Make the Impossible Possible : One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary

“ Success is the point where your most authentic talents, passion, values, and experiences intersect with the chance to contribute to some greater good.” —Bill Strickland According to MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner Bill Strickland, a successful life is not something you simply pursue, it is something that you create, moment by moment. It is a realization Strickland first came to when, as a poor kid growing up in a rough neighborhood of Pittsburgh, he encountered a high school ceramics teacher who took him under his wing and went on to transform his life. Over the past thirty years, Bill Strickland has been transforming the lives of thousands of people through the creation of Manchester Bidwell, a jobs training center and community arts program. Working with corporations, community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and built a better, brighter future. Strickland believes that every one of us has the potential for remarkable achievement. Every one of us can accomplish the impossible in our lives if given the right inspiration and motivation to do so. We all make ourselves “poor” in one way or another when we accept that we are not smart enough, experienced enough, or talented enough to accomplish something. Bill Strickland works with the least advantaged among us, and if he can help them achieve the impossible in their lives, think what each of us can do. Among Bill Strickland’s beliefs: People are born into this world as assets, not liabilities. It’s all in the way we treat people (and ourselves) that determines a person’s outcome The sand in the hourglass flows only one way. Stop going through the motions of living—savor each and every day. Life is here and now, not something waiting for you in the future. You don’t have to travel far to change the life you’re living. Bill grew up in the Pittsburgh ghetto, four blocks from where he came to build one of the foremost job training centers in the world. He now speaks before CEOs and political leaders, church congregations and civic leaders. You only need to change your thinking to remake your world. Through lessons from his own life experiences, and those of countless others who have overcome their circumstances and turned their lives around, Make the Impossible Possible shows how all of us can build on our passions and strengths, dream bigger and set the bar higher, achieve meaningful success and help mentor and inspire the lives of others. “Inspired and inspiring . . . By telling his remarkable story, Bill Strickland shows us that an impossible notion is just an idea nobody had the guts to try.”—Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of A Whole New Mind “ Make the Impossible Possible will show you how you can achieve even your wildest dreams.”—Jeff Skoll, first president of eBay and founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation Bill Strickland has spent over thirty years transforming the lives of thousands of people through Manchester Bidwell, the jobs training center and community arts program he founded in Pittsburgh. Working with corporations, community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and build a better, brighter future. In Make the Impossible Possible , he shows how each of us, by adopting the attitudes and beliefs he has lived by every day, can reach our fullest potential and achieve the impossible in our lives and careers—and perhaps change the world a little in the process. Through lessons from Strickland’s own life experiences and those of countless others who have overcome challenging circumstances and turned their lives around, Make the Impossible Possible teaches us how to build on our passions and strengths, dream bigger and set the bar higher, achieve meaningful success, and inspire the lives of others. In a motivational handbook, a MacArthur "genius" award winner explains how the power of the arts and education transformed his own life and demonstrates how, by building on our strengths, we can achieve deeper and more meaningful success