The Definition of Success

I recently had an opportunity to consider the meaning of success when my dad came down from Michigan to watch my son play a basketball game at his elementary school. When I told him I hoped he’d get a chance to meet George Losh, the teacher responsible for the intramural program, he immediately wondered if George was related to Michael Losh, who my dad knew from his days at GM.

It turns out they are brothers. J. Michael Losh has a profile on Forbes.com that includes the following:

Chief Financial Officer of Cardinal Health, July 2004 to May 2005; Chairman of Metaldyne Corporation, October 2000 to April 2002; Chief Financial Officer of General Motors Corporation, 1994 to August 2000; director of AMB Property Corporation, Aon, H.B. Fuller Company, Masco Corp. and TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.

George Losh has no such Forbes profile, but if he did, it would read like this:

Teacher, Phys Ed., Union Elementary, 1973-2008.

If one were to judge success solely on the basis of resume, it would appear to be no contest. One has held senior executive positions at some of the world’s largest corporations. The other spent an entire career in a single gym at one of the state’s oldest schools (ninety-two years old and counting). Thanks to our unfortunate tendency to measure success in dollars and cents, for many the comparison would end there.

But that would do all involved – George, Michael and ourselves – a disservice. Because success should not be measured by the dollars we pocket, but the lives we touch. And by that measure, George Losh has enjoyed the type of success to which we should all aspire. His after-hours basketball, volleyball and gymnastics programs have attracted hundreds of children each year (some years saw up to 200 kids – more than 1 in 3 students – participate in gymnastics alone). My conservative calculation estimates that as many as 3,500 children left Union as better athletes and better people because of the countless hours George dedicated to his calling.

Now it has come to an end. Wednesday, June 4, marked George’s last day at Union. Reflecting on his career, he is proud of the good athletes he helped make better. But he positively lights up when it comes to those kids who arrived scared and unsure, but left excited and confident. Just as he lights up when talking of his brother – not about Michael’s money or power, but of his humility and unassailable integrity.

I can hear a basketball bouncing as I write this. That would be my daughter working on free throws and layups. She would not be out there were it not for George Losh. At one time, she preferred only sedentary pursuits like reading, writing, arts and crafts. That she wants to play ball is a measure of George’s success as a teacher. And if someday, someone speaks of her integrity the way George speaks of his brother’s, I will consider that a measure of hers as a person.