There's No Such Word as Can't

Growing up, I remember saying to my Mom or Dad, "I can't do it! I just can't!"

I would be admonished, "There's no such word as CAN'T in our vocabularly. You CAN do it."

And, this would usually result in my parent's bringing out the book, "The Little Red Engine." For those of you who have not read this book, it's about a little red railroad engine whose job it became to bring toys over a mountain to the waiting children on the other side. No other engines were available and it had only been BIG engines that were assigned this important duty.

So, the story goes, the little engine hooked itself up to the waiting railroad cars filled with toys and he began to pull the cars up the mountain, but it was V-E-R-Y HARD to do. The engine wasn't strong enough. So he puffed, and he pulled, and he began to slowly move those cars all the way saying, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can DO IT!" And, as he gathered steam, he struggled, and he pulled, and he DID pull those cars over the mountain to the children on the other side.

There was a recent post about the word, "Failure," on another blog post about the bar exam. The author does not like the word. This stimulated me to think about the Little Red Engine that Could.

It's takes this same determination to study for and take the bar exam until one passes as it took the Little Red Engine to climb the mountain. There are numerous instances of people who have been seemingly undaunted in their effort to climb over that mountain. From a woman, Paula, who passed the exam on her 14th try to the man whom legend has it passed the exam on his 43rd try. Doing a preliminary examination of my BAR SURVEY RESULTS, there have been some who have passed the exam on their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th or better try. To do this, these exam takers had the grit, determination and desire to pass the exam and to become an attorney and nothing was going to stop them! Certainly, not one little ol' bar exam.

So, for those of you who are studying for the July 2009 bar exam, you CAN climb over the mountain. Keep focused, keep practicing, and know that you CAN do anything.

P.S. We have 40 people who have taken my Bar Exam Survey (and lots of tips from them) and 15 people who have taken my MBE Survey.

NOTE: The California Bar Exam survey will be removed from this blog by end of day, Friday, June 19, 2009.

I'll publish the survey results on this blog, once each survey has 35 or more respondents, so don't be shy, make your opinion known!

CALIFORNIA Bar Exam Survey

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MBE Survey

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