MotivationOriginal story
The Day a Rejection Became a New Beginning
Anaya had planned her whole future around one letter. When it said no, she discovered that the door she'd been staring at was not the only one in the room.
When life gets difficult
For days when something has gone wrong: stories about falling down, and finding a way to begin again.
13 stories
MotivationBiography
The Girl Who Was Told She Would Never Walk
As a child, Wilma Rudolph wore a metal brace on her leg after polio. At twenty, she became the fastest woman in the world.
MotivationBiography
Born Again on the Mountain
In 2011, Arunima Sinha lost her leg after being thrown from a moving train. Two years later she stood on the summit of Mount Everest.
MotivationTrue story
The Night Edison's Factory Burned
In December 1914, a fire tore through Thomas Edison's laboratory and factories. He was 67, and much of his life's work was in flames. What he did next is the story.
MotivationFable & folk tale
The King and the Spider
Defeated, hunted and hiding in a cave, King Robert the Bruce of Scotland was ready to give up. Then he watched a spider try, and fail, and try again.
ReflectionFable & folk tale
The Old Man Who Lost His Horse
His horse runs away, and the neighbours say what bad luck. The old man only says, "Who knows?" An ancient Chinese story about good fortune and bad.
True StoriesTrue story
Trapped in the Ice
In 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was crushed by Antarctic ice. Twenty-eight men were stranded at the bottom of the world. Every one of them came home.
Famous LivesBiography
Twenty-Seven Years
Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison for opposing apartheid. He came out not seeking revenge, but determined to build a country for everyone.
MotivationBiography
Never Too Late
Anna Mary Moses spent her life on farms, raising a family and doing endless chores. In her late seventies she picked up a paintbrush. The world came to know her as Grandma Moses.
FoundersBiography
Sixty-Five and Starting Over
At an age when most people retire, Harland Sanders lost the roadside restaurant he had spent twenty-five years building. He had a pension cheque, an old car and a recipe for fried chicken. So he started again.
MotivationBiography
Dancing Again
At sixteen, Sudha Chandran was a rising young classical dancer. Then an accident on the road took her leg. Everyone assumed her dancing days were over. She did not.
MotivationBiography
The Mountain Man
In a poor village in Bihar, a labourer picked up a hammer and a chisel and began to cut a path through a rocky hill. Everyone laughed. He kept going for twenty-two years.
SportsBiography
The Flying Sikh
A boy who lost almost everything in the Partition of India found his way to an army running track, and then to the fastest races in the world.