It is really inspiring and refreshing to read or hear some sort of motivational stories from people whom we have known well that have become very successful in their chosen fields and careers. As a matter of fact, there are lots of motivational stories from highly respected people in Baltimore; whether they were born in the city, started their career or currently based in the city. We can find a lot of these stories online.
The very first motivational stories we have found is the success stories of no other than Oprah Winfrey from her not so good experience while working on a local station in Baltimore. Read her awesome story below from Thrive Global.
“There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction” – Oprah Winfrey
Image Courtesy of Thrive Global
Oprah Winfrey is a classic example of someone who was able to turn the tables and overcome life’s challenges to achieve extraordinary success in life.
Oprah Winfrey had a disastrous upbringing and had to suffer abuse, hardships during her early years. At age 22, she was fired from her show at local Baltimore station and moved to daytime TV which to anyone else would have been a step-down. But Oprah Winfrey turned this around to become a household name having the number one talk show and became an international sensation.
When everything fell apart she had the determination to keep moving forward and all the soul searching paid off as she rose to be most powerful business woman and a billionaire.
Lesson: Perseverance is the key – if you believe what you are doing is right, keep at it and move forward. Don’t be afraid of failure. In Oprah Winfrey’s own words “It is not a failure if you enjoyed the process” Read more motivational stories here…
Oprah had gone a very long way after that painful experience that took place in a Baltimore local station. She has become a very successful and influential woman in the world. Definitely, her story is an inspiration and a great source of motivation.
Next on our list of motivational people and stories is a sports person, in the name of Ray Lewis of Baltimore Ravens and how he took the pep talk to new levels, as written by Erik Brady in USA Today.
How Ray Lewis Takes The Pep Talk To New Levels
Image Courtesy of Paul Frederiksen, USA TODAY Sports
The Ravens linebacker follows in the footsteps of the greats — Rockne, Levy and, yes, Blutarsky — when it comes to firing up a room.
His teammates will tell you that Ray Lewis is the greatest living practitioner of that rip-roaring piece of performance art known as the locker room pep talk. But don’t take their word for it. Find him on YouTube and see for yourself.
Here is the Baltimore Ravens linebacker appealing to the pride of University of Miami football players: Know what you carry, when you carry that ‘U’ on your chest.
Here he is riffing on the essence of team with Loyola of Maryland men’s lacrosse players: Nothing else matters but the man that’s beside me.
And here he is channeling anger with Stanford’s men’s basketball players: If you ain’t pissed off for greatness, you’re OK with mediocrity.
Lewis played at Miami. He didn’t play for Loyola or Stanford. But he’ll talk to most anyone who asks, and even some who don’t, such as football players at Elon, where he once showed up unannounced just because he happened to be in the neighborhood.
“Ray is the best motivational speaker anywhere,” Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo says. “It’s not just what he says, but how he says it. He gets inside your soul.”
Aristotle called the sort of speech that summons our emotions epideictic. We know the locker room version of the genre better as Win One for the Gipper, a rallying cry that echoes across generations.
The rousing pregame speech is a staple of Americana — and of American cinema. If the climax of most sports movies is the slow-motion moment of triumph, it is typically preceded by a rhetorical call to arms from a gravel-voiced coach offering fire-and-brimstone wisdom to his room full of doe-eyed underdogs.
Some of these great movie moments are made up, such as the speech given by fictional Miami Sharks coach Tony D’Amato in the 1999 film Any Given Sunday. Al Pacino repeats the word inch a dozen times in his stem-winder.
We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And we can stay here, get the (blank) kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time.
Some of these great movie moments are taken from real life, such as the speech by U.S. men’s Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, in the 2004 film Miracle. This one is based on what Brooks told his young Americans the night they upset the mighty Soviet juggernaut in 1980.
If we played them 10 times, they might win nine, but not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can. Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world. See full post here…
It is really awesome to read some motivational stories from athletes who have experienced defeat and winning. Some of them used their defeat to bounce back stronger, ending up helping their team win, just like Ray Lewis helping Baltimore Ravens. Their stories can be applied to our daily lives, bouncing on every defeat.
Last on our Baltimore motivational story is the story of 12’O’Clock Boys exploring Baltimore’s Rebel Dirt Bike Pack’s Allure, Motivation, written by Byron Pitts, Erin Brady and Lauren Effron at ABC News.
In the blighted neighborhoods of inner city Baltimore, lined with abandoned buildings and broken down cars, the loud, rhythmic, menacing choir of dirt bikes and four-wheelers can be heard cutting through the silence.
Ranging in age from teenage boys to men in their 30s, the large pack of illegal dirt bike riders race, weave and perform acrobatics at high speeds through the streets with almost celebrity stature. They are known as the 12 O’Clock Boys and people line the sidewalks with their smartphones and iPads to take in their spectacle.
To some, the ride together is a street sermon of sorts, a Sunday ritual.
To the Baltimore police and to many city residents, the bikers are a public safety hazard, who can seem intimidating as they perform stunts in traffic.
But to a 12-year-old boy, who calls West Baltimore home, being a part of this urban dirt-biker pack would be a dream come true. Born Taekwon Ford, friends and family call him “Pug.”
“When I ride, I feel powerful. I feel like a super hero,” Pug said. “It feels like, you know, on top of the world.”
The 12 O’Clock Boys’ name comes from the group’s trademark maneuver: speeding down the street with the front wheel of their bike pointing straight up, like the hands on the clock.
The 12 O’Clock Boys are the subject of a new controversial film by the same name that came out last month. The film explores the attraction and motivation behind the urban dirt biker group through the eyes of Pug and a few older members.
The film follows Pug for three years, from a precocious 12-year-old on the shy side of puberty to an edgy, often angry, teenager, hardened by circumstance. It details Pug’s primary aspiration in life, which is to become a 12 O’Clock Boy. Read the rest of the post here…
You can use these motivational stories for yourself to become a better person in the future, being inspired to work, do your job or become productive on a daily basis. There are definitely lots of motivational people in Baltimore, and their stories are here to stay for so many years.
If you want to learn more about Baltimore and the stories of the people behind it, Dependable Homebuyers helps you know more about the city; its history, culture, and people. Visit our website https://www.dependablehomebuyers.com/maryland/baltimore to know more about the Charm City.
