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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - June 23, 2010
1. A Note from the Editor
It seems that if at first you don't succeed, you're in good company. Excellent
company, in fact!
June 23, 2010
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
Rebound
Is it coincidence or the new literary fashion? Books I reviewed or referenced for several recent issues of the ABDSG all had one thing in common, one-word titles--Switch, Mindset, Outliers. And now there's a new one on my nightstand, Bounce.
These particular books actually had more in common than their one-word titles. The reason they appeared in your newsletters in the past (with the exception of Matt Syed's Bounce which is too new) is that they all promote the idea that excellence can be achieved through perseverance. It's a message worth repeating. If at first you don't succeed…. Success may not come easily or quickly, but even a rocky and circuitous path can get you where you want to go (and beyond) when you stay the course.
If you are feeling thwarted or a bit slow off the launching pad, you're in excellent company. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a few moguls and newsmakers who early in life considered themselves rejected. Warren Buffet, turned down by Harvard, said that everything "…I thought was a crushing event at the time has turned out for the better."
Another Harvard reject was Dr. Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate in medicine. After being rejected twice by Harvard's medical school, he was advised by a dean to enlist in the military. Fortunately for Dr. Varmus--and for medicine--the future Nobel laureate persevered, found an alternate path to med school, and excelled beyond his dreams.
Though Buffet and Varmus experienced early setbacks and disappointment, they did not succumb to a feeling of permanent defeat. Rather they persevered toward their goals, taking alternate routes that proved ultimately successful. Two years ago the same institution that rejected Buffet and Varmus invited another former "failure" to address its graduating class.
In the 2008 commencement address at Harvard, J.K. Rowling spoke to the assembled graduates and guests about the difficult years prior to her fame and fortune--when she was living in poverty and being turned down by publisher after publisher, twelve in all before the first Harry Potter book was accepted for publication. "I have decided to talk to you," said Rowling, "about the benefits of failure."
Her advice for the graduates was to learn from failure, not fear it, and she told in intimate detail of her various struggles in overcoming obstacles to success. The following is a sample of her remarks, but you may want to watch or read the entire speech online.
I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this. I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.
…You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all--in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected…."
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control; and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
All the writers of the one-word titles referenced above would be in agreement with Rowling that "life is difficult, and complicated…." And all would agree that we may not have complete control over the events that can make life so problematic, but we can abjure defeatism, make rebound decisions, and determine the course we take when inevitable setbacks arise.
Inspirational
stories of overcoming defeat and going on to greatness are usually told of
men and women who, like Warren Buffet and J.K. Rowling, are famous in their
field of endeavor. One more example from that rarefied realm of success and
fame is Michael Jordan, cut from his high school basketball team his sophomore
year. He could have moped and folded; instead he learned from his mistakes--another
story in which a setback was followed by success.
Countless people living outside a spotlight have similar stories that never make the news--stories not of basketball but of meeting individual challenges, overcoming obstacles, and persevering until a goal is reached. These, too, are stories of success; they are your story.