Annie Rix Militz said that the only way out of a situation is to go through it. Well, looking at most situations, lives and realities, for the most part I tend to agree with her. For the most part, too, hindsight is clearer than foresight in everyday life. So you have an idea why I paraphrased and quoted Ms. Annie Militz in this case. When I think about reality, I would love to go through everything “the easy way”, but sometimes the easy way is not possible, in fact, sometimes it is possible to avoid the hard way. Here’s the whole trick: Sometimes to genuinely grow, we have to go through something to genuinely learn it, or we get nothing if we avoid the lesson.
For example, I learned Algebra, Calculus and Advanced Statistical Mathematics at a young age. What helped me was doing the older kids’ homework and teaching them hypnotic techniques to pass exams and memorize information quickly. The point, though, was that they skipped the genuine experience of learning the material for themselves, like Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants or professional cycling’s Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France skipped the legitimate effort of getting their sports records. . Sure, the guys passed the tests, but ultimately they didn’t win anything, really. They overlooked the efforts required to “really do it” like Barry Bonds with steroids and Lance Armstrong with testosterone doping. In fact, when you are asked to genuinely use the knowledge and “really do it”, taking that kind of “easy way out” will be the hardest thing of all. That’s where the worst payoff comes in and, ironically, the best understanding of why it happened comes after the fact.
“After failure, redemption comes with guts, baby.” my grandmother Edna Van Porter used to say on my mother’s side, and I used to be “stupid enough” to ask “What do you mean, Grandma?” She used to give me the same answer over and over patiently, as smart, realistic and brave as she was. She wasn’t perfect, but smart, down to earth and brave about life having been around the blocks of life and existence in this world for a bit with a few marriages and lots of kids including my dear mom.
So, I will tell you my answer to that question and then I will finish this article: as long as you can reinvent yourself, there is no such thing as failure. Genuinely giving up and taking the easy way out or cheating is failure, but putting in the courage, sweat, persistence and effort honestly is redemptive guts and nothing more. The weakest people quit. The strongest people simply change their focus and persist. What do you think happened to beauty queen Vanessa Williams anyway? Everyone remembers her more than the beauty queens who were winners in the years before 1984 and winners after 1984 because she had that courage to persist. Sure, I could go on with even better examples, but I wanted to use a common example to show that what I’m saying is real, stark and truly honest, real and deeply meaningful to everyone. So, I end again with a quote from Calvin Coolidge, former President of the United States of America:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than talented men who do not succeed. Genius will not; genius without reward is almost a proverb. Education does not it will; the world is full of polite delusions. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.”
