Former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., is known to baseball fans everywhere as “The Iron Man.” He will always be remembered for his consistency and longevity in a baseball career that spanned nineteen years.

On September 20, 1998, at age thirty-eight, he played in his 2,632th consecutive game before taking a well-deserved “day off.” He had not missed a game since May 30, 1982! Three years earlier, on September 6, 1995, he had shattered the long-standing record set by Lou Gehrig of 2,130 consecutive outings. Cal finished his career at the end of the 2000-2001 season, after appearing in his last All-Star game in July of that year and winning the MVP award. He has not only played more consecutive games than any other major leaguer in history, he also holds the record for ninety-five errorless games as a short- stop, and a number of Orioles records, including the most doubles, homers, and runs batted in (RBIs).

Excerpted from Fire Your Excuses

How persevering are you willing to be to achieve excellence in your career or calling? What are you willing to start doing, stop doing and continue doing? Write them down, then tell a friend or colleague.

In a study at the University of Scranton, those who wrote down formal New Years resolutions were five times more likely to have achieved and incorporated them into their lives when assessed two years later.  How much do your goals matter?

Best Wishes from Dr. Marcus and Dr. Bill!

Consider the words of Don Schoendorfer, President and CEO of the Free Wheelchair Mission: “I used to think that I would make sure my family was all settled then I would give back in a big way, now I know that thinking is wrong.” Who is Don you might ask? This is his story:

Don Schoendorfer is an unassuming suburban engineer from Irvine, California, who had an idea for a low-cost wheelchair and built one in his garage. He had been shaken by what he had seen on a trip to Morocco with his wife in the 1970s, where they encountered a disabled woman who was unable to walk, literally crawling across the street on all fours. She would be the first of thousands Don would notice around the world who had no hope of a standard wheelchair, which in the U.S. can cost up to $1,000. His idea was to build a cheap, easy-to-repair wheelchair out of Huffy bicycle tires and the standard-issue white plastic lawn chair. As of this writing, his experiment has lifted over 636,405 of the world’s poorest people from a life in the dirt to one of dignity.

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