It was at a gathering of friends, young and old. Among the crowd were several teachers. At some point, the subject turned to education and of course, everyone had an opinion.  It was clear no one wanted to deal with young people, especially those in high school. As I listened, I heard reasons ranging from parenting today to a different work ethic to social media, followed by a couple of “I don’t know how you do it.” Then, a high school teacher smiled and said, “We only have them for 4 years, you all will have them for their entire career.” Everyone went quiet, no one knew what to say. He was right, they are the workforce of the future.

It caused me to reflect on my experiences observing high school students and watching plenty of youth and high school sports. Many people might grumble and say, “If only they did what we did …”, but it wouldn’t be fair. The world today is vastly different, so what worked before doesn’t necessarily work today. My view is too many parents see the world as linear, i.e., if my child gets good grades, they’ll get into the right college, which will make them successful, or if my child plays more games in their sport, or moves to a better select team, they’ll surely get a scholarship to play in college. In all things, maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t.

I believe there are some traits or characteristics that are more important than grades, or the right team, or whatever else the focus is. These are foundational for someone to be successful in life, they were in the past, they are today and will be tomorrow. If these are ingrained in you, your chances of success will be greatly enhanced.

Toughness – This one could be misunderstood. I’m not looking to have someone look mean, like they are ready for a fight, that’s not toughness. It’s not a guy thing either, some of the toughest people I’ve ever worked with were women. For me, someone who has toughness is willing to do what is hard, to not cut corners and take the easy route. If you ask someone with toughness to do something hard, they’ll do it. And if you share there is something difficult that needs to be done, those who have toughness are usually the ones who will volunteer. Remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Persistence – The rapid pace of technological change makes our world one of instantaneous results. As I was growing up, we didn’t like waiting any more than people do today, but things just took longer. Today we expect immediate results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way and then what do you do. I fear today if someone can’t be successful immediately in playing golf after an hour or two at the driving range, they’ll quit and do something else. But what about that person who is persistent and understands that to be exceptional at something, you first need to suck at it and stay with it. I want workers on my team and in my organization who are persistent and will not give up.

Commitment –You’re building your personal track record by your actions. Will you follow through with commitments you make, will you do what you say you’ll do? I always wanted people on my team to be committed, if they said they’d show up, they did, if they said they would finish by a specific time, they met the deadline. In short, committed people can be trusted.

Courage – We all have fears. Someone with courage isn’t unafraid, but fears don’t stop them. They deal with what they might fear and in doing so, they overcome or at least find ways to deal with it. If you let fear rule you, you’ll avoid and even run what you fear, until you find out you can’t outrun what you fear. Learn to be like the buffalo, who when they see a storm turn toward it and run through it. The pain is shorter when you meet it head on.

If you want your son or daughter to be successful in life, work on instilling these traits in them.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:18-19