Saturday, August 25, 2012

Well Said

Original post here.

Keys to success

In "Little Red Hen retold" (Forum, Aug. 11), Jim Evans, who bakes his own bread, misses the point of President Barack Obama’s statement, "You didn’t get there on your own." That is not the same as saying, "You had nothing to do with it."
It means that no matter how much grit, entrepreneurship, energy, intelligence and personal sacrifice you put into a successful business or project, it could not have succeeded without others. To be sure, you were the catalyst. Without your efforts, it could not have happened. But you were a necessary condition of your success, not a sufficient one.
You deserve enormous credit for what you achieve. But you did not achieve it in a vacuum. You depend on a social and economic milieu that empowers you.
Nobody does anything by himself. No matter how determined, industrious or John Galt you are — you did nothing by your own guts and determination alone.
You owe your success to the background community of people who made your success possible: farmers, miners, road-builders, police officers, inventors, bankers, teachers, your own employees.
It’s because of them that you have achieved what you have. Without them it couldn’t have happened.
Bangs L. Tapscott
Salt Lake City

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