For the fifteenth consecutive minute, I painstakingly watch as the hands of the clock rotate.  Unfortunately, I begin to accept that the fate of my first club meeting is nothing but a lost cause.  So far, there are only four people here, a girl on the board of my club and three of my friends.  If this situation is not already disastrous enough, I also invited the West Coast Director of Save a Child’s Heart to come speak about the organization.

After my failure of a club meeting, I contemplate what possibly could have gone wrong.  I carefully retrace my steps to the halcyon days of my past summer spent in Israel.  Over my trip, I was inspired to raise money for Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli-based international humanitarian project with a mission to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries.  SACH is dedicated to delivering the best medical treatment to every child, regardless of the child’s nationality, religion, gender or financial situation.  The fact that I could directly impact children’s lives encouraged me to participate in SACH, but I still needed to find a mechanism to entice others as well.  Eventually, the perfect idea finally hits me— a fashion show charity event.

In most endeavors I have previously pursued, the requirements were quite simple.  I had the ultimate equation for success: hard work + determination = guaranteed accomplishment.  However, in reality, being successful is not quite as simple as a mathematical equation because the world can be extremely unpredictable.  Many people strive to reach greatness, yet end up completely unsuccessful.  Even some of the greatest and most influential people throughout history, such as Michael Jordan, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, were rejected and failed to succeed in their first attempts at their professions, but with determination and focus they eventually became a few of the world’s greatest legends.  Although my perfect equation to success has ceased to fully function, in order to prosper like the legends who have preceded me, I must accept the fact that I will always be working with a constantly evolving formula.