Victor Frankel survived three years in multiple hellish concentration camps. Nelson Mandela endured 27 years of imprisonment, much of it in solitary confinement. Moses wandered the Sinai desert for 40 years looking for the Promised Land. 

Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. Without Grit, talent is nothing more than unmet potential. 

I often think about these and my other heroes: Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and how he dealt with the combination of war, famine, and the Antonine Plague; Lincoln and the Civil War he fought to free slaves and keep our country together; and Gandhi’s battle against the English to free his country.

Upon reflection on the immense hardships these men endured with such grace, I can’t help but wonder about the courage and fortitude they exhibited to overcome adversity without surrendering to the temptation of, say, Frankel throwing himself against the high voltage electric fences, or Mandela hanging himself with a bedsheet. Had I been in Moses’ shoes, I would want to have a heart to heart with god to make sure I was not the butt of some cosmic joke for staying lost in a very small desert for 40 years. 

My own experience of wandering 40 years as a stranger in a strange land, striving to grow the abandoned Highland School into its potential as an Institute, has taught me that grit is more important than vision, and that the potential for greatness comes from within, such that we are all heroes with a thousand faces; the promised land we are seeking is inside us; and that we ourselves are the messiah we are searching for.