Freedom and Success by Jim Stovall
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
For over 20 years, my column has been read each week by people around the world. The readers of the Winners’ Wisdom columns represent a multitude of nationalities, faiths, creeds, and cultures.
If you have been a reader of mine for any length of time, you know that I believe that our success is greatly a product of our own attitude, effort, and ingenuity; however, this belief presumes that you live in a free and open society.
In the two decades I have been writing Winners’ Wisdom, technology has changed the world. In the mid-1990s, most of the readers of my weekly columns accessed my message via a print publication such as a magazine or newspaper. Today because of the Internet, a diverse group of people around the globe read this weekly offering via the Internet. Many of these new online readers live in countries where they face resistance and oppression toward their success, freedom, and happiness.
Freedom is an often-misunderstood word. We all grasp the concept of being able to do what we want to do and when we want to do it, but our ideas of freedom often get confused when we think of other people’s liberty, particularly when it relates to those with whom we disagree. The great American patriot Thomas Paine, said, “He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his own enemy from oppression.”
If you and I believe in liberty and enjoy our own freedom to succeed or fail on our own terms, we must not only tolerate those with whom we disagree, but we must be willing to fight for their rights as well as our own. I believe a true patriot and lover of liberty should be able to readily identify and articulate several beliefs, positions, and practices they disagree with personally but would defend vigorously.
I’m a voracious reader and find that I gain more enlightenment and deeper learning when reading books written by authors with whom I disagree. In many cases, I find that our areas of disagreement aren’t as deep as I thought they were, and as I begin to understand the motives behind other people’s mission and message, I find a lot of common ground. There is a phrase generally attributed to Native American wisdom that says, “Don’t judge a man unless you have walked a mile in his moccasins.”
Many times, issues boil down to right versus wrong; in which case, we must stand up for what is right. But sometimes that which we think is wrong is merely a different perspective.
As you go through your day today, celebrate your own freedom by protecting the freedom of others.
Today’s the day!
Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). This and other motivational pieces by Jim can be found in Wisdom for Winners Volume Three, an official publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. You can listen to the audiobook here on Audible or purchase your electronic or print copy wherever books are sold.