Last night my daughter graduated from High School. (Note: It’s not my daughter in the picture to the right.) Her principal said something important about life goals and the process of getting there.
He opened with a quote: “Rabbi Yitzchak said: If a person says to you
‘I worked hard and I was not successful’ (literally did not find it) don’t believe him.
If he says ‘I didn’t work hard and I was successful’ don’t believe him.
If he says ‘I worked hard and I was successful’ believe him.” (Megilah 6b)
Addressing the audience the school principal said it is easy to understand that if you don’t put work in you can’t possibly be successful. It’s also easy to understand that if someone is successful they put a lot of work into it to get to that point.
But the first of the three statements always bothered him.
It’s true that hard work does not necessarily bring success. But what is it that you’re not supposed to believe? The statement should say instead ‘believe him.’ Yes, it’s true, believe him when he says he worked hard and was not successful, that he didn’t achieve his goal, because even after putting work in people don’t always achieve their goals.
But seeing the graduates and who they have become in four short years taught him that if someone worked hard don’t believe her when she says she was not successful. Maybe she didn’t finish her matriculation. Maybe she didn’t achieve the goal she set out to achieve. But she was successful. She found many things along the way, and some of those things are more important than the original goal she had set out to achieve.
The lesson we’re supposed to learn from the statement “If a person says to you ‘I worked hard and I was not successful’ don’t believe him is this: Hard work always brings positive results, whether or not you get to your goal. There are always good things that are learned along the way.
The process is important not only as a means to the end. Each step of the process, when one learns and finds meaning in it, becomes the end itself.