Encouraging - Success

Successful people, whether in the arena of family, marriage, business, finances, or ministry, know their limits. They understand the value of time. They know when they have ventured beyond the realm of their expertise and experience. They know when it is time to borrow a page out of someone else’s playbook. One of the best things you can do is reject the notion that because people expect you to have all the answers, you must therefore pretend that you do. Being a parent does not mean you know how to be a great parent. Being a husband or wife is not the equivalent of knowing how to have a great marriage. Having a position of responsibility does not ensure that you know everything you need to know to handle that responsibility responsibly. Position does not equal ability. The moment you say, “I do” or have that first child or open that first checking account or start that new business or begin that new relationship is like venturing into a part of town that you are totally unfamiliar with. The ability to drive does not equal the ability to navigate. You need outside assistance. But you need the right outside assistance.

Andy Stanley, The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN: 2008) 121-122.

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.