Encouraging - Success

People don’t rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It’s not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (Little, Brown & Company, NY, NY: 2008), 19.

As we start a new year and set new goals for ourselves. It is always good to ask ourselves how do we define success? Success is such an interesting term. To one man, success is judged by one’s bank account, to another the size of his family and to another his obedience to God. How one defines success will dictate how we arrange our lives. Missing from Gladwell’s insightful book is a discussion of God’s handiwork behind the scenes (to be fair, that wasn’t his audience), a fairly narrow definition of success and a failure to offer concrete answers…although that may be his point. Regardless, he does offer some interesting stories which propel us to think more deeply and ask ourselves difficult questions. It’s a very fun read and for those in education, some compelling chapters.