We all have the drum major instinct - Martin Luther King

We all have the drum major instinct.
We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. ...
And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct.
It is a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it.
Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important.
Keep feeling the need for being first.
But I want you to be the first in love.
I want you to be the first in moral excellence.
I want you to be the first in generosity.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Find his Drum Major Instinct sermon and audio excerpts here.

-------------------

Our society teaches children that in order to succeed in life, they need get noticed, get admired, lead the parade, surpass others and achieve distinction.
Our school systems reward the best in class, try to keep the cream of the crop and relegate in other directions those who do not fit in or abide by the rules.
In social life, children are pushed towards a need to fit in, to belong to a certain group or else they are ignored or worse, bullied.

Love, moral excellence and generosity are meant to be taught at home.

But how can one feel that these values are the most important, if the rest of the world seems to rotate the other way around?

Why is there no class in school teaching children what love really is?
Why is the system still insisting on success in math and physics while having to fail half the students that happen to be far better at languages or art?
Why does our society expect us to improve our weaknesses when it should focus on the strengths we have?
Why does the system not teach us to succeed by giving instead of taking?

You can't change the system in one day, but you can start by improving your strengths today by taking this free workshop by Markus Buckingham which I found very enlightening.

And maybe it will allow you to major in something different from drumming...