USE YOUR EXCUSES

There were two brothers in a small village in the Eastern Cape. The twin brothers grew up knowing nothing but poverty. Their father was an alcoholic, and their mother, a domestic worker. They grew up with very little.

On their way home one day, their parents were involved in a bus accident and they died instantly. The brothers' condition became even worse. At age 17, they separated. Years and years later, a family member decided to find them and have a family reunion.

One of the brothers was a wealthy engineer, owning a construction company. He had a wife and three beautiful kids. The other brother was an alcoholic with no sense of direction for his life.

The family member asked the engineer, "How did your life turn out like this?' What did you expect with a childhood like mine ?' He replied. She moved to the other brother with the same question. "What did you expect with a childhood like mine?' was his answer.

This tells us that it is not what happens to us, but how we react to it that makes the difference.

"One ship drives east and another drives west by the same winds that blow. It's the set of the sails and not the gales that determine the way they go," Ella Wheeler Wilcox.