According to Terry Giles, “When someone goes through extreme hardship 85 percent of the time they are negatively impacted — sometimes destroying their life, but 15 percent come out the other side stronger and better off than if they hadn’t gone through the hardship at all.” This is a quote in an article by Catherine Yang published in the Epoch Times May 7 – 13, 2020.
Catherine goes on to say, “Giles is an optimist.” and quotes him as saying, “Left to nature, 85 percent of us suffer in adversity. But if we teach these lessons about resiliency and living outside our comfort zone, especially to young people, one day that 15 percent will be 25 percent, or 35, or 50, or more.”
Unfortunately, Giles said, “As a young person, you hear the word no a lot. No, you can’t do that, No, that won’t happen for you. No, that’s impossible. We hear ‘no’ a lot more than we hear ‘yes,’ and I think that’s why there’s only 15 percent that ignore that and somehow come out of the other side better,” he said. “But if we could teach these things, there’s no reason that we couldn’t have more of the population achieving greatness even though they go through hardship.”
“And wouldn’t it be a better world, if that were the case?”
Success Tempered With Integrity, Not Arrogance
Catherine summarized, “There’s an instance where going out of his way to return $4,000 cash turned into a gift twice over, and businesses booming or failing because of decisions of integrity. As a criminal lawyer, Giles defended a man involved in creating snuff films and realized he was using his talent to help bad people. He left criminal law to go into a completely new business, and seemed to find overnight success.”
“I think inherently, deep down, we know if what we’re doing is the right thing or the wrong thing,” Giles said. “It’s probably just as easy as saying, ‘Would I want somebody else to know I’m doing this thing?’ and if the answer is no, maybe you’re doing the wrong thing,” he said. “Then it’s just a matter of being disciplined and being willing to do the good, even though it may seem to be leading to a negative result.”
“If you’re doing good, what might seem like a negative is going to reverse,” Giles said.
Positive Thinking
“I went through a [spiritual] renaissance, I would say, in my 20s,” Giles said. “When I was a kid and a teenager, life was pretty miserable for me. But when I went off to college, from that point on, life got pretty good. I mean, a lot of what I consider to be miracles happened in my life.”
Catherine commented, “Positivity can be taken lightly, but it can also lead somewhere very deep, and spiritual.”
Catherine quoting Giles, “I hate the corona virus and I think it’s a tragedy on a number of levels,” he said, “But it is forcing the world into taking a time out, and maybe we need to spend some time with ourselves. With a negative attitude, the isolation might feel hellish. But with a positive attitude, you can come out stronger.
“If in taking this time out. If we can not feel sorry for ourselves, but use the time to reflect, to maybe realign our goals, to take into account those things that are really meaningful to us both as a country as a state as individuals, this can end up being a very good positive even though it looks like a very dark cloud right now,” he said.