From my Great-Gandfather’s Memoir, recalling a time at Tuskegee College…
While working in the poultry husbandry department, I noted that there were some hundred forty-four eggs in the hatchery about to hatch. The professor asked all students to come around the incubator and observe.
There was a routine effort at hatching. One hundred forty-two of the chicks hatched normally. The two remaining ones required the professor’s assistance in breaking the shell. The one hundred forty-two “self hatched” survived; the two unable to hatch without assistance died. Said the professor, “There is a lesson to be learned. Nature has provided that a chick is supposed to break out of its shell. The inability to hatch itself is a sign of weakness, not deserving of life.” Since that day, I have recalled the professor’s words. When difficult situations arose, I sought to break through the barriers. I could not allow weakness to be the cause of failure.