Ben Carson M.D. - Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

Other Books by Ben Carson

Gifted Hands (with Cecil Murphey)

The Big Picture (with Gregg Lewis)

ZODERVAN

THINK BIG
Copyright 1992 by Benjamin Carson, M.D.

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ePub Edition July 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-86048-8

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carson, Ben.
Think big : unleashing your potential for excellence / by Ben Carson with Cecil Murphey.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26900-7
1. Excellence Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Success Religious aspects Christianity. 3. Christian life 1960 4. Carson, Ben. 5. Christian biography United States. 6. Neurosurgeons United States biography.
I. Murphey, Cecil B. II. Title.
BV4509.5.C5C37 1992
248.4 dc20

91 27217

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: NewInternational Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Edited by Mary McCormick

07 08 09 10 11 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8

To all those individuals behind the scenes
who make it possible for me
to practice neurosurgery
and still remain socially active.

To shake the tree
Of life itself and bring down fruit
unheard-of!

E. A. Robinson

Contents

Part 1
Giving Their Best and Thinking Big

Part 2
You Can Give Your Best and Think Big

The renown that riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail;
mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

Sallust (86 34 B.C.)

This is a book about giving our best and especially about doing whatever we can to help others about Thinking Big one of the important concepts of my life. It might also be called a book about excellence. Or about dedication.

It is also a book about people who give their best and whoThink Big.

I chose this theme because our society tends to focus on super-entertainers, sports figures, politicians, or the highly publicized individuals who do outstanding work and get recognized for their achievements. I am all for achievement, and just as much in favor of recognition. But what about those who give their best but never receive recognition? Or financial reward? Or honor? Or fame?

My life has been a rich one, having been blessed by God in many ways. My first book, Gifted Hands has brought me much recognition and has focused the spotlight on me. Consequently, many people have expressed appreciation for what I have been trying to do.

High school students have written to tell me that the book has challenged them and changed their lives; dedicated teachers have given out copies to all their students; a number of congregations bought copies of Gifted Hands to give to students; I know of at least two businessmen who each bought more than a thousand copies to distribute. And I am grateful.

I am pleased to know that my story has encouraged many and thankful for every word of appreciation, but I also want to point out one of the great truths of life: I did not do it alone. I had help along the way.

Competent, committed individuals gave me their best without reservation. Often I receive the recognition, but now I want to pause long enough to shine the spotlight on them, if only for a moment. They deserve it.

Without repeating most of the experiences detailed in GiftedHands, I want to acknowledge the significant individuals who helped Ben Carson climb from the academic bottom of his fifth grade class to become, at age thirty-three, head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. One of the youngest persons ever to have such a position, I am the only black person to have such a position at a world-renowned institution. God endowed me with ability, but I would never have been cognizant of those gifts, or used them if others had not taken time to share their talents by giving their best to me.

I hope that now you will walk another step further with me. I want to take you through my life again and tell you about those special, rare, and gifted people who have made my achievements possible. And who did it often without realizingit, simply by giving their best.

Gifted Hands by Ben Carson with Cecil Murphey (co-published by Review & Herald, Hagerstown, MD, and Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI) 1990.

Giving Their Best
and Thinking Big

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

Madeline Bridges

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race.

William Ellery Channing

Benjamin, is this your report card? my mother asked as she picked up the folded white card from the table.

Uh, yeah, I said, trying to sound casual. Too ashamed to hand it to her, I had dropped it on the table, hoping that she wouldnt notice until after I went to bed.

It was the first report card I had received from Higgins Elementary School since we had moved back from Boston to Detroit, only a few months earlier.

I had been in the fifth grade not even two weeks before everyone considered me the dumbest kid in the class and frequently made jokes about me. Before long I too began to feel as though I really was the most stupid kid in fifth grade. Despite Mothers frequently saying, Youre smart, Bennie. You can do anything you want to do, I did not believe her.

No one else in school thought I was smart, either.

Now, as Mother examined my report card, she asked, Whats this grade in reading? (Her tone of voice told me that I was in trouble.) Although I was embarrassed, I did not think too much about it. Mother knew that I wasnt doing well in math, but she did not know I was doing so poorly in every subject.

While she slowly read my report card, reading everything one word at a time, I hurried into my room and started to get ready for bed. A few minutes later, Mother came into my bedroom.