OT Judging Kids

I spent most of my life in corporate middle management and have always had pride in my ability to judge character. I was at my brother?s house a number of years ago. His grandson was there, about 18 yr. old. He was with a cute little girl but from the other side of the tracks. He said that he was going into the military, going to try to go to OTS and make a career in the military. I kind of chuckled to myself. My brother died not long after that and I kind of lost track of the kid. I got a picture of him Christmas some officer was pinning oak leaves on his shoulders, he had two sets of wings on his chest and about 6 inches of ribbons. also a picture of his beautiful wife and 3 beautiful children. Surprise.

That was a nice surprise.

I was a teacher and the most interesting thing as we look back is how me missed our predictions.

That's what was interesting about my class's 20th reunion. (I didn't make it to the 10th).

The students who were the big wheels in school fell on their faces in the real world, and the ones nobody paid any attention to in school succeeded well. Guess I was in the middle somewhere.

The military taught me to be judgmental. Most people are OK. Some you can tell are going to be successful. You can just see the drive in them! Others are ambitious. There is a difference. The driven person is going to latch onto something and do their best to succeed. The ambitious person may lack the drive to be successful and they are the ones who will suck up to the boss, take credit for others work and such. So they are hit and miss. Still others are going to be OK, easy to see they have standards but are neither driven or ambitious. Earn enough to be happy and that's it. Others are there because they have to have an income. Some are too lazy to do anything like hold a job and some are just criminals.

The fact that the young man in question was going to join the military and apply for OCS should have told you he had ambition. Achieving it proves he was driven to succeed. One of our super achievers in my class is driving a truck. Another is a school teacher. Another a construction worker. Retired cop in there. Small school. Only 33 young men graduated that year. I was the only one who made a career of the military. Of the ones who were going to stay on the farm all failed during the 80's. One I know for sure is a drunk. Some that did OK were from the wrong side of the tracks too. Some who were from the right side of those tracks are now on the other side.

Basically attitude, not aptitude determines altitude!

Rick

Lot of wisdom in that Rick

Can't help but agree with most of what you
said, however the definition of success does
make a difference too.