I have heard this question before and am always happy to answer it.
Dan Rudy, or Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, was the inspiration for the true life motivational movie, Rudy. It is my favourite movie by far and the movie itself carries so many powerful messages that I cannot help but watch it every so often and I actively strive to employ the real life lessons in my everyday life. More info about Rudy can be found here:http://www.rudyinternational.com
Every time I watch the movie, I am blown away by the boy with the dream, but every time, my eyes get watery and I get really proud of Rudy and of my own accomplishments because, as I had the real Rudy write on my dvd, “With hard work and a dream, anything is possible.”
And I leave you with some of my favourite lines from the movie:
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Fortune: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey what are you doing here don’t you have practice?
Rudy: Not anymore I quit.
Fortune: Oh, well since when are you the quitting kind?
Rudy: I don’t know I just don’t see the point anymore.
Fortune: So you didn’t make the dress list, there are greater tragedies in the world.
Rudy: I wanted to run out of that tunnel for my dad to prove to everyone that I worked…
Fortune: PROVE WHAT?
Rudy: That I was somebody.
Fortune: Oh you are so full of crap. Your five foot nothin’, a hundred and nothin’ and you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years, and you were also going to walk out of here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame in this life time you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody except yourself and after what you gone through if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen, now go on back.
Rudy: I’m sorry I never got you to see your first game in here.
Fortune: Hell I’ve seen to many games in this Stadium.
Rudy: I thought you said you never saw a game…
Fortune: I’ve never seen a game from the stands.
Rudy: You were a player?
Fortune: I rode the Bench for two years thought I wasn’t being played because of my color I got filled up with a lot of attitude so I quit, still not a week goes by I don’t regret it, and I guarantee a week won’t go by in your life you won’t regret walking out letting them get the best of you. Do you hear me clear enough?
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Father Cavanaugh: Son, in 35 years of religious study, I have only come up with two hard incontrovertible facts: there is a God, and I’m not Him.
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Pete: Well, you know what my dad always said: ‘Having dreams is what makes life tolerable.’
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D-Bob: Who’s the wild man now?!