need a change. Somebody rises to the occasion, be it King Arthur who pulls a sword out of the stone, be it a Moses who comes forward and says, "Hey, we're supposed to get our people out of Egypt!" These are stories as political as your own issues.

Now, literature reflects life… Life reflects literature. Art is life captured. Art is the essence of it. Life, sometimes, is the details of it. So what I'm saying is, Barack Obama is following the literary model. He's the hero, come at the right time, with a new attitude, he seems to be blessed from beyond. And he is a new step, he is different, while the same. The hero rises.

Regardless of your political persuasion, what we're talking about is looking at the things in The NEW Think and Grow Rich philosophy that he embodies, and that we can learn from. And rising to the occasion is the ultimate thing he embodies. Rising to the occasion, providing the solution that people want, not being afraid of the odds—rather, being the only one capable of going into the forest, into the jungle, you name it, and doing what needs to be done.

Going in to do it. The other people, the ones that aren't the leader, they need someone else. They're fearful. They've bought into the limitations. And they're not trained, they're not young, and they're not on the adventurer's quest. They're not the hero.

Listen, when the time comes for each us to be heroes in our individual quests, we're doing it! When the time comes, that's what we want to do—step in.

“I don't want to know the odds!”