TOMMIE SAYLOR: Creating winners at Kennedy High School

“You want to know the difference between a winner and a loser?  The winner has failed more times than the loser has even tried.” 

-- A variation of a quote by the author Stephen McCranie

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

Winning is a state of mind.  It is the knowledge that you will experience failure, yet you have made the decision to push through the bad times, accept defeat and grow from the experience.

Winning is not about finding excuses for your failures and/or losses, it is about accepting full responsibility and owning your defeat. It is about understanding that barriers will be in your way. It is your job to find a way around, over or through the barrier not someone else’s job. 

Winning is about working harder than everyone else. It is about wanting it more than anyone else and having the realization that if you want to win, you have to get better than everybody else.

Often when I hear someone whining about losing, I respond to them by simply saying, “Get better.”

Winners often have a code of conduct, a set of rules that they impose upon themselves. Beliefs that help them to keep their minds focused, their actions diligent and their path straight.  As a result winners believe in winning honestly, in living honorably and in doing the right thing at all times. 

Winners are often fighters, agitators or individuals who don’t mind a good debate. Winners “tilt at windmills,” unafraid to accept challenges that others would consider hopeless, pointless, or not worth the effort. 

Simply, winners are the protagonists in the story of life.

Winning is a personality trait. It is part of one’s character. As such, winners are often optimistic, upbeat         and just simply fun to be around.  Winners don’t make excuses (“He that is good for making excuses, is seldom good for anything else,” wrote Benjamin Franklin).

Winners find solutions, accept responsibility for their actions, don’t fix the blame (they fix the problem) and make all those around them feel good about themselves. Winners build people up. They don’t break them down.

It is true that occasionally a loser may find victory, but the loser’s victories are fleeting. Give a loser enough time and they most certainly will find a way to self-destruct.

But don’t despair. Becoming a winner is easy. It’s all about attitude. Though one may get to the table on nothing more than raw talent, but attitude and effort keeps them at the table. 

Winning can be taught, and often comes with harsh lessons. This is why in today’s schools we focus on more than just Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. We also take heed of the attributes that help to make winners. 

Adherence to high expectations. Clear organizational procedures. Rules, regulations, a demanding curriculum and even projects and performance-based tasks help to hone and shape students abilities, attitude and character. This is all in hopes that students develop into winners.

At Kennedy High School, developing students into winners is what we do.

What starts here, changes the world. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.