...on being self-made!

My dearest readers,

with reference to Black History Month I decided to derive this discourse from the legendary “Self-Made Men” speech of an inspirational African American figure who became—with remarkable foresight—the epitome of what it means to be successful, defying, perseverant, and strong in mind and consciousness: Mr. Frederick Douglass. His inspiring words were not only of power and strength for African Americans that were held in bondage but depict, and further capture even today what it means to persevere and succeed in nothing less than what once began as an idea, a belief, and a dream. Let us, henceforth, all believe and remain strong, and not least be what he was…self-made!

My blog dealt a whole lot with opportunities in life and what to make out of them, but it also emphasized evermore the involvement and agency success demands of each and every one of us to achieve our goals at last and to make our dreams come true. An opportunity by itself does not determine whether you will succeed in the end or not. It is, more so, the defying power, the passion, and the perseverance you bring to the table to make something magnificent out of the opportunities you’ve been given in life. Douglass phrased that explicitly and right on the head in a single sentence: “Opportunity is important but exertion is indispensable.”

If you want to be successful, the opportunity itself/alone doesn’t make you a successful man or woman, for we all are presented opportunities (if self-inflicted or provided) throughout our lives. An opportunity, however, challenges us and involves our individual agency and calls for our action; let us see the opportunity as a seed that itself bears life and the ability to flourish and blossom. But without our action it cannot grow; we must water it, take care of it, that after a while we can see progress and see the plant grow. Let us, therefore, not sit on our opportunities that every one of us has but let us get involved and do our part to turn these opportunities into something big, into something great. Let us take action, be a part of it, and nurse our opportunities that once we succeed in our passion and perseverant nature we can harvest our fresh-ripened success. Do your part and turn a good opportunity into a great success.

Frederick Douglass gave us not only the recipe, no. He further exposed the secret ingredient we all need to succeed, when he said: “We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!!” Without work we can have infinite opportunities, but in the end that is what they all will remain: opportunities, opportunities with potential to grow, bearing life and the ability to create something great, but nothing more. If we are not willing to put our work in, we can all reminisce one day and treasure the great opportunities we once had. But if we are willing to put our work in, and work hard, with passion, continue to work hard, be perseverant and active, we can all some day see the great life, the great success our opportunities contained deep inside, because we ourselves made it happen.

Therefore, let us not only remember Frederick Douglass in terms of this on-going Black History Month or the great and influential historical figure he was, but let us all perceive his message as a great inspiring wisdom in its universality, because then we all can follow his footsteps and be what Douglass once was and—in all our eyes—will always be: self-made!