Herbert W. Armstrong, who died in 1986, was the world’s leading televangelist and one of the most prominent religious leaders of the 20th century—watched, read and followed by millions worldwide. And yet, as we have reminded 120 teenagers attending our 17th annual youth camp here in Oklahoma, his extraordinary life had a very ordinary beginning.

As a young boy growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Armstrong befriended two neighborhood youths named Harold and Clayton. They spent many of their waking hours playing outdoors. They enjoyed sports, like baseball, football, basketball and wrestling. Young Herbert’s favorite wrestling move was the hammerlock.

The three buddies went exploring, played marbles and built forts. Mr. Armstrong was especially proud of a 6-foot cave the three of them dug. It was their “secret” fort.

Young Herbert attended church services and Sunday school every week at the First Friends Church in Des Moines. For about three or four years of his youth, while at services, Mr. Armstrong’s job was to pump the pipe organ for the organist. In those days, the instrument had to be powered manually.

Between the ages of 12 and 16, in addition to attending public school, Mr. Armstrong held down a number of odd jobs during school breaks and on weekends. He had a paper route and made deliveries for a grocery store and a dry goods store. He spent one summer working as a draftsman for a furnace company.

At North High School in Des Moines, Mr. Armstrong tried out for football and track. He also played basketball recreationally. He had a small frame for football, weighing only 135 pounds, but he was an agile and quick halfback. In track and field, his specialty was the 1-mile run. After posting his best time, five minutes flat, the teenaged Herbert fainted from exhaustion shortly after he crossed the finish line.

During summer break, when he was 16, Mr. Armstrong got his first job away from home. It was at a hotel restaurant about seven miles northeast of Des Moines in a little town called Altoona. For transportation, he boarded a streetcar every morning before work. It was quite a step up for the former paperboy.

Mr. Armstrong was only responsible for waiting tables and cleaning dishes at the hotel. But he poured his heart into the opportunity and won high praise from his boss, a single man around the age of 45. “Soon he began to tell me that he could see qualities in me that were destined to carry me to large success in life. He constantly expressed great confidence in me, and what I would be able to accomplish, if I were willing to put forth the effort” (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong,Volume 1; emphasis mine throughout).

Prior to this time, young Herbert had led an average, albeit active, youthful existence. He hadn’t seriously applied himself to his studies at school and no one would have confused him with a potential leader. He mostly just followed the older boys around.

But during that summer job, this hotel manager aroused in Mr. Armstrong an ambitious desire to make something of his life. “It is impossible to estimate the importance of this sudden arousal of ambition—this injection of an intense desire for success—this igniting of the spark of determined energy to achieve worthy accomplishment,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “This was the turning point of my life.”

It wasn’t just the turning point of his youth, or his education, or even his career. This was the turning point of his entire life of 93 years!

And it happened when he was 16.

“Suddenly life became a whole new ‘ball-game,’” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “There had awakened within a totally new outlook on the future.

“This, I believe, is the vital ingredient that has been missing in most human lives. Most continue through life as I was prior to this arousal of ambition. As I have stated, up to this point I played with boys older than I. It seemed natural for them to assume leadership. I simply ‘went along.’ The idea of looking forward to achieving success, or an accomplishment of any note never intruded itself into my mind. Nor does it, probably, in the average mind. And it was like an intrusion, for my mind was uninterruptedly occupied only with the interests, pleasures and enjoyments of the moment.”

This week, in referring to the turning point Mr. Armstrong experienced at 16, we’ve encouraged our youth to consider the impact their choices will have on their future. We’ve structured their daily activities around building a relationship with God—through prayer and Bible instruction.

God wants this camp to be their life’s turning point. He sees qualities in them that are destined for success later in life. He’s confident in them.

Now, if they will just put forth the effort to achieve the happiness and success God wants them to have!