What Does Success Look Like for You?

Can we assume everyone wants to be successful?

We think so. Success of course, means different things to different people. We often use different criteria to measure our success. And - not "but" - we think this much is for certain: No one wants to be a failure.

As a sophomore in high school, there was nothing I hated more than Latin class; it was requirement so there was no getting out of it. But, you want to talk about a thoroughly exhaustive and altogether worthless endeavor? Telling a fifteen-year old boy he needed to learn to read and speak a dead language - are you kidding me? I struggled with it every day and as much as I wanted "out of that class," I knew I still didn't want to receive a failing grade. Thanks to some last minute senior tutoring and the fear of my mother, I somehow managed to scrape by.

We teach our students about the need for failure. We tell them they need to fail in order to learn and grow. We teach them "we learn nothing from our victories." We encourage them to stick their necks out and not be afraid to try - not be afraid to fail. "If you fall down," we tell them, "Its okay. Just pick yourself up an try again." Yet, human nature still encourages them to do everything in their power not to fail. We don't need to teach them that part.

We teach our students how to work hard and we teach them how to be loyal and to stay-the-course and not to give up, etc. But, do we teach them how to win? Do we show them how they can be successful? Its a good question, yes?

After all, what is success? Is it making a lot of money? Of course, making money is important but, is that all there is to being successful? Our individual quests for success are about a lot more than just turning a profit or growing our sales. Those things are actually pretty easy to do. Success, true success, is about becoming "the best" we can be.

It is a never-ending journey and it is the most worthwhile reason for doing anything.