Stand and Feel Your Worth

"Stand and Feel Your Worth" - Thrice

This moment, I am in finance class. The same one I have bitched about in previews posts. We are reviewing our first midterm test scores. My two classmates, both amicable colleagues in this and other classes of mine this semester are groaning about their results. They are finance majors and have received scores in the mid-sixties. I, an entrepreneurship major, receieved an 89. I would lie if I didn't feel the least bit gratified, maybe that's my competitive nature.

But I don't need to say anything, my score has. I have said nothing while they mutter their self-directed frustration as I remember some comments they've made about their confidence in my ability to lead our group assignment in this class this semester. I do not boast. When I see the look of dejection in their faces, it is a look that I recognize wearing a few times throughout my college career.

In this moment, I realize that humble pie is derives, and is derived from humility. Those that are served choke down its bitter taste. Those that serve it must show humility, or else be selected for a helping later down the road.

As I reflect the servings of humble pie that I have injested over the last few weeks, I realize that humility is hardly a derivative of words but rather of actions. Some of you know that I have an entrepreneurial idea that is beginning to turn into a fairly exciting venture. What started as an idea while selling credit card protection products over the phone in July of 2008, was barely validated by an early investor in overstock.com to be (potentially, if I don't screw it up) a multi-million dollar company, maybe a viable competitor to major players in the national market. I am humbled. Entrepreneurship is a team sport, I am only here at this level because the people on my team are constantly raising the bar for themselves and expecting as much from me. I actually hesitate to tell others what I am attempting to do. I am not funded. I don't have an operational model. I am not incorporated. But I have people who are cheering me on. Evangelizing my idea, my aspirations and my direction. I am humbled.

I have learned the lack of respect that people will show you when you are all talk and no show. Conversely, I have begun to see the regard that people hold you in when you say little, do much, then say even less. But I am human and though I wish to continue that behaviorial trend, I will fail. Good thing God gives us grace as a model as to what we should show to others. For though I am initially tempted to rub my classmates' faces in the dirt, I have actually offered my consolation and aid for future tests. For the high road is its own reward: you can walk on solid ground without feeling contaminated by selfishness.

So my challenge is this: Stand and Feel Your Worth. Feel it through the actions you bathe in excellence. Feel it in the admiration, if properly earned, that others show you. Feel it in yourself when you rest on quiet confidence, emphasis on quiet.