MMQB: Never Stop Striving for Success

It’s rare that I hear anything in graduation speeches that inspire me.

But when Aberdeen High School graduated last Tuesday, student council president Kiersten Scruggs said something that moved me:

“The sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the moon.”

While quickly multitasking between writing notes, shooting video and taking photographs, I paused just long enough to internalize that statement.

I thought to myself in that brief moment what a wonderful thing that was for her to tell her classmates and how fortunate and privileged I felt to be in the building just to hear it.

I always tell myself the most dangerous limits are those people put on themselves because things get done every day that were never dreamed, imagined or even thought possible.

And Scruggs’ statement reminded me of something a longtime family friend Dr. Patricia Royal, of Pleasantville, NJ told me more than 20 years ago:

“Shoot for the moon and even if you miss you will come down somewhere amongst the stars.”

I always strive to go farther and faster based on Dr. Royal’s words, realizing that the greatest impediment to becoming great is stopping at being good.

But that Scruggs’ statement drove home the point that it is possible to achieve any goal.

A few days after graduation, as I contemplated Scruggs’ statement, I remembered the only other graduation speech that moved me.

New Jersey Assemblyman Frank Blee was the guest speaker at his alma mater the St. Augustine Preparatory School in New Jersey back in 1996 as "The Prep" graduated 41 "Christian Gentlemen." I covered that graduation as a reporter for The Press of Atlantic City.

Blee ended his address with a poem called “The Man in the Glass” by Dale Winbrow.


The Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to a mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that man has to say.


For it isn't your father or mother or wife,

Who judgment upon you must pass;

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one starring back from the glass.


He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest.

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed the most dangerous, difficult test

If the man in the glass is your friend.


You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,

And think you're a wonderful guy,

But the man in the glass says you're only a bum

If you can't look him straight in the eye.


You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years.

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But your final reward will be the heartaches and tears

If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Dale Wimbrow (c) 1934

1895-1954

It is that poem that always reminds me that success must be coupled with integrity.

Whether you’re a new graduate, mid-level manager or if your life has seemed to stall a bit; whatever you do keep striving for success.

“The sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the moon.”