Finding Your Own “Get Away From Her You BITCH!” Moment

“Courage is a skill” — Brendon Burchard

Is this true? Does one act of courage in any area of your life practicing a quality you can use in other arenas? Does developing physical courage help develop moral courage? Or emotional courage?

And if so, how can we find it?

“From time to time life gives you a cubic inch of opportunity. Either you grab them, or they are done forever” — Steven Barnes

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I’ve told this story before. Please bear with me if you’ve heard it but it is germane. This is all true, to the best of my memory: some small details may be fuzzy.

Rudy was a bully. He was a fireplug of a boy, shorter than I was, but with enormous self-confidence. He terrified me. His older brother Oliver did even more so, and the gang they ran with were rabid wolverines. When I was in fourth grade, Rudy pulled a pair of brass knuckles on me in the lavatory and took my lunch money. Nice guy.

I avoided him as much as possible, and never did anything to anger him if I could help it, but one day my luck ran out. It happened at Mt Vernon Jr. High school near Crenshaw and Washington boulevard. Maybe 8th grade. My English teacher sent me down to the main office to fetch some mimeo sheets, and I noticed that Rudy was sitting in the office. Probably didn’t think much about it at the time.