It was early spring 1965 in Long Island, New York. I was a sophomore at Manhasset High School. It was early evening and I had just arrived home from another exhausting Lacrosse practice of our championship varsity Lacrosse team. Just as I entered the large front entrance way to our home…. Disaster hit!!! My mother, who had had bouts of severe manic depression over her life attempted to commit suicide in front of my very eyes. The Viet Nam war was raging, the country was being torn apart economically and politically by the direct and indirect effects of the military conflict. I was doing poorly in school, my parents were continuing their dysfunctional marriage and my high school world was filled with a dense, at times, overwhelming fog that ebbed and flowed depending on the grade on the most recent quiz, the condition of the parental relationship which regularly effected the environment of me and my two younger brothers and my performance on the Lacrosse field. Most of my high school days were made of patterns of academic failure caused by the fact that while I was an avid reader, I would not pick up a school book to study.. I was certainly not an anointed one by my high school professors at this, this highly regarded, academic high school. This story may sound familiar to hundreds of readers retrospectively and perhaps currently… It is not necessarily unique to our society, our world. What is unusual is the tale that unfolded, through the years whic helped turn lemons into lemonade. Something that could not have been done without the existence of heroes and mentors that helped me and thousands of others turn this story, as it progresses, into a story of success. In our blog, over the next year we will discuss and discover the concept of success. We will examine what success may be, what it is not, what are the habits of successful people, and how to acquire these common sense principles that will, without doubt, lead to greater happiness in your life. Lacrosse, in the formative stages of my life was the only real ray of sunlight that I had. It could have been, I guess, football, soccer, music or journalism. The point is that Lacrosse or any other of these activities are merely the vessel to hold the secrets, the wisdom to learning how to achieve success. It provided me, and thousands of us an outlet for our nervous energy and the many other things that “ail us”. It was the vehicle to hook my boot straps to, to move ahead. Sports, in this case, Lacrosse allowed me to learn the habits of what it takes to become successful and a winner. Experientially, it helped me learn that in sports as in life, there is usually only one winner. There are no trophies for last place! To win, we had to learn, perhaps new habits which would lead to winning and success not only in the sports field but on the field of life. The Hero of today’s writing and holder of this knowledge during the early years of my high school Lacrosse career was Richie Moran. Richie is a seven time Championship NCAA Division 1 Varsity Lacrosse coach from Cornell University who was my Lacrosse coach at Manhasset, before he moved on to Cornell. I can happily say that I played for Richie in high school and against him in college. My Ithaca College Varsity Lacrosse team which I played for, scrimmaged Cornell regularly. Not successfully, I might add. Richie, as a successful Long Island coach taught us these 9 tenants of success. These are:
Always look your opponent in the eye.
Be accountable.
Assist your team in achieving success.
Play your best with strong desire.
Exhibit good sportsmanship.
Respect others.
Be aggressive, yet in control.
Lead by example.
Seek and reach your goal.
In the months to come we will expand on these tenants of success and happiness provided by real people, even some that you may know. We will build on the following definition of success. (Miriam Webster) “The fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect or fame”. In my book, I provide a slightly different definition: Success is the achievement of a predetermined Noble goal.
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