Thought-leader Malcolm Gladwell, last year, took on the question of why some people enjoy phenomenal success and so many others never reach their potential in his book Outliers. Gladwell suggests success is too often a matter of luck or privilege. Bill Gates just happened to be in precisely the right place at the right time, and so on.

Writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof offers another variation on the theme of success against odds. [Please read it here.]

Kristof’s compelling November 14 column is a case study of a cattle herder from Zimbabwe who, at 11 years old, was forced to marry a man who beat her mercilessly and kept in miserable poverty. A Christian aid worker visited the woman’s village a decade later, leading a program designed to empower and inspire women of the region to take control of their destinies.

It’s a story with Dickensian proportions of suffering, vindication and perseverance. But Tererai—Kristoff’s hero—is now in the USA with her children. She has remarried and is earning her doctorate next month from Western Michigan University.

So how do we find and seize opportunity out of nothing to beat Gladwell’s odds of success?

When Tererai met the aid workers it would have been easy and understandable for her to assume it was a nice but hopeless gesture. But instead, Tererai astutely saw the first step in an amazingly audacious path to save herself and her children. She even wrote a goal of earning a doctoral degree.

…Tererai scribbled down four absurd goals based on accomplishments she had vaguely heard of among famous Africans. She wrote that she wanted to study abroad, and to earn a B.A., a master’s and a doctorate.—Nicholas Kristof

The rubble we’re in seldom looks promising. But every day somebody somewhere proves that the most important thing to do is constantly “dig,” expecting to find exactly what we dream of.

(Based on a story from CNN.com)

Seventy-eight-year-old Bridget Pericolo might have called it a loss when she learned her husband mistakenly disposed of a cup containing her engagement and wedding rings with the day’s garbage. The trash bag had already been collected by the sanitation crew in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

Nobody spends much time thinking about where their refuse goes once it’s out of the kitchen, but Mrs. Pericolo and her husband immediately called the sanitation company to find out.

The man on the phone empathized and was helpful. He took the time to pinpoint the location of the Pericolo’s trash in transit, noted the estimated time of arrival the transfer station and invited the Pericolos to come down and dig through the truck’s ten-ton payload of landfill contributions.

Photo courtesy Coolcaesar.

According to CNN.com the two truck drivers joined the chivalrous groom in the unsavory excavation, while his bride of 55 years waited in their car. It took nearly an hour for Mr. Pericolo and compassionate sanitation workers to emerge from the heap of New Jersey waste with two invaluably precious rings.

CNN.com reported station supervisor Micheal Brotons as saying, “You had to see the expression on their faces when we found it. They couldn’t believe that we found it, and they didn’t know what to say, really. They didn’t have to say anything.”

Bridget Pericolo proclaimed the find a miracle.

Sometimes the rubble isn’t just heavy. It’s smelly. But some things are always worth digging for. And if you share your problem, a few otherwise busy strangers might just give you hand.

Pat Farnack, host of “Health and Wellbeing Report” on New York’s WCBS, offers an in-depth 13-minute interview with Dr. Bradt on Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson. Click here to listen (a 15-second commercial message precedes the interview).

It’s an excellent introduction and synopsis if your organization is considering a keynote subject by Dr. Bradt.

I’m fortunate to travel the world speaking about The Ring in the Rubble to all sorts of audiences. The emphasis is on finding our individual ring of opportunity when things change, regardless our circumstances.

At a recent engagement, I was invited to speak twice to the same group. Thank you! I wanted Keynote Speech II to build off Keynote 1, but I wasn’t sure exactly how I would construct that second keynote. So on my day off, I did the only logical thing I could do: go to Disney World!

Call it a refresher course. As a grown-up on my own at the Magic Kingdom, I had a great time reminiscing about the times I visited with my family when my kids were young.

At an exhibit about the park’s founder, I rediscovered the amazing story of Walt Disney, who’s luck had taken a turn for the worse, before he was famous, when a legal loophole in a contract turned impending success into a crushing defeat. On a sad train ride home to California from a devastating meeting in New York, he started doodling. He came up with a character and showed it to his wife.  He planned to name his character Mortimer. “That’s too stuffy,” she responded. “Walt, why don’t you call your mouse Mickey?” With that, Disney’s famous mouse was born, with the sole purpose, as Disney used to say, of making people smile.

The rest is…a golden legacy. Disney’s mirthful creations since finding that ring in the rubble have touched trillions, created uncountable jobs and spread joy and happiness all over the world. And when pundits would try to over-analyze the Disney corporate success over the decades, Walt would simply say, “Let’s never forget, it all started a mouse.” I think his point was that we don’t want to make life too complicated. A mouse that makes people smile is an easy concept to get and hold on to. It paved the way for everything to follow for the Disney company. Out of these insights, my second keynote was born: Create a Golden Legacy.

A Golden Legacy is about more than finding rings for yourself. It’s about helping others discover theirs. In subsequent posts I’ll begin to lay out the process for how simple the process is to create yours.