During Monday night’s final meeting of the Selma Quarterback Club, former Auburn University head coach Pat Dye offered high school students in the crowd advice that can benefit them in every aspect of their lives.

Dye told the student-athletes to turn their weaknesses into strengths. If they struggle at math or science, he advised them to spend more time studying that subject until it becomes an area of little difficulty.

Dye spent a  lifetime analyzing young people, looking for a way to motivate them and searching for a method to help them flip mismatches. Needless to say, he knows what he is talking about.

While his advice was aimed at the young people in the audience, Dye was quick to point out that his words apply to almost everything they will ever take on.

No area in the state needs a pep talk more than the Black Belt. There are no areas in Alabama that have more weaknesses economically than the Black Belt. The good news is, there are plenty of ways to  turn those weaknesses into strengths.

Just as Dye said, nothing worth having comes easy. It takes hard work. It requires people to approach their problem areas from an entirely different angle. It takes a confident attitude and a willingness to  push forward, no matter what.

In the Black Belt, we have problems. There is no doubt about it. But, we also have a proud group of people that are not satisfied with accepting these problems.

Hopefully, we can all take the Pat Dye approach and combine persistence and hard work to  overcome these problems and turn them into strengths.