By Carl Sara
Guard rails are placed on highways and roller coasters as a visual or physical inducement to return to the intended path. Achievers navigate a twisty road where challenges come at you fast. Sometimes it is hard to discern where the middle of the road is.
Most of the world and America in particular was at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth and beginning 20th centuries. Industrialists were producing steel, pumping oil, building railways, bridges, tall buildings and automobiles. Edison was inventing and there were lots of examples of enduring achievement. While there were plenty of advancements and society benefited, the average working man did not enjoy a greatly improved personal life. It was a time of every woman and man for themselves.
Since then, we have come to realize that it is possible to have achievement without pollution, endangering lives with toxins, and making the team endure personal sacrifices while the investor counts the profit. In addition to a prevailing body of law we now have a moral compass that guides through a refined appreciation for ethics and personal and professional integrity.
We have discovered that it is not only possible to achieve, but it is rewarding to be honest, selfless, gracious and truthful. People admire the winner who displays sportsmanlike conduct in the face of adversity. Achievers today are inclusive, respectful and guardians of human dignity. Achievers today are humble and they give back to society.
Achievers today are turning their energies toward helping others. Opportunity abounds to limit suffering from disease, birth defects, hunger and economic inequities. Reducing pain and saving lives are achievements that benefit those who enjoy relief, society as well as the achiever who is responsible.
Achievers are true leaders when they pause the action to consider what is the right thing to do. Sometimes achieving the goal and ethics are at cross purposes. This occurs with medical caregivers a lot. The advantages, disadvantages, risks and outcome probabilities vary across a range of treatment options with the patient and their family caught in the middle. Mentors often help the achiever make enlightened choices in these cases.
Achievers own successes and the problems that often attend the process. Achievers accept responsibility for mistakes. Errors are inevitable and achievers responsibly plan contingencies for their mitigation while they are taking precautions to avoid their occurrence. Accepting responsibility for mishaps rather than seeking the assignment of blame is often the hallmark of a true achiever.
From striving to win that big government contract to making that long putt on the golf course, achievers face challenges from sunrise to sunset. It's how we deal with those challenges that define our character.