Leah Chase, the famed New Orleans chef and inspiration for a classic children’s animated movie, has fed musicians, Presidents, and countless visitors in her restaurant Dooky Chase’s. In this audio clip, she discusses the value of constructive criticism in helping us grow and improve. There’s people today, the young people, don’t want that. They call it criticism. But there’s such a thing as constructive criticism, and you use it. If people never tell you what’s wrong, you’ll never do right. You know, you have to be told sometimes, ‘No, this is not going to work.’ And I had so many friends who helped me up this ladder, who told me, ‘This will work. This will work. This will work. That will work.’ They kept coming and telling me.

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Earl Frost

Earl Frost discovered his talent for music thanks to the support that others showed in him. In this audio clip, he shares what he has learned about faith.

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Tom McGrath

Clearly my father understood his situation: he was dying and there was more pain to come. And yet here he was saying, as if he was letting us in on a secret, ‘All in all, we’re in pretty good shape.’ Was this just the medicine talking? The truth is that I had heard those words…

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Joe Schneider

I was a bomber pilot in World War II. We were the bombers who were knocking out hundreds of bridges in Italy. We became known as the ‘Bridge Busters’. We had to fly straight and level, otherwise we would never hit a 100-foot bridge. It was very touch-and-go. And we lost an awful lot of…

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Tony and Grace Naudi

[Grace] You want to get on in the world, you want to be a success, and you think that’s really important. But in the end, that’s not what’s most important. The important thing is to find yourself, to know yourself, and to be grateful for what you have. You tend to exclude the frivolous things…

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Razanamialy Simone

[W]ith the grace of God I changed. I continue to work as a laundrywoman and now have some savings. My community does not see me as a parasite anymore. I have a good relationship with my daughters. They give me pocket money that I use to buy yogurt. I even managed to improve my house;…

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Earl Frost

I think my faith grew the most when I left home and came to Boston. I knew nobody. I wasn’t going to church at the time. If somebody wanted to hire me to play the piano at a church, I’d go, but I was looking for money. Don’t play with my money! But they told…

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