“Far and away the best prize life has to offer is working hard at work worth doing.”?—Theodore Roosevelt

My chance to contribute to a segment on Anderson Cooper’s new talk show recently fell through. To make matters worse, I had a book proposal rejected by a third publisher. And a good friend of mine lost her bid to be elected to public office. Every day, people around the world feel the sting of disappointment when things don’t work out as planned.

“Assumptions are the death of possibilities. ”  —James Mapes

• Women don’t have the stamina to ascend Everest.
• Humans can’t fly to the moon.
• The human body can’t run a mile in under four minutes.
• Women are too emotional to be leaders.
• The sun revolves around the earth (which, by the way, is flat.)
• Telephones are only for talking and listening.
• Animal species never change.
• And I (Margie) can never run 10 miles… in a row. Never ever.

Some of these assumptions had the force of science behind them—others just the force of habit. All of them seem foolish in retrospect.