12735 After reading and being inspired by the courageous story of Chris Lofton, I shared my personal story of John Brennan, aka The Never Say Die Kid, last week. Well, here's another inspirational serendipitous moment: As I was traveling from a speaking event in Miami last Thursday, my usual ritual is to buy my reading materials for the flight - a NY Times, a USA Today and a local paper from the city that I'm in at the time. So, I grabbed a copy of the Miami Herald. We were taxiing onto the runway and I opened up the sports section and saw a story about Harry Greenberg, _"UNDETERRED":http://www.miamiherald.com/620/story/533670.html . The story immediately caught my attention because of the picture of Harry - a poolside shot of this young, self-assured athlete, LAX stick in his right hand and a prosthetic forming his left leg. The eerie similarity of this image took me back to John's story. The similarities became even more apparent as I read Harry's saga versus the same foe, osteosarcoma, that John had faced and ultimately LOST to. As I read Harry's story, just like Lofton's words and John's words, that familiar athlete's confidence and belief that all opponents are beatable was clear in the story. That "David-like" attitude within all athletes comes out when he or she is told that "you have NO shot of beating this "Goliath" of an opponent. The foe that Harry, Chris and John faced, called cancer, has an ominous record, destroys its opponents and takes on all comers. Just like John and Chris ... Harry was undeterred! The necessity of having an athletic-like mentality has been chronicled many times as an "X factor" when someone is facing insurmountable competitive odds (especially a personal or family health issue). Time and time again I have read, seen or heard a story of someone facing a life-threatening illness and a factor that they profess was a plus in their ability to defeat/overcome the illness was approaching it with a similar approach to any of their athletic endeavors (cue the Lance Armstrong or Kevin Everett video). This attitude involves approaching this issue with what my grandfather called, *"WANT-TO!"* He would say: You gotta "WANT-TO!" be your best at anything you try; you gotta "WANT-TO!" work at it; you gotta "WANT-TO!" put your work in to achieve your goal. Preparing for a new season or a pivotal game or any type of competition (I'd say cancer fits the criteria) that requires preparation, sacrifice, commitment, dedication, discipline, and goal setting - that's all about having some "WANT-TO!". Although faced with a much graver consequence than an "L" in win/loss column of a box score, the same attitude needed to beat an arch-rival or the opponent that you are facing for a championship, is desperately needed facing _this opponent_ . Harry and Chris posted two more Ws in the win column versus cancer. That's a great reason to celebrate! true 2008-05-18T18:35:47Z 54578 1 2008-05-18T19:56:50Z