What Martin Luther King Jr. Said to Me....
...Having The Right Attitude And People Around You
We all know the famous 1963 ‘I have a dream’ speech. The speech has stood the test of time and stands shoulder to shoulder with Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863), Winston Churchill’s ‘Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat’(1940) and Socrates’ Apology (4th century B.C). A year after this speech, Martin Luther King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
One thing most people don’t know is that this speech was a coincidence. It was not planned for the Lincoln memorial address, as matter of fact, the speech was considered a ‘not too good speech’ that was used to address the congregants at a rally in Detroit a few months before
MLK being the young leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was given 9 minutes to deliver his speech and was pushed to back of the programme because other leaders wanted to speak before him. They all wanted to speak before 3pm so they could be on the 6pm news. Remember this was 1963, there was no Snapchat or nobody sponsored post on Instagram. To be on the 6pm news, you needed to speak by 3pm and hence MLK was pushed to the back of the line.
Finally, MLK was allowed to speak, but as he got to the end of his speech, one of his good friends – gospel singer Mahalia Jackson – standing nearby, having just sang before his speech, and who had also witnessed the ‘I have a dream’ speech in Detroit began shouting:
“Tell them about the dream Martin!”
And with that, one of the greatest speeches in history was born.
Lesson 1: Always have the right attitude. If you are good you will stand out! If you are not, you might as well join the rat race. The other leaders probably all made it onto the 6pm news but didn’t make history. Today we don’t even know their names or what their speeches were about. Like the Biblical King David, when it’s your time, it’s your time; nobody can leave you behind in the wilderness.
Lesson 2: Have the right friends. They don’t have to be rich or be the cool kids, but there has to be a bond of brotherhood or sisterhood. I have over 3k friends on social media but I believe in something I call the four friend rule. I believe you only need four real friends in life; just like a table, you only need four legs to balance, just like the paralysed man, you only need four men to break the roof of another man house, damning the consequences just to get you to Jesus.
Friends are like escalators, they either take you up or bring you down, and if you have a selfish 'out of service' friend, you are stuck! Like MLK, Always have the right attitude in the wrong altittude and have friends that believe in you and know when to push you into destiny.
