Self-Motivation!

Need no stars to light the way,
Hold no hands to cross those hurdles,
Borrow no words to floor the world,
Look for no shared glory to shine,
Make no friend pay your price,
When you find your feet,
Others fall in step.

A typical example of self motivation:

Asafa Powell set a new 100 metres world record after clocking a time of 9.77 seconds at the Olympic Stadium in Athens beating Tim Montgomery’s previous record of 9.78 set in Paris in September 2002 to become the fastest man ever over the distance.

Powell, who missed out on gold at the 2004 Games, is now keen to lower his record further and win world and Olympic gold. “It’s really good for the sport,” Powell said. “Next time I’ll see if I can go faster.” But Montgomery, while praising his rival’s achievement, vowed to try to regain his world record.

“Powell is no longer a sprinter among other sprinters, he is the one who cannot afford to lose.” Tim Montgomery.
A transplant surgeon and his team of Doctors and Nurses were on board flying from Pittsburg to Texas to procure the kidney when the pilot announced that one of the engines had failed. The surgeon continued to work with all his patience, persistence and passion. Next announcement was that the engine had caught fire and the aircraft was heading for emergency landing. The surgeon still carried on working without being perturbed. On landing, the doctors and nurses heaved a sigh of relief but the leader surgeon said, “What about the flight back to Pittsburg where the recipient team would be ready?”

***

Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, M.D., Ph.D., is known to most as the “Father of Transplantation” as well as a thinker who has and continues to be well ahead of his time. Dr. Starzl performed the world’s first human liver transplant in 1963 and the first successful liver transplant at the University of Colorado in 1967. Until Dr. Starzl’s retirement from clinical practice in 1991, he oversaw the largest and busiest transplant program in the world. Since his coming to the University of Pittsburgh 20 years ago, more than 11,000 organ transplants have been performed. Dr. Starzl currently serves as director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, a post that allows his full attention to research.

Among more than 175 awards and honors bestowed to Dr. Starzl are: David M. Hume Memorial Award from the National Kidney Foundation, the 2001 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine; and 21 honorary doctorates from universities in the United States and abroad.

A sought-after speaker, Dr. Starzl has given more than 1,200 presentations at major meetings throughout the world. He belongs to the editorial boards of 22 professional publications and has authored or co-authored more than 2,130 scientific articles, four books and 292 chapters.

According to the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Dr. Starzl once averaged one paper every 7.3 days, making him one of the most prolific scientists in the world. In 1999, ISI identified Dr. Starzl as the most cited scientist in the field of clinical medicine, a measure of his work’s lasting influence and utility. The book, 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium, placed Dr. Starzl 213th on its list of those whose contributions have significantly influenced history’s progress.

Dr. Starzl’s autobiography, The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1992. In addition, the book has been published in Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. All author’s royalties are being donated to Transplant Recipients International Organization.

R. S. Bhatia, Shubham Bhatia

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