Five Foot High; a Million Miles Wide
SUCCESS STORY.
By Jackie Gartland | Nursing Major
But that arrival never came. Young Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu tentatively peeked from behind her mother’s Macedonian skirt, eyes wide, as the city’s destitute streamed through the entrance of their small, humble abode. It had only been a short while since listening attentively for the strong and heavy footsteps of her father crossing that same threshold. The sudden passing of her beloved father still sat heavily on the chest of the eight year old, girl, her innocent eyes constantly magnified to seemingly ordinary daily occurrences. Her two older siblings, worn wooden serving spoons in hand, reached the thick bean soup, dripping unhurriedly, into the gleaming bottom of the bowls. The morning toil of the stewed breakfast floated lazily in the kitchen’s aroma, then fleetingly made its destination into the gurgling stomachs of the men, women, and children of her neighborhood whose both stomachs and hearts been overlooked for so long a time, the beginning had been forgotten. Agnes saw the inky black bottom of her own bowl and her own stomach rumbled like the familiar sound of approaching cattle. She gazed up, still clinging to the widows stained skirt, her eyes shy with apprehension and whispered, “Who are these people invited into our home?” The resilient mother gently and confidently replied, “Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people” (Brayton 2).
Agnes, later to be called Mother Teresa, grew up observing and experiencing the humble, servant-heart of her mother. Not long after her father’s death, she found herself drawn to her definitive role model, who instilled to Agnes virtues and prompted her to picture those usually passed by, as her brothers and sisters in need of Christ’s love. She stopped living by the material needs other earthly citizens stove for, and she adopted and acted by Christ’s heart. Mother Teresa’s familial influenced personality, special opportunities and seized 10,000 hours illustrate Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, theories, which quote are the key to successful contagion.
Mother Teresa’s familial influenced personality, special opportunities and seized 10,000 hours illustrate Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success, theories, which quote are the key to successful contagion.
An insightful argument Gladwell explores and determines through his research is that though innate, personality is primarily cultivated and influenced by the surrounding world.
The cry “Добро утро пријател !” (“Good morning friend!” ) skipped like a stone across glassy water to the ears of the Father-daughter duo. Seven-year old Anges marched proudly beside her father as they meandered through the bustling market square. “Hello dear friend,” he responded robustly, furthering his usual conversation about the latest town business and the other man’s part in it. Agnes paused patiently, soaking up the essence of the conversation. It wasn’t a new occurrence. Almost every journey they stole away from home, they’d bump into one of her dad’s chatty business partners, esteemed council member, treasured employees, or a friend from the church who’d just reminisced on his weekly riveting Sunday morning tale (Alpion )
The outside world shapes a person’s personality. Family, for one, can illuminate a child’s potential. The Gladwellian idea of family legacy iterates this precisely. Author Malcom Gladwell summarizes his findings on the successful Jewish immigrants turned entrepreneurs in Manhattan and reflects that, “Jewish doctors and lawyers did not become professionals in spite of their humble origins. They became professionals because of their humble origins” (153). He realizes that it wasn’t just one individual who happened to reach success solely on their own hard work. “It (advantage) was the practical intelligence and savvy you get from watching your father sell aprons on Hester Street.” Gladwell continues, writing, “It is an advantage to be an outsider, and it is an advantage to have parents who did meaningful work” (153).
Gladwell uses his research on Russian tailors, Jewish business men, and Polish tanners to conclude that generations following the hard work of one individual inherit a slew of successful tendencies. Gladwell writes, it was “their world — their culture and generation and family history — that gave them the greatest of opportunities” (158).
Though Agnes’s gentle, passionate personality captured and transformed the lives of many, our world might still see the world with blinded eyes if not for Mr. and Mrs. Bojaxhiu. Her own inspirations, Agnes’ parents guided their children to have compassion on the poor from early on. Not only their words, but their actions impacted the three kids. “Mother Teresa, the global celebrity was the daughter of a local celebrity. According to accounts provided by several people who knew her father Nikolle Bojaxhiu well, it is obvious that he was an exceptionally charismatic figure: a successful businessman… and above all , a devoted husband and a doting father. Nikolle Bojaxhiu was the pride of Skopje” (Alpion 158). Though only eight years old when her father suddenly died, Agnes reacted strongly to his passing. She too had been influenced by his character, seeing his everyday lifestyle, and learning to implement it to her own. Even after his passing, her mother Drana Bojaxhiu didn’t miss a beat to guide Agnes to serve the less fortunate. The two grew close as Agnes’ trekked with her mother to aid the less fortunate. As the hungry streamed into their home, Drana spoke into Agnes’ life, counseling, “My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others” (Brayton 2).
These inspirations were critical to Agnes’ success, for, “In a world where fewer and fewer people walk their talk, being in the presence of a genuine inspirer can be intoxicating” (Craddock 138). With authority figures who strive to practice what they preach, the Bojaxhiu’s held the title of Gladwell’s term; “family legacy”; which shaped Agnes as a young woman.
Still more, Agnes’ family was one of the only Catholic families in that region of the Muslim-dominated Ottoman Empire. Comparatively, Gladwell studied the violently defendant tendencies of the inhabitants of Harlan, Kentucky. He noted, “It was because of where the original inhabitants of the region came from” that they defended themselves by quarreling publicly (Gladwell 167). It was in their blood to defend the mountainous regions where their ancestors once lived. But because Agnes’ heritage was not distinctly defined, she was free to act as an outlier. She didn’t have resilient inherited tendencies from her ancestors to persuade her in spite of her location. Although of loosely Albanian descent, her parents chose to be a part of the Catholic Church, instead of the prominent Muslim religion, giving their children perception benefits of making decisions despite persuasion (Alpion 26) .religion (Aplion).
Mother Teresa’s road to success didn’t cease in her alleles however.
The sounds of Calcutta, India jingled on as another bright, emerald eyed apprentice flew in by her side.
“Sister Teresa, where can I put these?”
The smell of new bandages flooded through the room. It was seven AM and the dust of the roads was just beginning to rise, shaping ghosts of its’ recent travelers. The medical supplies truck was heard rumbling lazily like a satisfied lion away from the hospital. Another shipment to save lives just arrived, and an army of eager hands wiggled in anticipation, ready to begin. The faces were familiar and the memories of each student and staff member lingered like a warm spring day in the back of her mind.
These were dedicated, compassionate girls, hanging to her words like panting puppies, hoping to gain a better understanding of her compassionate heart which they’d witnessed throughout the prior twenty years. They’d bloomed like sunflowers under her warm light and care; her catechism and geography classes’, and later her role as the institution’s principal, simply as channels to demonstrate compassion. Sister Teresa, (named before taking her official vows) watched other children outside the school windows scurry throughout the slums not far off. Her heart was present however, with St. Mary’s all girls school, as she invested twenty years pouring into their lives (EWTA, The Early Years).
In The Tipping Point, in which he studies the logic of his epidemics, Author Malcom Gladwell points us toward the notion that “the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts” (33). Concentrating on the bizarre contagion of suicide on the Micronesian island of Ebeye, Gladwell determines that the experiences and vocalization of certain personalities overwrite the experience of those who follow. Sima, for example, a seventeen-year old Micronesian, committed suicide out of ambivalence of his father’s disappointment. Sima himself was the tipping point to the Ebeye’s suicide epidemic in the 1980’s; “he took his own life because his father yelled at him.” But ultimately this act “didn’t stand as a gesture. It stood as a speech” (Gladwell 225), giving boys scattered around the island, permission to state their sorrows in the same manner.
Gladwell progressed to the teenage smoking epidemic of the West, realizing that the memories associated with certain personalities gave teenagers permission and euphoria to commit similar acts, as they were expressions of a shared language (229). He ties this notion to Micronesia specifically, noting that suicide has become an incredibly expressive form of communication, rich with meaning and nuance, and expressed by the most persuasive of permission-givers (225). Ultimately, Gladwell determines it is not only personality which drives success; it is this specific personality in unison with the Stickiness Factor that drive epidemics forward (233).
Gladwell identifies epidemics as a function of the agents themselves. Mother Teresa in particular, acted as longed-for inspiration to the world. She was a key figure in the movement and successful ministry to touch those deemed untouchable. Neither knowingly persuasive nor condemning, the Sister herself had the personality of “an Inspirer”. Maggie Craddock, author of Power Genes; Understanding your Power Persona- and How to Wield It at Work, emulates the characteristics of Mother Teresa in this specific role. She writes, “Inspirers, exhibit a consistent pattern of doing what benefits the greater good before taking the time to calculate what’s in it for them. It’s their automatic altruism that makes them stand out from the crowd” (200). Although she spent time amidst various groups of personalities, Mother Teresa practiced compassion contrarily to common desire, and now over four thousand workers are in one hundred and twenty countries acting upon her primary example (softschools).
Although his influence pointed toward death instead of life, Sima had a parallel impact. “The power of his personality and the circumstances of his death combined to make the force of his example endure years beyond his death” (Gladwell 227). Likewise, though established with a majority of St. Mary’s staff and students, the Missionaries of Charity is the only Catholic sect that is still growing today, nineteen years after Mother Teresa’s death. (Brayton 4). The world grieved her loss, and noted, “It was Mother herself who poor people respected. When they bury her, we will have lost something that cannot be replaced” (Tucker).
Still more, the grasping of opportunity cast a larger spotlight on the success of Mother Teresa’s actions.
There it was. The long, flowing letters stamped approval on the dotted line. The letters combined to form the signature of Pope Paul VI, February 1965. The heading wrote as bold as the opportunity they’d been praying for. It read “Decree of Praise upon the Missionaries of Charity”. This was another opportunity on the beautiful, succinct street of possibilities Teresa had been quietly fathoming as she dressed another festering wound. The day had finally come, but it to her, it wasn’t categorically a revelation. God had not abandoned her in this journey she’d embarked upon, according to His call, twenty years prior. The paper stamped approval for her instituted Catholic sect by the capital of Catholicism in the Vatican. It was a breakthrough that would allow Mother Teresa to begin expanding her vision internationally (Brayton).
Congruently, Author Malcom Gladwell studies more stories of influences of success: hockey players, affluent computer programmers such as Bill Joy and Bill Gates and even the renowned Beatles rock band. He defines their passions and abilities as fruit of their labor. “But what truly distinguishes their histories,” he writes, “is not their extraordinary talent, but their extraordinary opportunities” (Gladwell 55). They not only had the passion, but the opportunity to act upon and grow in their passions, leading ultimately on the road of success. He illustrates these ideas for the reader, highlighting the rare opportunities these individuals were given to put in the ten thousand hours defined as the amount of hours to claim mastery. For example, the Beetles happened to have the garage space of Pete Best, the original drummer, to establish their band, and soon, word of their music got out to the streets and strip club stages throughout Hamburg. They played without ceasing, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes up until twelve-thirty or even two am. Gladwell notes, “It wasn’t that venues in Hamburg paid well. Or that the audiences were savvy and appreciative, or that the acoustics were fantastic. It was the sheer amount of time the band had the opportunity to play” (48). The attentive author speculates, “Most people can reach that number (of hours) only if they get into some kind of special program- or if they get some kind of extraordinary opportunity that gives them a chance to put in those hours” (43). It’s the additional periods of practice time that set the successful apart.
Mother Teresa was no different. The Sister had been learning to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit for years. She knew the restlessness inside of her was a prompting to raise the next level of acting out compassion. Her passion, as concluded, was born out of her personality, having been shaped through family legacy. Likewise it could be said that “through sheer brilliance and ambition and guts, Bill Gates built (Mircosoft) into the giant of the software world. But that’s the broad outline” (53). Mother Teresa was given opportunity to be effective in her ministry and expand her campaigns. In her early years, she developed a mission mind-set of compassion and spirituality. Later on, she was an educator, trained in her leadership, organizational and managerial skill. Further, the combinations of these skills unveiled even more opportunity. Specifically, several particular Catholic Popes contributed to expanding her influence world-wide. In “1948 the Vatican gave her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and to start a new work under the guidance of the Archbishop of Calcutta” (EWTA, The Early Years). Pope Pius XII believed in Mother Teresa’s dream and calling, so he granted her leave from the sisterhood to work independently of contract. He “did not turn a blind eye to the suffering but chose to use diplomacy to aid the persecuted.” He had hoped to be known as the Pope of Peace” (Coppa). Mother Teresa was affirmed years later of her work when in 1965 Pope Paul VI bestowed the Decree of Praise upon her established sect, The Missionaries of Charity, prompting international expansion. It was “just the beginning, as Mother Teresa received various honors for her tireless and effective charity” (Brayton). Finally, she was acknowledged through the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 in light of her “bringing help to suffering humanity” (Brayton). With no surprise, “Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa was friends of kings and presidents worldwide” (Softschools).
It’s a Gladwellian story: after finding her calling at age twelve, she jumped on opportunity to learn and train over ten thousand hours. She was a part of high school mission club; she joined an Irish convent at age eighteen, and was a teacher and then principal of St. Mary’s for twenty years, trained there in Dublin, then in India. Her practice and growth of skills never ceased.
The pure, lovely voice rang with an expected loudness. Not solely in volume, but in punch. Whether a whisper to the youngest child or through a booming microphone to hundreds of onlookers, fluttering minds stopped in their flight as Mother Teresa spoke. Her life had been a message to the masses. Her words said to a few spread like wildfire to a million. Pens scribbled restlessly, soaking blank white notepads with their rich black ink. Thankfully, hundreds of reports captured her wisdom in space and time, as there were still thousands to be persuaded to live a selfless life such as St. Mother Teresa.
Even though the Dublin Sisterhood gave her chance to travel to work two decades with the needy in India, Pope Pius’ offer changed her life’s projection, and the Nobel Prize printed her name across the world, there were still other weights tipping in her favor. Gladwell reflects on the method of successful people in Outliers: “To exploit that opportunity, you had to have certain virtues”. He continues; “successful people…sacrificed. They scrimped and saved and invested wisely…The economy was desperate for the skills that they possessed” (144). Mother Teresa, by nature of her personality, took advantage of the opportunity because of her personality to desire meaningful work.
These interpretations make up a concoction in which Gladwell states lead to success. Mother Teresa didn’t sacrifice her comfort, security or reputation for money. “To help the poor and better their lot” is what Mother Teresa spent her money and time on. “Through her much publicized simple life, her strong faith in God, her belief in the goodness of human nature, her humanitarian work and her veneration for life, many people in India and in the West seemed to have discovered for themselves a new purpose in life” (Alpion 15). It wasn’t about her education, physical appearance, or even her last name. She simply served as a “beacon to the best of humanity with a simple goal — to help unwanted, unloved, uncared for” (Brayton). Mother Teresa was agent of the fierce, potent tipping point of loving the world.
Works Cited:
Alpion, Gëzim. Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity? London: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Brayton, Rebecca. Mother Teresa Bio: The life of a Healer. 20th Century Biographies. Watch Mojo, 2012. Video.
Coppa, Frank J., Pius XII. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2016. Web.
Craddock, Maggie. Power Genes: Understanding Your Power Persona and How to Wield it a Work. (Harvard Business Review Press: 2011. Print.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. Mother Teresa Biography. Notable Biographies, 2009. Web.
EWTA. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Eternal Word Television Network, Inc, 10/26/04. Web.
Gladwell, Malcom. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
— — Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. Print.
Ilievska, Aleksandra Notes from Skopje: Post-Mortem Politics. Transitions Online. 2003. Web.
Slavicek, L. C. Mother Teresa: Caring for the world’s poor. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Web.
Tucker, R.A. Mother Teresa. Christian History 19(1),20. Expanded Academic ASAP, 2000. Web.
Unknown Author, Mother Teresa Timeline. Softschools.com 2005–2016. Web.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jackie Gartland, a sophomore nursing major at Bethel University, MN, seeks to love those around her. She has a dream of using her training and compassion to reach whole communities embodying Mother Teresa’s perspective to do “Little things with great love.” Jackie loves growing her roots in the Word of Jesus, savoring homemade cheesecake after a grueling hike in the North Woods and cupping her hands around a cup of vanilla Chai tea amidst new friends.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED:
Participation points mean business.
STD’s have trends. And they capture your attention.
Making pancakes for the class can lend more effort than reward.
A plain suburban Wisconsin girl is capable of success.
Yet capability does not guarantee success.
Luke 6:38 “Give and it will be given to you”- sarcasm isn’t an exception.
Reading books for college writing can be an enjoyable study break.
An Egalitarian ethos is both magical and biblical.
The noise in the commons area ominously evaporated. I looked down at my watch; 2:38. The papers, bowels, laptop cords gathered magically into my arms as I burst out into the messy jog of a student with seven minutes until her final still to exchange the bulky laptop for source books. 2:45. I slid into the chair just as my sigh of relief trapped in my throat. I needed my laptop.
Professor Winter demonstrated faithful grace kinda like Jesus; “go quick”. I jogged back, this time free of stuff, and full of gratitude. You can’t expect grace, but boy is it nice when it’s given. A free gift. Kinda like Jesus.
PSEO kids are alright
The Garden of Eden was here on earth and was perfect. God’s in process of restoration. But you’ll probably need year-round sunshine.
Ask people their definition of success. You’re judging. Stop.
