Priming the pump is the analogy used by Zig Zigler in the “See You At The Top Program” to illustrate that you must first “put in” before you can “take out” or receive all the rewards of your work. Most people today wouldn’t understand that analogy. I certainly do since I was a child when running water and indoor bathrooms were considered a luxury by some of my country cousins in Missouri. To get the pump working and the water flowing, a person had to pour water into the pump and then pump and pump for long periods of time before the suction brought the water out freely flowing. After the flow started, it didn’t take much more than an occasional pump motion to keep it flowing.
This is true in life. Another way of saying this might be: you get out of it what you put into it…plus some! Many students cry out at report card time, “Look at the grade s(he) gave me!” This is usually for a grade lower than wanted. But if it was an A or A+, that same person often crowed with pride, “Look at the grade I made!”
I have never discovered an “easy” road to success. When one of our patrons kidded my husband and me about our school on its 20th Anniversary, he said, “Congratulations for being an overnight success…and it only took you twenty years to do it!”
The majority of workers I have hired over the fifty plus years of my career have had one thing in common: a willingness to work beyond the expectations of the job descriptions. Those are the workers who will not give up because a difficult situation arises. Those are the people who have committed to the success of the school and its program…and thus are willing to do whatever it takes to make it work. Most of these people have had success in their own lives as those qualities which I admired were sought by other employers for the same reasons.
Putting the effort into the task or the mission is the key to success. I think of the oyster which becomes uncomfortable with the grain of sand irritating him, and thus begins to coat the sand with his mother of pearl substance. The result is not only a removal of pain, but the production of a priceless pearl sought by many! Such is life!
I see this principle at work every day of school as I watch children in extended day activities. We have many toys which we have purchased and which have been donated to our school by caring parents. The children love the toys, but many do not take very good care of the toys. Often I stop some children from just out and out breaking the toys. It appears that not having to work to purchase the toys, they do not appreciate them very much. They also figure that “easy come…easy goes.” What is not worked for, usually is never fully appreciated!
Many students just cannot see working harder if that is needed to improve his/her grades. They prefer to complain that “It’s not fair!” or “It’s too hard!” While such protests might bring some action on the part of parents and or teachers…it often does not yield long lasting results. What it all comes down to is that effort and work equal success. This moral has been taught over and over in fables such as the grasshopper and the ants. Now that technology is so advanced, priming a pump for water may not convince a student to put more effort into his/her work. However, I cannot think of many successful people who have not worked hard to achieve success. And, the “self-made man” usually gets the head too big! Kay