“Perseverance:
The Ultimate Source and Pathway to Success”
In
one of my positions as an admission counselor, recruiter and administrator, I
served as the liaison to the Speech Pathology and Audiology Program of a
nationally ranked graduate school of Education.
Admittance to the program remains highly competitive. Applicants who make the waiting list rarely
obtain eventual admission. One year, an
applicant named Regina was the fifteenth person on the waiting list. Past practice proving instructive, she did
not stand a snowball’s chance of gaining admission and enrolling in the program
of her dreams. Still, Regina called me
to state her unwavering resolve to attain admission to the Speech Program. I told her the only recourse I could offer
was a weekly phone call during the summer months to ascertain whether her name
had moved up on the waiting list. My
suggestion fell within the realm of polite hypocrisy. I predetermined she would be wasting her
time. Before the conversation ended,
Regina firmly told me that she would call each Tuesday morning during the summer.
Steadfastly,
Regina called each week. In June, there
essentially was no movement on the waiting list. Favorable applicants accepted all the offers
of admission. There was no need to
consult the waiting list; reasonably and justly we could not skip fourteen
other people. However, the haze,
humidity and heat of July caused some admitted applicants to rethink their
decision to enroll when they received the first tuition and fees invoice. Realistically, they were unwilling to assume
substantial student loan debt. The
withdrawal of those applicants resulted in the admission of several applicants
from the waiting list. Yet, we still did
not reach the fifteenth person, Regina.
Undaunted by these occurrences, Regina continued to call each Tuesday
morning; even the receptionist knew the time and patterns of her calls.
Regina’s
perseverance ideally reflects President Calvin Coolidge’s thoughts on perseverance. Nothing in the world can take the place of
perseverance. Talent will not; nothing
is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost
a proverb. Persistence and determination
alone are omnipotent. Without
her tenacity, Regina would never actualize her personal, educational and
professional goals. Arguably, her talents
equaled or exceeded the abilities of the first group of admitted
applicants. The arbitrary and mysterious
process of graduate admissions, depends significantly on myriad intangible factors
such as geography, composition of committee, timing of review, economic cycles
and research and relational matches between professors and applicants. Nonetheless, she certainly possessed an inner
intellectual and experiential gravitas that would propel her toward superlative
achievement. In the words of Coolidge,
Regina had the will to persevere.
“Nothing
is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.” Each of us can say a hearty “Amen” to
Coolidge’s raw and brutal statement.
Anyone in a large family has at least one cousin with tremendous talent
with which he has done absolutely nothing.
A daily Goliath, fear, awakens each dawn in the mind and heart of many
talented people. Often it steals their
willingness and faith to pursue their dreams and goals. Talent is not a equal defense against this
penetrating, paralyzing and debilitating fear.
Other gifted people suffer perpetually with intractable character
defects that prevent them from actualizing their abilities. Veiled in many socially respectable forms,
addiction undermines their natural endowments and erodes their divine
gifts. Prone to self-sabotaging patterns
of behavior, other talented people are unable to form mutually beneficial
rapports with the right people. Thereby,
they lack human connections to succeed and ascend to great heights. Coolidge primarily posits the lack of
perseverance explains the ironic phenomenon of an unsuccessful man who
possesses great talent. His inability to
determine his primary purpose actualizes his oxymoronic existence. Have you ever listened to a broke genius
espouse grandiloquently about financial success?
Further,
Coolidge disdains the genius who refuses to utilize his extraordinary knowledge
to accomplish a mission greater than his egotistical desires. One of my seminary professors at the time of
his death had a personal library with more than eleven thousand book most of
which he had read. He spent hours in
archives perusing primary source documents.
Most regrettably, he only published one scholarly monograph; his revised
doctoral dissertation was his only original contribution. This brilliant man, whose extensive and
meticulous recall of historical facts and events, lacked both discipline and
perseverance to share his gift and passion with humankind. My beloved and venerable teacher personified
Coolidge’s exhortation. History cannot
commend unrewarded genius.
Another
seminary professor of mine was not nearly as intellectually, philosophically,
and epistemologically as gifted as his deceased colleague. In stark contrast, this professor wrote ten
books and numerous articles which comprised the authoritative works within his
niche of theological education. Pejoratively,
his colleagues joked that all ten books could be melted into one text which
would still be mediocre at best.
Coolidge commends the second professor for his steadfastness which
enabled him to challenge hegemony, elitism and White supremacist
presuppositions in the American academy.
Though he may not have been as knowledgeable as his deceased colleague,
this professor maximized his inner fortitude to challenge centuries of thinking
that uncritically oppressed and dehumanized people. His persistence and determination to confront
racist, sexist and classist paradigms earned him respect and admiration of
countless students, clergypersons and congregants.
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