Life is often not fair. Consider the life of Roy Campanella. He never made more than a $36,000 annual salary playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today he’d be paid $36 million, at least. His great career (three MVP awards in one decade) was cut short when he was famously paralyzed in an auto accident. 

Campy caught pitcher Carl Erskine for most of his games with the Dodgers. in 2000, Erskine reflected, “Roy never felt sorry for himself, he always had a sweet spirit and talked about what he had, not what he had lost. Also, he showed great interest in others and their problems. He was an encourager.” His life lesson: he knew gratitude was the key to happiness.