Just Give Me The “A”!!!

I’m sitting here looking at an old college essay. The professor had given me an “A” and then scribbled it out and put a “B+” underneath. This wasn’t the first professor to do that. Then they would take me aside and tell me that I deserve the “A” yet they expect more from me, that I really had “potential”. Just give me the “A”! I deserved it! Just give me the “A”! I don’t understand this mentality. It’s not as though I would get the “A”, kick my feet up on the desk, cross them, put my hands behind my head as I lean back into the chair, and say “Well, that’s enough for me! I’ve accomplished all that I’ve set out to do in life!”

What can we do with these types of situations? It’s pervasive in our culture right now. Not only do others not want to give credit where credit is due, but they also want to poke holes in it, to make the person feel less than. I see this all the time on social media. These very sad individuals who choose to do this. This is their way of boosting their ego. They want others to feel as insecure as they do.

Our culture does not want to give credit where credit is due. On the news, when the salary of a famous entertainer is disclosed, most people that hear about this might say things like “Yeah, well, he knows the right people.”, as though that was something they were born with and did not work for. As though that person had never gone to years worth of countless networking events, parties (whether he was in the mood to go or not), reached out to his colleagues to spend time or to lend a hand when they needed it. How he had to hustle to get each job and keep at his craft for years until he made it big, as though he did not need to learn negotiation skills before he negotiated his contract. Or what about a multi-millionaire who is rarely looked upon as a person who works 100 hour weeks, had to struggle through learning how to make all the endless details of their business run smoothly and then successfully implement everything they learned. A person who had to hire employees for every stage of growth, train them, develop systems for every detail to run smoothly. Instead, they are chalked up to be someone who must come from a wealthy family.

When we don’t look for the effort that we each put into our lives and the decisions we make, then how can we ever give credit where credit is due?

~Janice M. Burke

Image by Anna Nekrashevich