Survivor

Everything I know about life, I learned from TV's Survivor. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but I'll stand by the statement. Just a few examples:

The smartest people do not win. This was a BLOW to me when I watched the series for the first time because I have always strived to be the smartest - and have (to my embarassment) chosen classes that I can get an A in to protect my class rank. So to watch the show and know that the most overtly smart people were voted off early (and I would have voted them off quickly too) hurt a bit. (Hence, I courageously signed up for an art class in my current master's program and it is going to blow my 4.0 GPA for sure. And that is just fine with me.)

Success does not necessarily breed success. There was a kid in high school who started winning every award freshman year. And then, having won those, the awards just kept piling up. The Jaycees one day - the Knights of Columbis the next. So, the idea that success breeds success has always resonated with me: just get that first resume builder and everything else will fall in line. Survivor teaches another perspective - the perspective that says if you have already enjoyed financial success, or if you seem to have reached a position of power and influence, you will be voted off. The thought is, you have had your share of success... let someone else have a go at it.

People generally prefer to be led from behind or from the middle. Somewhere along the line I picked up the idea that to be a "LEADER" was a good thing. And maybe it is. But in Survivor, and in too much of real life as well, the LEADERS are the first ones to be criticized, blamed and voted off. And the startling lesson of Survivor is that it does not matter the quality of the leadership: a leader will be voted off, and the the stronger the leader the quicker the torch will be snuffed. Far better to hang back, build an alliance of support, and make changes from within than to attempt to take the lead through executive fiat.

At the end of the day, Survivor is a test of who can handle the stress when life becomes physically difficult and emotionally unpredictable; the winners seem to be average people who know themselves well and have confidence in both their abilities and the abilities of those around them.

It isn't my GPA that is getting me through these last few years; and it isn't my resume or my positon either. It is my confidence in myself, my gratitude for those around me and my faith that even within the unpredictability of life there is an unseen order.

Survior is a text for the school of hard knocks - a school that most of us can claim to have mastered.