A Dynamic Will to Succeed
Basketball superstar Michael Jordan said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Highly successful people do not allow failures to deter long-term, ultimate success. Inventor Thomas Edison stated, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
This tenacious drive toward success is no different in highly accomplished leaders. Leadership researcher James MacGregor Burns studied many of history’s most successful leaders and found that most outstanding leaders developed a dynamic will to succeed. Setbacks did not stop them. Failures did not stop them. Success became their only acceptable outcome, and they pursued it with unrelenting passion.
This dynamic will to succeed can be found in both our community and in our college. Our business community is filled with pillars of excellence, many of whom got their start at Weatherford College. At WC, we are fighting for something that is worth fighting for! We help students realize their fullest potential and improve the human condition on a daily basis. The stakes at play are the lives of our students and the lives of their descendants. The need for success is absolute.
Over the last four years, I have observed an ever-increasing desire to succeed. Small successes have led to larger successes, and success breeds success. We now have real momentum. Our broad-based support and collective collaboration have coalesced into a social kinetic energy of sorts that is propelling us forward. It is now time for us to seize this opportunity and to accomplish even greater things for our community and our college.
Confucius wrote, “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” Both our community and our college will have setbacks. We will have failures, both personally and professionally. However, in the end, I have supreme confidence that our dynamic will to succeed will triumph…and we shall prevail!
Tod Allen Farmer
President, Weatherford College