Albert Einstein was a very bad student. He did not speak until he was four years old. Everyone thought he had some mental trouble. He could not get into high school and failed the test. Later he went to a different school and was not a good university student.

Bill Gates had a job to make a machine for traffic flow and traffic safety. When he showed his traffic machine to his boss it was broken. Mr. Gate’s boss thought he was not a very good worker.

Charles Darwin did not finish school. His father thought that he was no good. His teachers did to believe in him. For many years Charles Darwin was believed to be not very clever and that he had no future.

Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, worked in many jobs before making KFC. He worked on a ferry boat. He sold tires for cars. He worked in a restaurant as a waiter. For many years he was poor and had no future. But when he was 65 years old he made a chicken recipe and wanted to make a new kind of restaurant. 1,009 restaurant owners said no to his KFC idea until finally one restaurant said, “Ok, we will try.”

Elvis Presley, George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Howard Schultz (the founder of Starbucks), J.K. Rowling (the author of Harry Potter), Keanu Reaves, Madonna, and Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) all have the same kind of story. Everyone had a lot of trouble to succeed. Everyone failed many times. Everyone was told by friends and family that they were not good enough. But, somehow, everyone became very strong and powerful and successful.

The Japanese World Cup soccer team lost their match to Belgium. That was a very hard game. The Japanese team played very well, but they lost. They could not win. They could not succeed.

For many people this seems so sad. This seems like a big loss of time and effort. Why did the Japanese team lose? Why don’t they win? Why is it so hard to be the champion?

I don’t know. Maybe you don’t know. Maybe no one knows why it is difficult to have success.

People who succeed in life fall down many times. People who are famous or who have a big talent had many hard experiences. Maybe many of them were told by their mother or father, or by their friends, “Maybe you should quit. Maybe you should give up. Maybe you should go home and don’t try so hard.”

But they did not quit. They did not stop. They had a dream and an idea about what they want to do in life. They pushed forward. They continued forward. I think that the incredible Japanese World Cup soccer team will not quit. I think that they will not stop. I think that they will continue to push forward. That is a really beautiful thing, and I also think that the next Japanese World Cup team will be more powerful, and stronger, and tougher, and unstoppable next time.

Maybe this is a good lesson for you and for me. When you lose, or fail, or fall down, you should get up. You should try again. You should never quit your dream.

Let’s get up, and fight again.