I was asked to speak to the induction of the Phi Theta Kappa Chapter at my college and struggled as to what would be an appropriate message. I decided to focus on three main points. Three things learned in 52 years of life that might help students as they continue on their educational journey.
So here we go…This is what I told them….Point one…..Know your limitations…and work like the devil to conquer them.
I was in the half of my high school graduating class that made the top half possible.
I was a college dropout at 20….left school to get married and work along the river in St. Louis. My job was to bang on the side of railroad cars to entice grain to fall out the bottom and be transferred to a barge on the other side of the levee. Straight midnights…..rats bigger than dogs. Grain-fed rats.
My break came when a cable company hired me to read the evening news on a local cable access channel. I couldn’t put three words together without stumbling verbally. Had a cult following of people who would watch me just to laugh.
That forced me to enroll at the local community college in radio broadcasting. Two years later I started an 8-year career as a broadcaster….followed by returning to my community college to teach radio. The rest fell in place….I went back and earned my bachelor’s degree at the age of 29…
The point? It would have been really easy to accept defeat----to be satisfied with the regular paycheck….to stop working to improve my skills….but I was never satisfied with where I was…..and while I didn’t know where I was going….I was in a hurry to get there. Know your limitations…and work like the devil to exceed them.
Point two----Accept responsibility for your actions----don’t draw attention to your good work---and be able to accept bad news with good humor..
American politics is replete with examples of the downside of not accepting responsibility for one’s actions….
President Richard Nixon was not impeached because he initiated a wiretap of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel….he was impeached because he tried like the dickens to cover it up.
President Bill Clinton won’t be remembered so much for his marital infidelity…as the image of him shaking his finger at a news camera and saying….I did not have sex with that woman…Miss Lewinski. Who’d have thought she was going to save that dress?
We all fall short….it is our nature….we just fall short. Learn how to fess up…quickly and never blame someone else for your sins. Our society, our culture….and for most of us….our Christianity teaches us to confess our errors and we will be forgiven. To err is human, to forgive divine.
I have a saying….think I made it up myself…..don’t think I stole it…..here it is:
“Be careful of taking too many bows----it makes it all the easier for someone to kick you in the butt.” I cleaned it up for this event.
The point is----I had a colleague once who always was accepting atta-boys from the boss for work done in his department…by his people. He was taking credit for everything that went right at the college….until something went wrong….and his silence was deafening. Always give credit to others…be humble in accepting kind words.
Accept bad news with good humor. My grandfather was an incredible optimist. When grandpa was a young man he rode on the freight trains as a hobo during the Great Depression.
There were two trains that rolled into his little Illinois town…one stopped for coal and water….the other didn’t. One day, while riding back into town, he became convinced he was on the train that did not stop….so….at fifty miles per hour…..he leapt from the train and rolled to a stop with cuts and scratches all over his body as he watched the train roll to a stop just up the rail.
When grandpa told me this story I suspected there was some grand lesson attached to it. I asked….what’s the point?
He used to call me Mikem-----“Well Mikem, he said…..I guess I could have jumped on the other side of town.”
A point well taken….with humor.
Finally, lesson three---and to illustrate this point---I will once again quote myself: “Leadership should be a given----rather---commit to becoming a leader of leaders.”
I grew up in St. Louis…and still live and die each summer with the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. They have a player named Albert Pujols, who was the most valuable player in baseball last year….and might be in the same category as the greatest living Cardinal….Stan the Man Musial. Pujols said it best:
“I am at my best if I make my teammates more complete players.”
In other words, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Work hard…be responsible…take life with a smile… and help others around you become better…and you will someday find yourself---in your fifties----with a great job, a great wife, living in a great state.
End of speech.
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