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Quote of the Day: True Measure of Success
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” –Booker T. Washington
Mr. Washington may have been addressing black America in particular, but all of us can benefit from his words.
We nearly always learn as much, if not more, from our roadblocks and difficulties than we learn from our achievements. But the barriers we face, whether out of our control or brought on by ourselves, are frequently seen as negative experiences.
I remember the time when I decided I wanted to be an independent consultant—talk about obstacles! I had already been teaching business writing courses for years, but I wanted bigger challenges—and I certainly found them. I wanted to do organization development work. But what did that mean?
The first obstacle was to earn a degree, not just to know what O.D. was, but to be able to show an M.A. degree to prospective clients; then I needed to figure out the focus of my business. It took a while, but I finally realized how much I enjoyed working in the area of conflict. I did conflict training, but I also wanted to work with teams. But how would I distinguish myself from other consultants?
I realized that an advantage I had over others was my willingness and ability to dive deeply into people’s conflicts. I worked hard to develop trust with team members and then worked with them through a facilitated activity where they could deal honestly with their issues. Now there were a few big obstacles for me to overcome!
I also had to do sales and marketing, which I hated to do, but I did them anyway. Ultimately, I had a rewarding and productive consulting business.
Too often we are dissuaded from our goals and dreams, because we have to do things that are uncomfortable or difficult for us to do. We often have a wealth of excuses for not moving forward. When we realize that doing those activities is inherent to our growth and being successful, however, we are more likely to realize our dreams.
What obstacles have you faced in your life that helped you learn, grow, and become successful?
Published in Group Writing
My father, who had quit school at age 15, told me when I was a high school senior, “Get this idea of going to college out of your head.” I ignored that advice and went to college on a scholarship. I applied to medical school at the suggestion of my two room mates to get the experience of the interviews. After all, it was only $25 to apply. In December, I was accepted. That Spring I took 28 units of required courses to get them all in. Neither of them ever went to medical school. One entered the Foreign Service and the other got a PhD in Ichthyology.
In the fall of 1961, I began medical school with the tuition for one semester paid. It was all I had. My Air National Guard unit was called up in the wake of the Berlin Wall and activation of the reserves. I had to drop out. The school kept a place for me in the 1962 class and I began again in September, still not knowing where the tuition for the second semester was coming from. I got a scholarship for the rest of medical school and ended up first in my class for all four years.
I had failed to maintain a B average in my Engineering courses and lost my undergrad scholarship. I went to work and continued school at night.
“White Privilege,” I guess.
Yeah, right @michaelkennedy! You are the poster boy for persistence in overcoming obstacles! I wish black people could see your “white privilege” and take notes. Thanks!
Do you mean trust fund babies who are almost guaranteed a legacy slot in an Ivy League school are not succeeding like some kid up from the projects who gets a Ph. D. in economics and spends a lifetime teaching others?
This is the Quote of the Day. If you have a quotation you’d like to share, or if you have one to help illustrate a point about our post-modern world, why not go to our sign-up sheet and pick an open date?
This is another example of why we should change Labor Day to Innovation Day to celebrate the great American tradition of innovation, technology, and industrialization.
I fully agree, @dong, since Labor Day was originally created to celebrate labor unions. Not my favorite group nowadays!
Every significant obstacle in my life was of my own making. In the immortal words of Pogo “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Family, friends and the talents forcibly instilled by teachers and other loving adults all conspired to preserve sanity and soften or even eliminate deserved consequences of self-defeating thoughts and actions.
Privilege is about human connections that foster good choices and mitigate the outcomes of bad ones. I have had that in abundance.
The truly pernicious effect of the victim mentality is that it makes it impossible to recognize and distinguish sources of adversity within our reach, induces fantasies about fictional externally imposed injustices and begins a descent into resentful hopelessness and perpetual anger.
The whole American experiment has been about steadily removing the external obstacles and structural barriers such that there is no excuse for not building a large, full life. Weirdly, we are in the process of tossing it all away to create new barriers to freedom in the name of battling structural obstacles that do not exist.
So very true, @oldbathos. It is heartbreaking to watch. Thanks.
The past month has set blacks back 50 years. I wonder what will happen to them now that they seem to have declared war on whites ? Hispanics are not sympathetic and compete for the entry level jobs they need to get started on prosperity. My best friend in medical school was the son of Mexican immigrants. His mother made her own tortillas and never learned to speak English. He was one of ten children. His oldest brother had died in an industrial accident. His other 8 siblings all had graduate degrees. His father had a wrought iron business in east LA. Ed went to medical school on a scholarship paid by Francisco Bravo, a Mexican American surgeon who had a clinic in east LA. The scholarship did not need to be repaid if the recipient practiced in a community with 25% Spanish surnames. Ed practiced in Chula Vista, south of San Diego.
http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/archivestory.php/aid/2924/Francisco_Bravo,_Class_of_1927.html
Ed’s daughter, also a surgeon, practiced with him. I think Ed died recently. He was too ill to attend out 50th reunion in 2016.
If it’s fair to assume @michaelkennedy that there is a black silent majority, we’ll need to see if and when they’ve had enough. There are some honorable and resilient people out there who have spent a lifetime fighting the Leftist rhetoric, like your friend. They need to step up.
All right, now. How do you know this about me? Are you tapped into the NSA, which is tapped into my head?
I know because in spite of my story, I get in my own way at times, too, @suspira!
Oh, I know some of them. Some were my students although American blacks, as I have said before, suffer under the handicap of this victim mentality. African and West Indian blacks, who were more numerous among my students, did not have this complex. There is a dramatic difference between those from Africa or the West Indies and the Americans. And remember medical students should be the cream of the crop. One of my most brilliant students was a girl who is beautiful and from the Jain people in India although she was American born. She was also the darkest student I ever had. She had a BS in Mechanical Engineering and was in a program for Engineer Physicians. Another girl, much lighter skinned, was from Eritrea. When I was examining military recruits, I met a Nigerian with a BS in Mech Eng and an MS in Industrial Eng. He was pleased when I asked him if he was an Ibo. Of course he is. They know there is no racism left, except among blacks. Demands for special treatment is evidence that they think they are inferior. The Africans and West Indians don’t have that inferiority complex. One of my West Indian black students was married to a white man who was an Engineering grad student. They had one car and were as poor as I was as a medical student.