Artie had just set out on a long car trip home from Sydney, Australia to Goulburn. It would take about two and a half hours. Suddenly a huge coal truck traveling in the opposite direction swerved into oncoming traffic and Artie couldn’t avoid it. His little car was no match for the truck and it was cut in half. Artie was lucky to escape with his life. In the collision, his right arm was torn off. He almost bled to death before the ambulance arrived. When he was taken to the hospital in Sydney, he had to sign for surgery with his left hand. His right arm was trimmed back to three inches below the shoulder. Artie's wife and fifteen-year-old son were notified by police and they took a cab to Sydney, a hundred plus miles away. To make matters worse, it was Artie’s birthday.
Artie had always been an athletic fellow. Now as an older family man his favorite sport was golf. Artie was a pipefitter by trade and was in a pipefitter’s golfing tournament the day of the accident. One arm golfing isn’t unheard of although it is challenging. It was especially challenging for Artie, a twenty handicap. The greatest obstacle was Artie’s own self-consciousness. His old partners at the Goulburn Golf Club would have been more than happy to continue playing with him but Artie just didn’t feel right about it. So he asked his son to accompany him.
The boy had never played golf so for a while he carried his Dad’s bag. Eventually, he borrowed a set of clubs and played along. For years father and son were a solid twosome on and off the course. After Artie’s accident the boy, who had hoped for a career in architecture, dropped out of school to assist in the family business. Six years of night school would qualify the young man as a journeyman plumber. He was twenty-one when his name was added to the shop window of his father’s business.
Through it all, the father and son were golfing buddies. Artie was a twenty handicap with both arms but improved to fourteen during his days playing with his son with only one arm. But it was his son, who just wanted to spend time with his dad, who ended up being great at the game. In fact, at age 22, Artie’s son won the 1960 Australian Open. He kept right on winning. He won dozens of PGA events, dozens of world-wide victories, he did 140 golf course designs as well as 30 years of sportscasting for NBC and ESPN. You have now heard the story of Australia's great Bruce Devlin. A boy who tagged along to help out his one-armed father’s self-consciousness and became a champion.
Grit or perseverance is a topic that is often associated with success. The components of these skills are Interest, Capacity to Practice, Purpose, and Hope. Interest is that passion that starts with enjoying what you are doing. At first, our boy golfer didn’t know much about the sport but became more interested as he learned more about the sport by watching his father. Capacity to Practice is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday. Our young golfer had the capacity to practice each day since he was golfing for the betterment of someone else. Purpose is what really ripens your passion and gives you the conviction that your work matters. Bruce definitely knew that his work with his father mattered. Hope is the feeling that I can do it and it has to be present in all of the other areas.
Thanks to all of you Artie’s out there who are bringing along your young wards so you can share your passion with them.
How to promote Grow Mindsets
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Celebrate Mistakes
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Praise the Process, Not the Person
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Give Tasks That Promote Struggle and Growth
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Assessments For A Growth Mindset
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Teach Students Optimistic Self-Talk
Have a great weekend,
Rob
Superintendent