Why Celebrating Achievement Is Important

And Why Texans Are Right to Be Proud of Their State

Achievement is a very American—and Texan—concept.

Photo by carolyn christine on Unsplash

The word's etymology is French. “Achievement” comes from “achever,” which means “to finish.” The French word leaves little room for anything more than that—it means finishing something, period (the French use other words to mean “achievement”).

The English word connotes much more, implying not just completion but also that you have finished something difficult, reached a goal, or fulfilled a dream. Not content with just finishing, Americans and Texans want to go the extra mile and accomplish goals that matter, even when they are hard to reach.

If I’m attributing intention from the actors to the meaning of a word, that is because the American and Texan achiever mindset is a testament to our resilience and determination. Consider the pioneers, the entrepreneurs, the inventors who built this country and state. They didn't just come here; they braved harsh conditions, faced the wilderness head-on, and sometimes confronted strong opposition. This is the mindset of people who set the bar high and strive to reach it.

Merrian-Webster defines “achievement” as

• “the act of … succeed[ing] at reaching or accomplishing (a goal, result, etc.) especially through effort”;

• “a result gained by effort: accomplishment”; or

• “a great or heroic deed.”

An achievement is not just about ticking off a task on your to-do list. It's about investing extra effort, going beyond the ordinary, to accomplish something “great or heroic.” This concept is deeply ingrained in the fabric of American and Texan cultures—as well as its celebration, fostering a sense of pride that is rightly earned and validating the hard work and effort we put into our goals.

Take the American Dream. Whether you were born in the United States or, like me, immigrated here, the concept of the American Dream is about reaching and attaining your most daring goals—the difficult ones, the ones that require hard work and effort, whether it is home ownership, creating a Fortune 100 company, or solving some thousand-year-old problem. The American Dream is an encouragement to make an effort to reach your goals and a celebration of the positive results.

The culture in Texas is similar to the American Dream vision: It encourages people to strive to reach their goals and to accomplish more through effort and ingenuity. I like to quote Houston oilman George Strake: “Everyone’s welcome here, so long as you’re willing to pull the wagon and not just sit in it.” The culture tells you “You can do it, so we’ll let you try and show us what you can do.”

If you complain (I know I do sometimes) about the heat you must endure during the summer when you have to walk 150 steps between your air-conditioned home and your air-conditioned car, think about what the pioneers who built Texas accomplished… without air-conditioning at all! It took grit, endurance, resilience, and a willingness to strive for and achieve something better.

Achievement is important to acknowledge and celebrate. Without the men and women who decided they would spend a good part of their lives working on something better—whether that was a better self, a better product, or a better way to live—and putting significant effort into that project to succeed, chances are we’d still be living without air-conditioning (let’s, by the way, recognize, credit, and thank Willis Carrier for his achievement).

In the end, achievement is a very human drive: It moves us forward, pushes us to take risks to gain important values, and leads us to say no to being content with less than the best we can attain as individuals and as human beings.

But we must not tend toward complacency. It’s there—the air conditioning, the car you can start from your smartphone, the convenience of Facetime calling someone on the other end of the world, the package that arrives overnight—and we hardly pay attention anymore. Past achievements can be taken for granted; at worst, this can lead to an entitlement mentality toward new achievements.

With a culture of being proud of our achievements, Texas encourages people to reach for what they can accomplish and to achieve their dreams, big or small. On top of that, whether big achievers or not, we benefit from (other) achievers’ successes (you have a smartphone in your pocket and are using air conditioning, right?). It is not much, then, to not only allow people to pursue their endeavors (including by not regulating them out of existence) but also to acknowledge the value they are bringing to the world.

Achievement, TX, celebrates Texan achievement for all these reasons.

The culture of achievement is alive and well in Texas. One of the goals of this publication is to acknowledge it, encourage it, and spread it. Only by supporting achievement, can we strive to better both ourselves and the world.