I was driving in very rural Iowa (aka: the middle of nowhere) when I came upon a sign that a Nobel Prize winner was from this hometown. The sign was located in Cresco, Iowa (population 3,088), and referred to Norman Borlaug, whom I wrote about in dot #3190.
Borlaug was an agronomist credited with the development of semi-dwarf wheat, which saved a billion people worldwide from starvation. He grew up in an era before the internet or easy access to information. He could have felt limited by his rural background or his one-teacher/one-room schooling through eighth grade. He could have yielded to pressure to remain in the community and continue to farm the family’s acreage. But none of these pulls or impediments stopped him from going to college and pursuing agricultural research.
Think of Borlaug when you are making excuses for why you can’t do something or why your background limits your potential. Greatness is in everyone, no matter the circumstances.
