Free The Best Advice I Ever Got by Katie Couric Page A

father. He met and befriended some foreign officers, made a few inquiries, learned to speak French, and then joined the more accommodating European-based Allied Forces Dental Society.
    Years later, he would tell me and my brothers and sister, “No one was going to tell me what I could do.” He believed that deeply, and he made sure that his children believed it, too. That’s why after the war, on Long Island, where we grew up, my father fought to fully integrate the school system. He would not settle for schools where African-American students were automatically put into vocational programs and kept off the academic track.
    Nobody was going to tell us what we could do. What we could aspire to. What we could accomplish.
    At the dinner table, my brothers and sister would ask my father what we needed to do to make a difference. He would say that progress could be slow and frustrating. And, of course, that could make you angry. But his basic view was that we needed to fight for our rights and concentrate on the things we could control. And what you can control, he would tell us, is your own performance.
    As my father taught me, work hard, don’t ever let anyone stop you or keep you down, focus on what you can control, and you can accomplish an extraordinary amount.

Matthew McConaughey
    Actor, Director, and Creator of the j.k. livin Foundation

    You Were Just Having Trouble
    Growing up, my dad got mad at me for only two reasons: if I told a lie or if I said “I can’t.” It was easy to understand the “lying” part, but the “can’t” bit took a little longer to figure out.
    It was a Saturday morning in the summer of 1981, and I was twelve years old. I was up early to mow the yard so that I could have the afternoon free to play. I got the Snapper lawn mower out of the shed and tried to crank it up. I pulled and pulled the cord, but the lawn mower wasn’t turning over. I checked the gas, set the choke, everything I could think of, but I still couldn’t get it started. I was exhausted. I was frustrated. I cussed at the mower and at the fresh blister that had formed on my palm from pulling the cord so many times.
    My dad came around from the front of the house. I’m not sure how long he was there or if he’d seen me trying to start that damn lawn mower. What I do remember is our conversation. I remember it verbatim. He said, “What’s the problem, little man?”
    I said, “Dad, I can’t get this thing started.”
    I will never forget the look on his face as he slowly gritted his teeth and said, “You what?”
    “I can’t get this darn mower started, Dad!”
    He looked at me and evenly but sternly said, “No, son, you’re having trouble getting that lawn mower started.”
    I said, “Right, I can’t get it—”
    “No,” he interrupted. “You’re having trouble. ”
    “Yes, sir,” I said. “What’s the difference?”
    He said, “Look, son, don’t ever say you can’t do something. That means there’s absolutely no way to do it. If you can’t do something, how are you ever gonna fix something? How are you gonna figure the problem out? How are you gonna ask for help? You’re gonna have trouble doing a lot of things in life, but they can be done. If you say ‘I can’t,’ that means there’s no solution, you’ve given up, you’ve quit. But if you’re ‘having trouble,’ that means that even though you may not know at the time how to solve the problem, you know there’s a way—you’re just having trouble. Let’s figure it out.”
    As he knelt down over the lawn mower, he found a loose gas line that was disconnected and wasn’t allowing gas to flow to the carburetor. We reconnected it, and after a few pulls the lawn mower started. We shook hands with a smile as I said, “Thanks.”
    “Sure, little man,” he said. “You were just having trouble.”
    This lesson has stayed with me to this day, and is one I’m passing on to my children. It has helped me work harder, solve problems, and