Nobody said that life was always going to be easy. However, no one could have predicted just how difficult it was going to be with a worldwide pandemic. I am confident that we will all emerge out of these past 18 months stronger and more resilient.
It's somehow reassuring to know that everyone has faced difficult stretches in their lives. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that I enjoy reading about some of history's most famous men and women, especially how they have weathered the storm, so to speak. Take for example, my fascination with reading biographies about Abraham Lincoln (the latest is a book called Lincoln's Mentors: The Education of a Leader by Michael J. Gerhardt). One could argue that no President ever before or since Lincoln had to deal with as big of a crisis as the American Civil War. Lincoln stands out as the epitome of resilience and grit.
I remember reading a number of biographies of famous Americans in a children's book series called the "Childhood of Famous Americans" published by Indianapolis-based Bobs-Merrill Co in the 1950's and 1960's and republished under the same name in by Simon and Schuster. Two of my favorites were "George Washington Carver: Boy Scientist" and "Abraham Lincoln: Frontier Boy" by Augusta Stevenson, who incidentally was also a school teacher in the Indianapolis Public School system. I enjoyed reading about how these famous individuals came from often humble beginnings and persevered to do remarkable things later in life.
We can learn a lot from the experiences of others. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that learning about how others have faced struggles can somehow motivate us to push on through our own. For example, Hong and Lin-Siegler showed that exposing 10th grade Taiwanese high school students to stories about how even successful scientists struggle increased both the students' motivation and interest in science. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) struggle story condition, in which students read about the personal and intellectual struggles of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein; (2) achievement condition, in which students read about the successful achievements of these same three scientists; or (3) control condition, in which students read more about the physics that they were studying in class. Students who read about how these three scientists overcame challenges in both their personal and professional lives (struggle story condition) identified these scientists as individuals like themselves who had to work just as hard to earn their success in life. Their level of interest and ability to tackle complex, challenging problems in their class improved as a result. In contrast, students who read about the achievements of these three scientists (achievement condition) expressed the opinion that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein were born with an incredible amount of talent endowed with a unique ability to be successful. As a result, their level of interest and ability to solve complex problems did not improve.
This same group of investigators conducted a follow-up study in 402 9th and 10th grade students from four urban schools in the New York City school district. This time, students were randomized to one of three conditions: (1) life struggle stories; (2) intellectual struggle stories; or (3) achievement stories. The three scientists were Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Michael Faraday. Here the life struggle stories told about the personal struggles of these three scientists, in terms of what they overcame in their daily lives (for example, Albert Einstein moved several times during his childhood and ultimately had to escape Nazi Germany, while Marie Curie had to overcome significant gender bias just to even attend college), while the intellectual struggle stories focused on the fact that these scientists had to overcome early failures in their professional careers. Again, students in the life struggle and intellectual struggle stories groups tended to self-identify with the three scientists and performed better as a result. In contrast, students in the achievement story group did not improve and tended to fare worse!
What's the take-home message here? First and perhaps most importantly, the road to success can be difficult. Even if you can easily see an individual's personal and/or professional achievements, all of the hard work, dedication, commitment, personal sacrifice, effort, perseverance, grit, and resilience that was necessary to get there is often hidden from view. Second, learning about what lies hidden from view (all of the sacrifice, hard work, and effort) can help motivate others to be successful too. If you are new to leadership, read about other leaders and how they struggled to get where they are today. If you are already an established leader, share your personal story with others - hearing about some of the challenges that you faced will make a huge difference in their professional growth and development. Third, if you are in the teaching profession, it's helpful to focus just as much on the personal and professional struggles as the achievements of great individuals. It's important for all of us to realize, that even Einstein struggled at times...
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