The Great Experiment: Can Success Be Taught?

Getting equipped for the workplace and launching a career have never been easy.  But for today’s young people, the climb is tougher than ever. they can be ambitious, work hard, earn a college or university degree, and still find themselves stuck in a dead-end, minimum-wage job—if they can find a job at all.  

And what about the millions who can’t afford college? Or those who drop out without even finishing high school? shockingly, an estimated 30% of american students who enter ninth grade fail to graduate from high school, and among minority and lower-income students, the percentages are even higher. what chance do these young people have in today’s über-competitive job market?

For decades now, students have been taught that success is a function of intelligence, academic credentials and strong basic skills. Important as these elements may still be, it seems they are no longer sufficient. some hold that family connections are the sine qua non for building a career. But how many young people are socially linked to captains of industry? and while personal networking belongs in every job seeker’s tool kit, LinkedIn is no panacea.  

The question is, what does it take to succeed in America today? and is this recipe something that can be taught…not just to a handful of students at a time, but at scale?    

I’ve got an answer to the first question, and it’s one that every entrepreneur will understand. I’m convinced that success today depends even more on qualities of character—like grit, guts and heart—than on I.Q., credentials or connections. what’s more, there is a growing body of research to support the view that character trumps cognitive skills when it comes to career and life success.

I believe the critical ingredient in success is the constellation of character traits that cowboys call “Try.”  Through my foundation and its community partners, we’re showing that these qualities can be taught. If you’d like to learn more, and perhaps even become part of the solution, please download the white paper, and read on.

- Jim Owen

Cowboy Ethics Business Workshops in Action

Folks in Wyoming have been enthusiastic early adopters of the Cowboy Ethics programs.  From the great work that Ashley Bright and his team are doing with Wyoming Youth, to the state legislature itself, which recently adopted the Cowboy Ethics as the official state code, people in Wyoming seem to immidiately grasp the potential Cowboy Ethics has to change our country for the better.

While the inspiration that Cowboy Ethics offers has spread for beyond Wyoming, folks there continue to innovate and build upon the Cowboy Ethics foundation.  We want to share an article from the Wyoming Business Report about the efforts of the Kent Noble and the University of Wyoming School of Business to show that Cowboy Ethics are good for business too.

We've posted a expert from the article below and you can read more about what Cowboy Ethics can do for business on our website.  We call it, Standing Tall in an Upside-Down World.

Training course seeks to turn business right-side-up
By Business Report Staff

September 27, 2012 --

LARAMIE — An advanced three-day executive business training course will seek to make sense of the upside-down economy for participants.
...
A new course this year will use the "Code of the West" as a basis for business ethics "in an upside-down world."

"Adding a track highlighting the University of Wyoming College of Business 'Standing Tall in an Upside-Down World' business ethics initiative is a real advantage for our participants," said Business Council CEO Bob Jensen. "Not only will participants receive high-level training from UW professors grounded in real-world business experience, they'll also have the opportunity to learn more about business ethics based on Wyoming values."

You can read the full article at the Wyoming Business Report.