From Struggle Ensues Significance and Success

These words pinned by Victor Frankl, an Austrian Holocaust survivor, author and so

much more are powerful and saturated with meaning. At first glance, this is an odd quote

coming from a foster kid who was seemingly drunk with the pursuit of success. In my

20s and early 30s, I was always in school and working full time demanding jobs in

leadership roles. To the worldly untrained eye, I was in pursuit of success and all of

these years later after I have achieved some modicum of professional respect, how dare I

say to not pursue it, success. To suggest that there is a path to success without pursuing

it seems like pie in the sky idealism and is short of disingenuous, right? Not so fast.

I have often said to my kids (I have two), don’t pursue profits, pursue purpose and the

financials will work out. I have said to them to pursue their passion and only do work

where they can find meaning. This advice is what I adhered to as I studied in an area that

most definitely believed had no material prospects for financial success. By all accounts,

I would struggle. That was just fine with me, financial success has never been the goal.

What defined my work and drive early in life were the struggles that I saw my mom go

through. In her care, we never had enough, whether it was food or shelter. In her care, we

were never exposed enough to positive images and experiences. In her care, financial

fragility is what we knew. I remember when college became within reach; I was terrified

about failing because I didn’t want to disappoint the people who believed that I could do

it. I was terrified because part of what drove my desire to excel was to show a different

path to my siblings. Success has never been my end goal but respectability in Gods eyes

has. If God placed any talent in me as I had grown to believe, what a disappointment I

would be on Heaven’s stage, if I didn’t try to maximize it. God never said to me, pursue

social work. God said find meaning in the work. I believed that as I found meaning, I

could impress upon other people who too were dealt a crap hand, that more things were

possible with our lives.

At what point in life is it appropriate to acknowledge that you have been successful even

if the race isn’t over? I don’t know but if I have been successful it is not because I have

focused on it. I have focused on stretching myself, not being lukewarm about life and

surrendering to the cause of uplift. Uplift is about channeling energy into those things

that create value. It creates value to help people place in its proper context the meaning of

their struggle and how from struggle ensues significance and success by any standard.