Challenges and Obstacles

Is your road blocked by too many obstacles? Find wisdom in these quotes on challenges and obstacles by foremost Blacks who persevered.

And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.
Wilma Rudolph

Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.
Wilma Rudolph

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
Oprah Winfrey

Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
Kobe Bryant

I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it's half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me.
Althea Gibson

I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying.
Michael Jordan

I didn't have anybody, really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way. Always, from the start. I had to go out in the world and become strong, to discover my mission in life.
Tina Turner

I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.
Oprah Winfrey

I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me . . . Failure always made me try harder next time.
Michael Jordan

I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it... I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it's an illusion to me.
Michael Jordan

I walked with braces until I was at least nine years old. My life wasn't like the average person who grew up and decided to enter the world of sports.
Wilma Rudolph

I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
Jesse Owens

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
Lena Horne

Let me tell young people this - you may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter some defeats to know who you are.
Maya Angelou

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!
Stevie Wonder

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.
Nikki Giovanni

Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.
Benjamin Banneker

So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.
Oprah Winfrey

Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
Billie Holiday

Stumbling is not falling.
Malcolm X

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself -- the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us -- that's where it's at.
Jesse Owens

The triumph can't be had without the struggle.
Wilma Rudolph

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
Malcolm X

There's a place in me that can really relate to being the underdog. I'm always fighting to overcome the obstacle. I can really understand what's that about.
Halle Berry

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.
Oprah Winfrey

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.
Oprah Winfrey

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.
Wilma Rudolph

You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

You will be wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction." It's just an experience, just an experience.
Oprah Winfrey