Success is Who We Really Are
“This operation is planned as a victory, and that’s the way it’s going to be. We’re going down there, and we’re throwing everything we have into it, and we’re going to make it a success.” General Dwight D. Eisenhower sounded confident before the Normandy Invasion.
Successes define the worth of any individual. JK Rowling was turned down a number of times by publishing companies before her Harry Potter series was published and sold millions. Steve Jobs was fired by the company he founded. But when he bounced back, he made Apple the most valuable company in the US pricing at ONE TRILLION US DOLLARS.
Success takes a lot of bravery, excellence, and probably honesty. Success will be elusive when we won’t face our fears, when we don’t know where and how we excel, and when we take advantage of others.
Facing fears is taking off our masks. "When I was young, I was afraid of other people’s judgement. For sure, we all are," Princess, one of my students in Advanced Critical Reading, narrated. "Actually, I hate joining contests because I do not like ending up to be a disappointment to others. Until year 2015, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to join the qualifying round for English radio broadcasting. At first, I was surprised because I did not have any background or experience in broadcasting. I do not even see myself being a broadcaster someday. After a little insistence, I finally said yes. And in that same year, I was already one of the campus journalists in our school," she added.
Princess became a young journalist, and was trained and educated to write and disseminate data that contain the whole truth and nothing but the truth. "To be honest, I am not really good at writing. I am not even fluent at speaking and writing in English. I still ask the help of my friend Google because there are still words I am not familiar with, I still need training to build up my skills and be more adept, and of course," she confessed. "I need that push from people who believe in me to motivate me to go beyond what I can do," she concluded.
Success is relevant, so to speak. But as students, there are common denominators to succeed. One, PERSISTENCE. Being persistent is not giving up. And not giving up is FORTITUDE. Two, FOCUS. By being focused, we become good. And being consistently good leads to EXCELLENCE. And third, PASSION. Being passionate is loving what we do. And when there is love in what we do, we do what is RIGHT.
JK Rowling and Steve Jobs are absolutely successful. But they are not perfect! They went through rough patches, but they persisted---that’s fortitude. Their eyes were set in a goal and that is to become excellent. And surely, they were passionate. Uprightness does not necessarily mean we have to become saints because even saints were sinners. Being humane is enough.
You and I need not to be perfect to be successful. Because success relies on what we can and who we really are.
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