Steps to Success

Success only comes to those who know how to achieve it.  Many are taught that the sky is the limit.  Much of what we know comes to us from our environment, how we were raised, what our parents taught us and what we learned over time.  It is sometimes so deeply ingrained that we never realize we know it.  Not everyone grew up with the same opportunities to learn and some were never taught those much needed skills in order to thrive in the fast paced world.  Some may not even know what it takes to achieve success. 

Imagine growing up in a family where your parent(s) main concern was to support their own habit by selling drugs.  As a child you were a second priority, you knew there was love and that they cared for you but they just didn’t know how to provide for you.  As you grow up you didn’t have the chance that others did to learn the skills needed to find and maintain long term employment or support your own family.  You’re used to a life of chaos that follows you into adulthood further hindering your ability to succeed.  There is an inner conflict and as life seems to finally settle a bit something always seems to stir it back up again.

For others life is different they grew up in a life of poverty knowing only what they had accessible to them during that moment.  Your highest level of education is elementary school, maybe junior high; you may have even grown up in a war torn country and moved from refugee camp to refugee camp watching the world around you crumble.  You receive word that you have the chance to come to America, the land of opportunity where anything is possible.  Once here you’re on foreign ground and your world is turned upside down and everything is so strange.  The only success you know is achieving the means to live day by day and never knowing it is possible to do more, like owning a house or earning more than minimum wage. 

In each of these scenarios people were not given the tools needed to achieve a prosperous life.  They only know the environment they are used to, some may not even know it is possible to hope for more.  These are the reasons why Stepping Stones was created.  We want everyone to know that dreams are possible, there is nothing standing between an individual and prosperous future.  That future is built upon a foundation of skills, the question is what skills can you teach to those in need?  Sometimes all it takes is one person to show you how to open those doors, that you can step through and find that dreams are possible.