Y-I-BET.  The Blaire Project
Learning about a successful life one step at a time.

I wanted to say a few things in response to your paragraph below. Much of it applies to almost everyone else, too, but it's important to reiterate the message.
 

How can people believe in themselves and in their own abilities if no one else even gives them a chance? Even though you'll never see it on a ticker at the stock market on Wall Street, the most important commodity we have is hope. Without hope for a better life, a better future, better conditions, what else do we have? Even the poorest person in the world who has nothing but the rags on his or her back can still hope. Hope can be very powerful. It comes from deep within our own minds, souls and hearts, but we have to be taught that it is a power worth nurturing. And it is the people around us, those who SHOW us that they believe in us, from whom we learn that it's alright to believe in ourselves, too.  Not many things are impossible if you set your mind to them.
Here is a quote I use when I try to motivate people (well, I have many, but I'll give you this one now):
"If when trying to achieve something you encounter a brick wall and it stops you, you didn't want what's behind it badly enough".
The point is, that there are many brick walls in each of our lives. We face them on a daily basis, some are thin, some are small, yet others seem too formidable to knock down, but if we set our minds to it, we can conquer even the thickest and strongest walls there are. There's always a way. I show kids two things, a rock and a tiny seed, and I ask them which is stronger. Of course, they laugh and point to the rock. Aha! But think about it. Imagine that you build a wall made up of thousands of rocks, it stands there for centuries, and then during a storm, one tiny little seed blows into one of the cracks in the mortar. With only a little water to nurture it, it germinates. The seed sends out a tiny hair of a root at the bottom, a small sprout at the top. Soon, it grows into a plant, larger and alive, and with every rain, the roots grow deeper into the wall and begin to push the rocks apart. Eventually with time, where the seed landed, there is a small tree, and as that tree grows even more, the wall slowly begins to disintegrate and it falls apart living behind a magnificent noble tree. The tree is the conqueror and yet it began its life as a tiny seed. Who is the winner now? Which is REALLY stronger, the rock or the seed?
The point of this exercise is to teach people that from the tiniest dreams, great things can result as long as you give them the proper "food" those dreams need - in the seed's case simply water - and the proper amount of time. Nothing is instant. Good things are worth waiting for - as long as you hold onto HOPE.
So, if you'd told me when I was 40 years old that I would one day realize my biggest dream of standing at the North Pole, I would've laughed you off because at the time, I didn't believe in myself much. I had lost hope that life was going to be anything but this mundane day in day out ho hum existence, and although I had to face many adversities and traumas and deep depressions, the ember of my dream never went out completely. I just needed someone to rekindle the fire and restore my hopes. And once that fire was burning again, I did find my way to the pole! And that's why I believe that almost nothing is impossible. All we have to do is conquer our own demons of doubt. So, it won't happen tomorrow, but it WILL happen. Stay the course. Never lose hope. Keep the faith.
The Buddhists have a maxim I like: "Fall down seven times, get up eight".
There. There's motivation for ya! Use any of what I've written above if you think it'll help you or others. We need to support each other.
And now I shall be off to the kitchen for some breakfast and that blessed nectar of the gods that we humans refer to as coffee.
Have a great day, my Jeffie! Keep on keepin' on!

Moki

A little About Moki. 

Moki is a Polar Explorer. She is a staff writer for Polar Times and a Global Warming Representative for the United Nations.  I took Moki to the North Pole for her first time in 2003 and we traveled through the island of Spitsbergen Norway.  She is a very experienced person in many fields and speaks several languages.  Here is a link to her story, "Noses are Red, Fingers are Blue"  and here is another link to the 2003 North Pole Expedition.