Success comes from hard work, tenacity

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Editorials

“Be tenacious – be gritty, and remember - gritty people believe everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright yet, it’s simply not the end yet,” Rick Parks, the 2023 inductee to the Rib Lake High School Hall of Fame.

One of the most iconic characters in science fiction is Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. If you have watched the original TV show or any of the various movies in the Star Trek franchise that have been made in the past five decades, included the rebooted remakes in recent years, you would have seen Captain Kirk and his crew getting knocked down over and over again and each time getting up and keeping going in the face of near-certain failure.

Kirk represented the ideal of a generation that quite literally saved the world, which is understandable considering the show’s creator was a decorated World War II military aviator. The ideal being, that you keep trying until you succeed no matter the odds.

There are plenty of real-world examples that follow the ideal that if you get knocked down, you get up again. Rib Lake Hall of Fame inductee and lifelong educator, Rick Parks, is one of those people.

At last week’s induction ceremony, Parks spoke of the hard work he put in to achieve success in sports and music. Parks spoke of how he never stopped learning and seeking to better himself through education and learning.

Last Saturday night, the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce recognized the outstanding work and service performed by business and community leaders. In their own ways, Person of the Year Amanda Lange and Lifetime Achievement Award winner Perry Arndt shared that ideal. They have faced challenges and worked to overcome them.

Among those being recognized were businesses that have served the community surpassing the 25, 50 and 75-year milestones. Any person who has been involved with running a business knows the struggles and resiliency needed to keep a business going, let alone growing.

The fear among many is that somewhere along the way that fighting spirit has become lost. The fear is younger generations have gone soft, seeking instant gratification or deciding that if they aren’t good the first time, they shouldn’t bother trying to improve; that what they are is simply what they will ever be.

This complacency and lazy acceptance of putting the least amount of effort or crumbling at the first setback, is truly terrifying to those raised on the ideal of self-reliance and resiliency.

It is no surprise that Parks, who has spent the past four decades working in the trenches as an educator, targeted his acceptance speech last week to the students in the crowd.

He reminded them that anything that is worth doing will take work and there will be setbacks. Success comes from overcoming obstacles and getting up every time you are knocked to the ground.