NOTHING is IMpossible
On the twenty seventh of August 2008, prime minister Balkenende of The Netherlands delivered a speech to celebrate the Dutch Olympic medal winners.
He started his speech with the words “NOTHING is IMpossible“, since that had been the motto for the team that was sent to Beijing and came back with 16 medals, including 7 gold ones. Not bad for such a small country
He addressed all winners individually and thanked everyone of them on behalf of the country.
There was however some extra attention for one man in specific.
A swimmer. A fanatic. A man who, according to his parents, as a little boy measured out any distance as a race track and ran between those points to beat his best time. Which showed his…
Passion. Purpose. Persistence!
In his youth, he was a promising swimming talent and finally became Dutch national champion at the 400 and 1500 m freestyle from 1998 to 2000 and 5 km open water (2000). He also participated at the 1999 European Junior Championships and the 2000 Open Water World Championships. Thanks to all his…
Passion. Purpose. Persistence.
When suddenly on March 12th 2001…
…he was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia.
Not only his career came to an end, at one stage he was not expected to survive. Suddenly he had to fight another opponent, a severe one this time. Threatening his life.
But he won.
Again.
This time after he had a stem cell transplant. And, of course, thanks to a lot of…
Passion. Purpose. Persistence.
And what’s even more, he won another three Dutch titles. And on top of that, he won the 25 km at the 2008 World Championships in Seville.
And now, at the Olympics in Beijing, he ended up winning the gold medal at the 10 km open water marathon race.
The Dutch had never heard of him before, but he managed to make an unforgettable impression. He will be remembered, not only for his medal, but for winning the other fight too. Thanks to his…
Passion. Purpose. Persistence.
His name? Maarten van der Weijden.
He hasn’t updated his Maarten van der Weijden site yet, except for one sub headline. I guess he’s still celebrating.
Still, the story is remarkable. It’s inspiring for people all over the world. It proves again that Passion, Purpose and Persistence are the right ingredients for this motto:
“NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE”!
Anything to add or say?
Post your comments below.
Tags: nothing is impossible, passion, persistence, purpose, tweetathon
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September 11th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Passion, purpose, persistence…can indeed make a person go a step after another until it covers miles.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:51 am
What a great speach, and thanks to you, these words “Passion. Purpose. Persistence.” will forever inspire me to keep going and battle against the odds in this fierce online world. Success is only a step of dedication away. Thank you.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
This is a great speech. It kind of gets me pumped up. Sometimes during exams you feel like you can never get a great grade.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I believe the same theory applies to everything we do in life. With hard work, nothing is quite impossible in life. Rif Chia
September 13th, 2008 at 5:09 am
“Passion. Purpose. Persistence.” It applies to business in exactly the same way… if you don’t have these three characteristics for what you’re currently doing then it’s hard to become very successful.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:06 am
” Nothing is impossible” This is a great speech. It kind of gets me pumped up.Thanks for sharing this in your post with us.Waiting for your next post like this.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:25 am
That word is so building my spirit even other people spirit at all.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
“Nothing is impossible” is a very inspiring word if taken positively else otherwise in practical word there are lots of lots of thing that are really impossible. But speech was great to motivate the people.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Donating whatever you can from your heart will no matter when or how give you positive results in whatever aspect of your life. Motivating people to be a greater person is a very nice way to donate some efforts for the world.
Is like someone once said, Just a smile can start a chain reaction of positive events that could end up making someone a president…
Have a great time
Gustav
September 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I have read this over and over again but not the way you have presented this notion in your post.
You have really succeeded in connecting passion, purpose and persistent in a very unique way.
Yes indeed, the three ingredients are powerful and without them there is little to be accomplished in life.
You know what? You post has succeeded in adding a little bit more gas/energy to keep me going and I must say thank you.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Nothing is impossible when individuals decide to tackle massive tasks.
Is seems to me that most people need to be motivated or kicked in the rear to make things happen.
To be able to motivate oneself to success is probably one of the greatest assets one could have acquired.
-Riggie
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
This is a great speech and a great story and a fantastic man!
And that’s what I mean he is just a fantastic human being.
I am an Internet marketer (reasonably successful, but I’m also a professional musician. I teach. And I can tell you, that if the person loves music but doesn’t have musical gifts, it could be a tragedy. Passion, purpose and persistence could be enormous, but still not produce any result. It can drive this unfortunate person crazy - with all determination and years of work he still can’t play - and it ruins his life.
I also have a masters degree in physics and the same happens in science too.
And in politics - as we all know!
Alexei Zoubov
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I like this motivational post…Talking about IMPOSSIBLE, I’ve remember a quote that always encourage me.
“IMpossible is I’m possible”
September 25th, 2008 at 5:53 am
The post is damn inspiring, before some time i have given up for some thing, but after reading this, m sure i can achieve that. As NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. And the impossible word itself says that i am possible…
So move on guys…..
Thanks for this post. Its good..
September 27th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Very inspiring speach and lots of interesting comments.
I know by my own experience that believing that everything is possible can motivate people to do seemingly impossible things. But that only means that there was a mistake in judgement - what we considered impossible is really possible.
In my understanding, the problem is really in bad judgement. The person that achieves seemingly impossible goal doesn’t consider it impossible himself. The seeming “impossibility” is just a bad judgement of others.
On the other hand, we rarely hear about many people that mistakenly set a goal that is really impossible and wasted their life pursuing it. I think that we could learn from both examples an understand that in reality, there are impossible goals.
Not mentioning the goals not worth striving for.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
This motto can be applied to every aspect of life, including business.
There are many who strive to make any sort of income on the internet, but a lot fail. If only they had a story like this to read to give them that push of persistence and determination that they need. I’ll be sure to pass this on.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Alan Mater
October 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Passion. Purpose. Persistence. - AWESOME.
I am very passionate about what I do and for that I am very thankful. I think all of us are constantly looking for our purpose and at times we know it and other times we’re unsure.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Really an inspiring post, I am from India a big country, with 2nd largest population. But your country (Netherlands) grab more medals than India. Salute to your prime minister & all winners.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:21 am
This speech inspire us to get success even in troubles and teach us that everything is possible can motivate people to do seemingly impossible things.
If we apply this in our life then we can get more pregress in our Business and we can make our great life