Well That Didn't Work Out Like I Planned, Damn It!!

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might have well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default", J. K. Rowling.

One of the reasons I encouraged my children to play sports is because I wanted them to understand losing as well as winning. They needed to know the feeling of working for a goal and achieving it. They also needed to know the feeling of working toward a goal and not achieving it. In the lessons of achieving and failing are learned what life is about.

We have been raising generations of young people that were not allowed to experience failure at a young age. No winner/no loser sports leagues, no score keeping because some one's feelings might get hurt and everyone gets a trophy events were instituted to protect our young from the feeling of failure. At the same time we have given them the feeling that they are entitled to success even if not earned.

People spiral out of control when their protections are stripped away in the real world. Failures, instead of being learning experiences, become excuses to quit and blame the ones who have achieved for their failures.

Success is not the product of luck. It is the product of hard work, understanding failure and converting that failure into positive life moments.

The decisions we make for our kids, at an early age, are the architect or their adulthood. The greatest failure, of any parent, is to ill prepare your child for the realities of real life.

Real life does not hand out participation medals for trying and success is not measured in good intentions but rather in achievements forged from hard works and hard knocks.

Randy