by John Tissot
John Tissot has been collecting quotes on success for twenty years. He feels as if the time to use them has come...
Dr. Pedro Garcia, Superintendent of schools in Carpinteria, California, recently stated, “Children learn every day from their kindergarten teachers all they need to know to be successful in life.” Dr. Garcia refers us to Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten :Play fair; share everything; don’t hit people; put things back where you found them; clean up your own mess; don’t take things that aren’t yours; say you are sorry when you hurt somebody; wash your hands before you eat; flush; warm cookies and cold milk are good for you; live a balanced life (learn, think, draw, paint, sing, dance, play and work some every day); take a nap in the afternoon; when you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Because if we will do these things, we will be successful.
What happened during the 60s, 70s and 80s? Did we forget what we learned in kindergarten? Did the Keatings and the Cranstons of this country never go to kindergarten?
During the last decade it seemed we could forget kindergarten because success, as everyone knew, was based on how many could sleep on the yacht.
Is it time to redefine success? Let’s say it is. Who is going to give us words to live by ?
Back in 1973, when he was Governor of Arizona, Jack Williams said: “Success is purely subjective emotion. What some people view as success in other people is many times an agony of frustration, responsibility and unhappiness.
“On the other hand what many people view as poverty, underprivileged conditions, inadequacies, can conceal the most satisfied and fulfilled person you’ve ever met.
“I think that each of us in his own way contributes to the encouragement of nobility in man or his debasement. With that as a guideline we might determine whether we have been of service in this world or not.”
Benjamin Hook, Executive Director of the NAACP, said in 1987, “I think one measure of success is whether a person derives satisfaction and a sense of personal achievement and fulfillment from his endeavors.” (What? No yacht?)
When Barry Goldwater was a Senator in 1974, he said, success “depends on what road you are traveling through in life. If it is the road to material riches, then success is achieving those riches, but to me, that is not the only nor the best road to travel.
“I think success comes from happiness in the work you are doing, particularly happiness in the fact that your work is helping someone else to achieve the same peaks that you have achieved.”
And if we ask a member of the School Board of Carpinteria about success, he says, “Any woman who can send her child to school ready to learn is a success. She has to feed him and bathe him and nurture his sense of well-being. And if she can do that, she is a success.”
Okay, everybody. About face! March! Straight back to kindergarten and learn again how to be a success!
John Tissot
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