Issue 499 Faults vs. Greatness January 6, 2015

We all have faults that we sometimes try to avoid looking at.  However, this does not mean we cannot achieve greatness.  Allow me to explain.

Faults and Greatness:  The best examples are from history. President George Washington was a slave owner.  However, he did not want to continue owning slaves, despite continuing to do so. He feared a life without the lifestyle he had achieved and the riches he had garnered, so in his last will in testament he wanted all the slaves freed (a way to alleviate his guilt perhaps).  He was also prone to fits of anger according to what we have read from testimonies of those who knew him.  These were his faults.  Yet he achieved greatness as a General who helped lead the fledgling United States to independence, and would go on to be its first President.  So greatness can be achieved despite one's own failings.

A more modern example would be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  He apparently was not a very loyal husband according to accounts from the FBI (The FBI did not like Dr. King and thus looked for anything to discredit him).  However, Dr. King despite this failing managed to lead the civil rights movement to its final victory.  And today we only have small pockets of resistance left that fall back into old hatreds.

Conclusion: So you have a series of fault, in the same way I do.  In fact, everyone is full of some form of human failing or another.  However, we can overcome these faults as the two aforementioned examples show.  And you think these examples are rare, then think again.  The founding Fathers all had one failing or another (alcoholism, couldn't hold a job beyond a specific period of time, slaves, adultery, anger issues, debt).  Then we have modern examples like Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, and each and every one of our Presidents including President Obama with his fault of arrogance (you can tell when he is questioned on his actions as he gets visibly perturbed).  So all these men (and women as the case may be) achieved greatness despite the problems that they caused themselves.  So the real question is, can you and I do the same?