Best Motivational Stories

Most inspiring story - Karoly Takacs

Karoly Takacs was born in Budapest and joined the Hungarian Army. By 1936, he was a world-class pistol shooter, but he was denied a place in the Hungarian shooting team for the 1936 Summer Olympics on the grounds that he was a sergeant, and only commissioned officers were allowed to compete. This prohibition was lifted in Hungary after the Berlin Games, and Karoly Takacs had expectations of success at the 1940 Summer Olympics, scheduled to be held in Tokyo.

Inspiring story - Kalory Takacks

Those expectations vanished one terrible day just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand grenade exploded in Karoly Takacs’s right hand, and his shooting hand was blown off.

Karoly Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. At that point most people would have quit. And they would have probably spent the rest of their life feeling sorry for themselves. Most people would have quit but not this gentleman. Karoly Takacs was a winner. Circumstances cannot keep winners down and winners like Karoly Takacs understand that life is hard and that they can’t let life beat them down. Winners like Karoly Takacs know in their heart that quitting is not an option.



For months Karoly Takacs practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn't want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him.

In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Karoly Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Karoly Takacs won!

The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. It looked like Karoly Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1944 he qualified for the London Olympics. At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal and set a new world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Karoly Takacs won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.



 Takacs – a man with the mental toughness to bounce back quickly from anything.The reason quick recovery is important is that if you recover quickly, you don’t lose your momentum and your drive. Takacs recovered in only one month. If he had wallowed in his misery, if he had stayed “under the circumstances,” if he had played the martyr, and felt sorry for himself much longer, he would have lost his mental edge – his EYE OF THE TIGER and he never would have been able to come back. Excuses are just like losses, everyone has them.....except the Champions!

When a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleventh second, he loses the fight. Remember that next time you get knocked down.

Kalory Takacs definitely had a right to feel sorry for himself. He had a right to stay depressed and to ask himself “Why me?” for the rest of his life. He had the right to act like a mediocre man. But he proved the world that where there is a will there is a way.