I can spot soft men a mile away — men who are comfortable getting blown in whatever direction life’s winds are blowing at any given moment. I don’t know if I see it in their eyes, but I see it. They are not scared by life. They are malleable to life.

I’m not interested in raising any soft men (or soft woman, in the case of my daughter). I’m not pushing my children to be the smartest, to go to a prestigious college, for example. I’m raising them to have fortitude — strength of character. If they have that, they will be more successful in life than any soft man (or woman) who graduates Harvard with honors. Guaranteed.

I just read one of my oldest son’s graduate school essays. He’s applying to masters programs in music. There’s nothing soft about building a career in music. His essays show that strength of conviction necessary to make it. Good job — no Mr. Softee there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:21 am and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The trackback URL for this entry is
http://www.blogenberg.com/2009/11/03/mr-softee-not/trackback/