About David Moe

What Motivates Me? A gift a teacher gave ME.

By David Moe

When I was eleven years old and in the sixth grade I had a teacher who gave the members of his class an assignment. The assignment was to memorize a certain poem and recite it in class. Excerpts of the poem floated through my mind over the years. I remember a passage that went:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With 60 seconds worth of distance run-
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.

I could not recall all of it nor could I remember the name of the poem. As I was approaching my forties I was engaged in a program of personal growth and studying the thoughts of successful people. During a discussion about motivational teaching with a close friend in Port Angeles, I mentioned that I was trying to recall a poem I had learned as a young boy. I recited to him the part I could remember. He said that it sounded familiar and in fact it reminded him of a poem that a fellow teacher he knew used to keep in his desk and take out to read every day. He said the poem was " IF" by Rudyard Kipling. I went to the library and looked up the poem. Yes, it was, in fact the same one I had learned as a young boy. Another interesting point about this story is who was the teacher who read that poem to himself each day. It was Jack Elway, a distinguished football coach and the father of John Elway, the pro quarterback of the Denver Broncos. It happened that Jack Elway got his first teaching and coaching job in Port Angeles. His son John was born three blocks from our house in the same hospital where my two boys were born. Mr. Elway must have shared the poem with his son. John Elway is known for making great comebacks in clutch situations and is a high achiever. I figured if it helped me and it helped John Elway that I would share it with my sons. My two boys are doing well and have high aspirations, too. I wish to share it with you. Please visit the poems page and have a read