After hours, weeks and years of hard work, it is amazing when that hard work starts to pay off and you start to see success and your goals coming to fruition. But so many fall into a similar trap as they begin to experience some success: a lack of humility. These words from Wynton Marsalis, the Pulitzer-prize winning musician and composer, serve as a necessary reminder when you begin to experience success: “You can tell when someone is truly humble, because they consistently observe and listen, the humble improve. They don’t assume, ‘I know the way.’ Humility engenders learning because it beats back the arrogance that puts blinders on. It leaves you open for truths to reveal themselves.”
You can be at the top of your field, the most successful person in the room, the all star, but arrogance never looks good on anyone. There is a great danger in the loss of humility not just because it makes you look bad, but also because it inhibits your ability to grow and improve. No matter how skilled you are – you can’t ever stop benefiting from more knowledge.
2 Responses
Excellent piece Mr. Bennett. I think the spirit of being humble is missed by many people primarily because too many people have such a narrow prism of what success is. Success for many tends to be the achievement of some lofty goal. But for me success becomes evident in the achievement of small task. I am impatient. I claim myself to be successful when I can patiently wait (for instance for my always late wife) and do so without getting in my feelings. I am successful when I am angry, but yet my response is loving. As you have eloquently written success for me is my ability to properly manage my humility.
Continue to inspire.
Great thought! Thank you Reginald
Ty