Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (29 page)

I = INSIGHT

Listen and learn from people who have already been where you want to go. Benefit from their mistakes instead of repeating them. Read good books like the Bible because they open up new worlds of understanding.

N = NICE

Be nice to people—all people. If you're nice to people, they'll be nice to you. It takes much less energy to be nice than it does to be mean. Being kind, friendly, and helpful takes less energy and relieves much of the pressure.

K = KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is the key to independent living, the key to all your dreams, hopes, and aspirations. If you are knowledgeable, particularly more knowledgeable than anybody else in a field, you become invaluable and write your own ticket.

B = BOOKS

I emphasize that active learning from reading is better than passive learning such as listening to lectures or watching television. When you read, your mind must work by taking in letters and connecting them to form words. Words make themselves into thoughts and concepts. Developing good reading habits is something like being a champion weightlifter. The champion didn't go into the gym one day and start lifting 500 pounds. He toned his muscles, beginning with lighter weights, always building up, preparing for more. It's the same thing with intellectual feats. We develop our minds by reading, by thinking, by figuring out things for ourselves.

I = IN-DEPTH LEARNING

Superficial learners cram for exams but know nothing two weeks later. In-depth learners find that the acquired knowledge becomes a part of them. They understand more about themselves and their world. They keep building on
prior understanding by piling on new information.

G = GOD

Never get too big for God. Never drop God out of your life.

I usually conclude my talks by telling young people, “If you can remember these things, if you can learn to THINK BIG, nothing on earth will keep you from being successful in whatever you choose to do.”

My concern for young people, especially disadvantaged young people, first hit me the summer I worked as a recruiter for Yale. When I saw the SAT scores of those kids and how few of them made anywhere near 1200, it saddened me. It also bothered me because I knew from my own experiences growing up in Detroit that scores didn't always reflect how smart people are. I had met a lot of bright youngsters who could grasp things quickly, and yet, for a variety of reasons, they scored poorly on their SAT exams.

“Something's wrong with a society,” I've told Candy more than once, “that has a system precluding these people from achieving. With the right help and the right incentive, many disadvantaged kids could achieve outstanding results.”

I made a commitment to myself that at every opportunity, I'd encourage young people. As I became more well-known and started getting more opportunities to speak, I decided that teaching kids how to set goals and achieve them would be a constant theme of mine. Nowadays I get so many requests, I can't accept anywhere near all of them. Yet I try to do as much as I can for young people without neglecting my family and my duties at Johns Hopkins.

I have strong feelings on the subject of American youth and here's one of them. I'm really bothered at the emphasis given by the media on sports in the schools. Far too many youngsters spend all their energies and time on the basketball courts, wanting to be a Michael Jordan. Or they throw their energies toward being a Reggie Jackson on the baseball diamond or an O.J. Simpson on the football field. They want to make a million dollars a year, not realizing how few who try make those kinds of salaries. These kids end up throwing their lives away.

When the media doesn't emphasize sports, it's music. I often hear of groups—and many of them good—who pour out their hearts in a highly competitive career, not realizing that only one group in 10,000 is going to make it big. Rather than putting all their time and energy into sports or music, these kids—these bright, talented young people—should be spending their time with books and self-improvement, ensuring that they'll have a career when they're adults.

I fault the media for perpetuating these grandiose dreams. I spend quite a bit of time talking to the freshmen groups and trying to help them realize that they have a responsibility to each one of the communities they have come from to become the best they can be.

While going to schools and talking to these young people, I try to show them what they can do and that they can make a good living. I urge them to emulate successful adults in the various professions.

To the successful professionals I say, “Take young people to your house. Show them the car you drive, let them see that you have a good life too. Help them to understand what goes into getting that good life. Explain that there are many ways to a fulfilled life besides sports and music.”

A lot of young people are terribly naive. I've heard one after another say, “I'm going to be a doctor,” or “a lawyer,” or maybe, “president of the company.” Yet they have no idea what kind of work goes into achieving such positions.

I also talk to parents, teachers, and anybody else associated with the community, asking them to focus on the needs of these teens. These kids must learn how to achieve change in their lives. They need help. Otherwise things will never get better. They'll just get worse.

Here's an example of how this works. In May 1988 the Detroit
News
ran a feature story on me in their Sunday supplement. After reading the article, a man wrote to me. He was a social worker and had a 13-year-old son who also wanted to be a social worker. However, things had not been going well. The father had been evicted, then lost his job. He and his son were looking for their next meal and his world had turned upside down. He was so depressed that he was ready to commit suicide. Then he picked up the Detroit
News
and read the article. He wrote:

“Your story just turned my life around and gave me hope. Your example inspired me to go on and put my best efforts into life again. I now have a new job, and things are starting to turn around. That article changed my life.”

I've also gotten a number of letters from students in various schools who were not doing well, but, through their reading about me, seeing me on television, or hearing me speak, were challenged to redouble their efforts. They're making an attempt to learn things and that means they're going to be the best they can be.

A single-parent mother wrote, telling me she had two children, one of whom wanted to be a fireman, the other a doctor. She said they had all read my story and had been inspired. Learning about my life and how my mother helped me turn my life around, actually inspired her to go back to school. By the time she wrote to me, she had been accepted into law school. Her children had turned their grades around and were doing very well. Letters like that make me feel very good.

At Old Court Middle School in the Baltimore suburbs they've started the Ben Carson Club. To be a member, students have to agree that they will watch no more than three television programs each week, and they will read at least two books. When I visited that school, they did a unique thing. Club members had previously received biographical information about my life and they held a contest. The winners were those students who correctly answered the most questions about me. On my visit, the six winners came to the stage and answered questions about me and my life. I listened, amazed at how much they knew about me and humbled that my life had touched theirs.

It still seems unreal to me when I go places and people are excited to see me. While I don't fully understand, I realize that particularly for Black people in this country I represent something that many of them have never seen in their lifetimes—someone in a technical and scientific area who has risen to the top. I'm recognized for my academic and medical achievements instead of for being a sports star or an entertainer.

While this doesn't happen often,
it does happen
, reminding me that I'm not the one big exception. For instance, I have a friend named Fred Wilson who is an engineer in the Detroit area. He's Black, and the Ford Motor Company selected him as one of their top eight engineers worldwide.

He's incredibly bright and has done outstanding work, yet few know about his achievements. When I make public appearances, I like to think I'm holding up my own life and all of the others who've shown that being a member of a minority race doesn't mean being a minority achiever.

I tell a lot of the students that I talk to about Fred Wilson and other Black high achievers who just don't get media attention or have a high profile. When you're in a field like mine at a place like Johns Hopkins and you're putting out your best, it's hard to hide. Whenever any of us here do anything outstanding, the media finds out and the word spreads. I know a lot of people in other, less-glamorous fields, who have done significant things, but hardly anyone knows about them.

One of my goals is to make sure that teenagers learn about these highly talented individuals so they can have a variety of role models. When young people have good role models, they can change and set their sights toward higher achievements.

Another goal is to encourage teenagers to look at themselves and their God-given talents. We all have these abilities. Success in life revolves around recognizing and using our “raw material.”

I'm a good neurosurgeon. That's not a boast but a way of acknowledging the innate ability God has given to me. Beginning with determination and using my gifted hands, I went on for training and sharpening of my skills.

To THINK BIG and to use our talents doesn't mean we won't have difficulties along the way. We will—we all do. How we view those problems determines how we end up. If we choose to see the obstacles in our path as barriers, we stop trying. “We can't win,” we moan. “
They
won't let us win.”

However, if we choose to see the obstacles as hurdles, we can leap over them. Successful people don't have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward.

Whatever direction we choose, if we can realize that every hurdle we jump strengthens and prepares us for the next one, we're already on the way to success.

*
Blood type changed for privacy.

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Curtis graduated from high school at the height of the war in Viet Nam. In those days the Selective Service used a lottery system to determine who should go into the military service. Curtis's low lottery number assured him that if he waited, the Army would draft him. After completing a year and a half of college, he decided to join the Navy. “I may as well get the branch of service that I want,” he said.

He got into a special program, and the Navy trained him to be a nuclear submarine operator. It was a six-year program (although he did not re-enlist after his four-year stint). He progressed quite well through the ranks and probably would have been at least a captain by now if he had stayed in. However, he decided to go back to college. Today Curtis is an engineer, and I'm still proud of my big brother.

*
I made second lieutenant after only three semesters when it usually took at least four, and most ROTC cadets never reached that rank in six semesters.

*
In the summer of 1988 Mrs. Whittley sent me a note that started out, “I wonder if you remember me.” I was touched and tickled. Of course I remembered her, as I would have remembered anyone who had been that helpful to me. She said she had seen me on television and read articles about me. She is now retired, living in the South, and she wanted to send me her congratulations.

I was delighted that she remembered me.

*
It came as no surprise to me that during her senior year with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Candy performed in the European premier of the modern opera Mass by the gifted Leonard Bernstein. She actually had a chance to meet him in Vienna.

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I still use the principle of this procedure, but I've done so many of these surgeries and gotten so experienced at finding the hole, I don't need to go through the steps. I know exactly where the foramen ovale is.

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Martin Goines is now an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat) at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and the chief of the division.

*
Lobectomy means actually taking out the frontal lobe, while lobotomy means just cutting some fibers.

*
Commonly called Cat Scans for Computerized Tomography, a highly technical, sophisticated computer that allows the X-ray beams to focus at different levels.

†
The Magnetic Resonance Imaging doesn't use X-rays but a magnet that excites the protons (microparticles), and the computer then gathers energy signals from these excited protons and transforms the protons into an image.

MRI gives a clear-cut, definite picture of substances inside by reflecting the image based on the excitation of the protons. For instance, protons will be excited in a different degree in water than in bones or muscles or blood.