The Last Word

By Angus Hewett | Posted: Monday August 5, 2019

Like Mr Hall has said multiple times this term already, we are at the business end of the year.

It's at this point in the year where we decide if we are going to have success for all the efforts that we have put in throughout the year, or fall at the last hurdle. So today boys I thought that I would talk to you about the different types of success. Everyone in this room views success very differently. Some of you might believe that success comes from working hard, and if you work hard and try your absolute best and work hard at everything that you do, even if you fail, it would be a success. Or some of you might measure success in the amount of money that you make in your lifetime, or even how happy you are with your life. Some of you in this room might even measure success in the amount of blues that you have on your blazer, in which case you are probably questioning why you are listening to a Year 13 student talking to you about success, who, if you haven't noticed doesn't actually have any blues.

Personally, I believe in the first type of success that I talked about. The one where if you try your best even if you don’t quite get the result that you wanted, it is still a success. So aim high and be the best that you can be. I believe the problem lies in how you look at failure. If you see it as the worst thing that can happen, then you are finished. You lose even before you start to fight. And boys, even if you do fail are you in a worse situation than what you are in now? Even if you do end up back in the situation that you are in now, you've gained experience on how to do it better next time, which I would call a success.

So boys, stop worrying about what people might think when you fail. We have to get this attitude out of or heads that failing will make you worthless because everyone fails. We have to start thinking that failing is a delay, not a defeat. Have a look at Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, they didn't become successful overnight, it took them years of hard work to get them to where they wanted to be. Life has a funny way of taking unexpected turns.

So sometimes when you fail, it’s not because you didn’t try hard enough. It’s because the universe is telling you that it’s just not your time. What can you do in this case? Trust your timing. Trust the process, aim high and be the best that you can be. Just like Steve Jobs once said:

"You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."