I’m about to get personal. I am about to open up. But there is a point to all this, I promise.
Sometimes in order to get comfortable, you have to get uncomfortable.
Its 1975… Life is unexpected - Life deals you a hand. You and everyone else around have to decide how to play it.
Sometimes you go where life tells you. Other times you tell life where to lead you.
I am a twin. My sister and I were born in between a street, in front of hotel, and an ambulance somewhere on the way to a hospital. My birth mother had mental issues. She lived in that hotel and on the street. I was dropped from a tree at 2 months old. My sister and I were battered and bruised. When the state of California tried to find us a home, no one wanted us. Twins, born to a mentally ill mother, living sometimes on the streets of San Francisco… I don’t know many people who would want to take in that kind of responsibility.
Statistically, we had a 3 in 4 chance of developing the same issues and being a problem most of our lives to the parents who would take us in.
Its 1976…
When the home that eventually became our adoptive family received us at 3 months old, we were in state of fear and could barely be touched as a result of that fear. Within a month we were smiling…
As my mom (adoptive mom) would say after she took us in - All it takes is a little love to change things around!
Its 1982… Sometimes adversity is the only reason we are able to reach new heights
I lived in a small town where the Ku Klux Klan regularly had parades about a block from my house. I, personally, was not accepted in any crowd nor did I have many friends. Much because of the tone of my skin. Yet fear did not stay on my heel’s for long. I had other things to deal with. So I ran track, cross-country, swam and played football and baseball.
I had asthma. Fast forward…
Its 1994…
Considered an outsider I barely thought about college. Did not have any resources to get me ready or even put me in a state of mind academically or personally to strive for a college education. I applied to one school and luckily made it in. Even then I was really undecided as a student. Fast Forward…
Its 1998… Life is something that starts when you decide to live it
I graduated from my program 3 ½ 4 years later.,,
I started working and decided to get another degree…
Its 2002… Life sometimes changes your plans
I started to study for the GMAT and flunked 2x. I have never been a good test taker but my grades and scholastic aptitude was always high. So since I was already taking some pre-requisite classes and because I liked Information Technology, I decided to get a degree in that. I also wanted to be ready for any emerging technology. I at least wanted to be able to translate what those requirements would mean and understand how it contributed to my own work and the work of others.
Its 2010… Life knows that if you’re patient…
A lot of things got in the way of me starting, getting in and completing an advanced degree. Yet a few days later, after my official walk, I am an MBA graduate - Summa Cum Laude.
Life is not about statistics
By many statistics (based on the circumstances surrounding my birth, what little I know of family medical history, race, background, education and surroundings, etc etc.) by all intensive purposes, I should not be where I am. I should not be as intelligent as some may say or have the life that I have acquired. I should not have a healthy son, a loving family or advanced degrees. I should not…
All that to say this: If I believed in all statistics, then I’d never been who I am.
I hear people complain everyday: about their jobs, family life, money issues. I hear frustrations and disbelief pertaining to politics, the economy and the world.
The thing is, statistically, we have it very good in comparison to the rest of the world.
I would probably not have been able to graduate in the upper 5% of my high school, upper 10% of my college, and upper 2% of my MBA class. I would have never received 3 degrees, much less completed my MBA. I most likely would have been unmarried with children, dead before 30, resentful and definitely not positive. If I was lucky enough to stay alive I would not be healthy myself, with a relatively healthy family, nor have a savings, retirement, pension, etc. etc.
The Point to all this… DON’T BE A STATISTIC
While statistics are important to help us make decisions on business, personal and professional activities; they are not the end all be all to life. Statistics help us use data to interpret and strategically approach how we will direct our lives and plan for hiccups along the way.
All I am saying is use statistics to your benefit and get ahead. Do not put so much weight on the data that you don’t do anything to change the negative result. Do that and you’re just another statistic.
I for one, don’t want to be. I still have 31.2 years to break a few more!
So what are your thoughts? Are you a statistic?
Here some brief statistics I fall under:
Adopted
Asthma
Being a twin (http://www.twinsworld.com/stats.shtml )
Black/Multi-Racial
Black males in their early 30s are twice as likely to have prison records (22 percent) than bachelor’s degrees (12 percent). 13 percent of Blacks ages 16-24 have not earned a high school credential
Born under 4 pounds
Foster Home
Applied to only one college
Small town with racial bias
Under 5’9’
Single parent household
