GIVE NOTHING LESS THAN YOUR BEST

America was built upon the belief that individuals can realize unlimited opportunity through hard work and the effective utilization of resources if a superior product or service is produced that appeals (and sells) to a consuming public. Implied within this basic tenant is that while we ARE created similarly, we possess different gifts, abilities, and competencies so we ARE NOT presumed to be equal in our ability to produce or achieve results. Not everyone can be a professional athlete, a teacher, a counselor, a leader, a writer, or an innovator…or any of a score of other occupations that require specialized skills or unique temperaments...but all ARE able to succeed to the best of the abilities they have AND accomplish great things if they choose to fully leverage the gifts they have been given. 

While we all taste success, life is an environment of equitability rather than of equality. Our efforts do not create EQUAL results - they produce results that reflect EQUITABLY the abilities we have developed, the intelligence we apply, and outcomes we achieve. One can expect to receive from life only that which results from the efforts they personally contribute – not what might be available through the efforts or activities of another. The only guarantees we can expect in life are rooted in what we believe to be possible, practice to perfect, and relentlessly strive to achieve.

In an effort to equalize everyone and take away any thought or concept of one individual being (for whatever reason) positioned differently than another in their abilities, their rewards or their contributions, our country has taken drastic measures to promote and advance equality. Schools tend to teach to the middle – spending far too much on creating opportunity for the less gifted and failing to advance the talents and abilities of those towards the top. Field days are disappearing from elementary schools because some children are not able to compete with others (often due to their own lifestyle choices) and nobody wants them to feel “badly” should they not win or taste the same success as others. To avoid lopsided losses in sports during a child’s formative years, the solution has been to quit keeping score (that might appease the adults in the crowd but the kids playing know who “won” and what the final score was even though it is not officially tracked). 

Supervisors and managers give “across the board pay adjustments” because it is easier to treat employees equally than to identify and reward exceptional effort (because individuals producing inferior results will require confrontation). Labor unions (potentially making a comeback due to favorable Administrative rhetoric and seemingly positive vocal support promised during political campaigns) flourish within both government and private sector entities by bringing “everyone is equal” and “pay equality based on time in grade” (rather than for performance) concepts into the workplace. The recent repeal of our “Right to Work” law and the re-introduction of “prevailing wages” are but two more examples of legislation designed to make all equal (rather than equitable) within our workforce.

While our country has survived many challenges from outside our borders, possibly the greatest attacks on our greatness come from within. It seems that an individual’s abilities to demonstrate excellence, to reap the rewards of individual efforts, and to live out the belief that one is limited ONLY by his or her own addressable shortcomings are under attack by an overly accepting public. A prevailing concept of “take from those who have the resources in order to give to those having a need” is creating a shift within society where so many individuals receive aid from somewhere that there are more “takers” than “givers” within our world. While everyone may need help to overcome unforeseen issues at some point in their life, the support SHOULD BE helping them become better contributors for which they will be rewarded RATHER THAN heightening their dependency upon a paternalistic government for easy ways out and free rewards.

Our society tends to reward those needing support and penalize those that create wealth, jobs or opportunities. 80% or our taxes are paid by 20% of our population yet more taxes continue to be recommended for those that “can afford them” so that monies can be given to those that do not contribute. We promise to take care of student loan debt (which was voluntarily assumed knowing that it would someday be due) rather than looking to address a system that may have unfairly created the debt. We speak of reparations rather than of the opportunities that every American truly has…we speak of European peace while our nation is in a polarized “war” as evidenced by the numbers of violent deaths each day in this great country…we accept the minimum from ourselves AND others as being the best so as not to risk failure should we truly accept nothing but our best. When will we seek to reward those that deserve recognition and encourage those who have failed to succeed (rather than to reward their shortcomings by providing for them without their contributing themselves)?   

Embrace the freedoms and unlimited opportunities we currently enjoy by striving to move forward (rather than standing fast), by learning and applying the knowledge (rather than simply accepting what is as what will always be), and by focusing upon where you COULD BE (rather than upon where you HAVE ALREADY BEEN). Become all that you may become by seeking all that might be sought, doing all that can be done, and NEVER accepting less from yourself than you are capable of giving and you will both make the world a better place to live AND provide a role model that may, eventually, encourage others to be all that they could be as well.