Week 7 Discussion 2 - The Cult of Success

How will you, as a principal, teach your staff and students that we need to learn from our mistakes to improve our performance?

I find this topic very interesting as I was having a similar conversations with some of the coaches at my school just last week. There is this new belief in sports that all children need to receive a trophy for "participation." As former athlete and now coach I can understand why that makes some students angry. How does the looser get a trophy when the winner worked hard to get one? There has to be a looser and that is same belief I have in education, someone will always fall short and will not win but our job as teachers is to take those that loose and show them the way to the winners circle. That is what teachers do. As a principal I would approach my teachers the same way to show them the way to the winners circle of education and teaching. It is important that teachers and students understand that just because you failed doesn't mean that you are not successful lit means that something or a thing merely just did not work and now it is time to start again. 

How can we redefine our ideas about success?

We have to make sure that as leaders are instilling the idea that failure is apart of success. As a business owner it took me and is still taking me time to really grasp this lesson because it is an important one to have. We have to stop thinking that success is instant and does not come with hard work and failure behind it. Even Michael Jordan was cut from a basketball team. 

Your text asks this question: "How have you been affected by rankings and ratings in your estimation of success?

Among my colleagues and friends they have all stated that I am more successful than them which I do not believe at all. I am my worse critic when it comes to my own success and I often feel as though I am not moving forward but moving in place. I can see my accomplishments however, they are not as big as I would like them to be so therefore to me that means that I am not being successful. Those around me do not see it that way. 

How have these experiences influenced your assessment of success?

I have learned to take the failures the same way I take my wins. I have learned that although it may be hard that I have to celebrate my failures just as much as I have done with my successes. The reason for this is because with my failures at least I can say that I tried something that I had never tried before.