IT KEEPS YOU HUMBLE

1. A PERSPECTIVE ON SUCCESS A newspaper reporter was interviewing an old rancher and asked him to what he would attribute his success as a rancher. With a twinkle in his eye the man replied, "It's been about 50 percent weather, 50 percent good luck, and the rest is brains."

2. A WORD FOR HUMILITY Muhammad Ali was in his prime, and as he was about to take off on an airplane flight, the stewardess reminded him to fasten his seat belt. He came back brashly, "Superman doesn’t need a seat belt." The stewardess quickly came back, "Superman doesn’t need an airplane, either." Ali fastened his belt.

3. BROKAW THE CELEBRITY Success can sometimes dazzle you in the achieving, but there's usually someone around to help you keep perspective. TV newsman Tom Brokaw has a story about that:

Brokaw was wandering through Bloomingdale's in New York one day, shortly after he was promoted to cohost on the "Today" show. That show was a pinnacle of sorts for Brokaw after years of work, first in Omaha, then for NBC in Los Angeles and Washington, and he was feeling good about himself. He noticed a man watching him closely. The man kept staring at him and finally, when the man approached him, Brokaw was sure he was about to reap the first fruits of being a New York television celebrity.

The man pointed his finger and said, "Tom Brokaw, right?"                "Right," said Brokaw.

"You used to do the morning news on KMTV in Omaha, right?"        "That's right," said Brokaw, getting set for the accolades to follow.

"I knew it the minute I spotted you," the fellow said. Then he paused and added, "Whatever happened to you?"

4. MORE HUMILITY A pastor was asked to speak for a certain charitable organization. After the meeting the program chairman handed the pastor a check. "Oh, I couldn't take this," the pastor said with some embarrassment. "I appreciate the honor of being asked to speak. You have better uses for this money. You apply it to one of those uses." The program chairman asked, "Well, do you mind if we put it into our Special Fund?" The pastor replied, "Of course not. What is the special fund for?" The chairman answered, "It's so we can get a better speaker next year."