I laugh when I see my old high school yearbook. I can’t believe that the photo there with the long hair and the bony face is me. When I look at the photos of my friends in that yearbook I laugh harder. I console myself with the fact that I’m not the only one in that book that looks funny.
There were superstars and campus personalities back then. These were the guys voted as “Most Likely To Succeed”. Years have passed, but the prediction has yet to come true. And then there were the notorious, the dubious, and the rebels. They were the ones seen as future failures at best, criminals at worst. Yet these guys have succeeded in business; many of them, in fact, have become my clients today.
I have something to confess. Back in school, I had the reputation of being “The Dumbest Kid In School”. It took me six years to complete high school at a time when K12 was not yet implemented. In my talks, with chin up high and proud, I announce, “I have a Ph.D. in High School.” “Passing High School with Difficulty.”
I was a perennial pain to my parents and a constant disappointment to every member of my family. Everybody thought I had the makings of a failure. Until I developed self-confidence and strength of character, and graduated top in my college four years later.
I know the taste of failure, even in business. It’s not sweet; it’s bitter. I’ve gone into business ventures where I didn’t make money and I even lost some. I think I’ve succeeded in failing enough.
The world is filled with smart and well-educated people who have not lived up to their or other people’s expectations of success. Many of these people have not succeeded because they’ve failed to develop their God-given talents or gifts.
I know some who have lived a life of failure, misery and tragedy, and they blame other people and circumstances for it.
There are people who have great ideas about making a fortune but they couldn’t muster enough strength to get off their lazy chairs. And there are people who have great plans for a great future, but who take no actions today to make that great future happen.
Over the years, I’ve shared the platform with speakers who shake their fists and scream passionately at their audience about “changing the world” even if they cannot put their lives in order. And then there are those who fool themselves into thinking that their life models integrity, while they scheme and cheat their way to being successful, without making any significant dent in their surroundings or in their family.
So what do these people lack?
Education, talents, eloquence or personality alone cannot bring us success. We need emotional stability and strength of character that come with… failing. Because failures become the tuition fee we pay for learning the lessons we need to learn in order to succeed. Success requires sacrifice. It requires discipline, humility, and a lot of emotional maturity and strength of character.
Ask yourself:
• Have I learned from my past mistakes or am I still doing the blame game?
• Have I been strengthened by failures, and have these failures strengthened my resolve to succeed?
• Have I remained humble in the midst of my successes and develop in me a character based on godliness and righteousness?
Without learning from past mistakes, without being strengthened by failures, without humility, no success will be sustainable and no failure becomes profitable.
God may not be concerned with our success. But definitely He’s concerned with our character.
Just a thought to consider.
(Click on to www.franciskong.com and send me your feedback or you can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:00a.m. and 6:30 p.m. weekdays over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)