To think a thing impossible is to make it so.

On a recent November weekend, four Top 10 football teams fell to underdogs, 2 of them unranked. They did what others thought to be nearly impossible. I assure you if those underdogs—those unranked teams—had walked on to the playing field considering themselves beaten, considering the odds impossibly long, the challenge too great, the others too big, too strong, then they would have lost.

I run a small business, started from scratch more than 30 years ago, bootstrap capital all the way, the proverbial $1,000 and lots of gumption and perspiration. Today, it is bumping on the edge of becoming a medium-size business: more than four hundred Team Members and still growing.

I cannot tell you how many times along the way people told me I was asking the impossible, being unreasonable in my expectations, demanding too much of people.

My reply? Everything is impossible if you do not try. Thirteen colonies defeating the super power of their era was impossible. David beating Goliath was impossible. Mahatma Gandhi freeing India with non-violence was a fool’s dream. The list goes on and on.

Closing quotes:

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” — Vince Lombardi

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela

“We have more power than will; and it is often by way of excuse to ourselves that we fancy things are impossible.” — Francois Duc De la Rochefoucauld

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” — Christopher Reeve