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Show TURNING POINTS . - ; r rMost Most persons of middle age and beyond may look upon appar- appar apparently apparently - - ently bivIaI tiivial occurrences which seem to have changed the entire entirecourse entirecourse -course course - of their lives . A chance meeting , a fortuitous remark , a acasual acasual ; casual , letter , or even.an1\c.cident evenan1c.cident even.an1 evenan1 c.cident ccident even . ann \ . Aicident , may mal'k malk mark ' a turning point in inone's in inone's one's ones ' course . - - F FSuch Such Old1narIly oidinarily uiIimportant u important I events which turn out to be far farreaching farreaching reaching in their conseq consequences en "es es " most often have to do with matri- matri matrimony matrimony - - mony . But in business and other relations of life these minor minorhappenings minor minorhappenings happenings ' als also frequentlyfhave frequently'have frequentlyhave ' a weighty influence . It is related of Disraeli"tbe Disraelitbe Disraelithe " , , Jewish boy who became one of ofEngland's ofEngland's England's Englands ' great prime minist ministers rg , .that that . his turning point came camethrough camethrough through a fIst fight at school , as a consequence of which ' he chang- chang changed changed - - ed hIS place of residence and fell in with friends who aided him in ingetting ingetting getting started on hIS bl billianl billianlcareer ) IlfIant areer career . Numberless similar in- in instances instances - stances may be found in bioglaphies biogiaphies of the great and near-great near great - , in which chance or small happenings led to fame and fortune . Sometimes , too , they lead in the opposite dIrection , as in the thecase thecase case of Napoleon , who is sald said to have lost the battle of ofVaterloo \Vaterloo Vaterloo Waterloo \ , whIch whIchchanged changed the whole history of Europe , because it ramed rained just justbefore justbefore before : the battle , caUSIng his cannon to be mIred m in the mud . Thus , while carefully planned efforts count most , a great deal dealoften dealoften often depends on whether one gets the lucky or unlucky "breaks breaks " " in the game of life . |