Jane was born in England in 1934. As a young child, her father gave her a stuffed toy chimpanzee, which she loved. Little did she or her parents know that Jubilee, the toy chimpanzee, would set her on a life of striving.
She couldn’t afford college but chose instead to go to a secretarial school. She needed to earn money to fulfill her dream of going to Africa. At age 23, that dream became a reality. A friend, living on a farm in Kenya, urged her to contact Louis Leakey, an archaeologist and paleontologist, to discuss his work on great apes. Their conversations led to Jane getting a job with him as a secretary.
Leakey soon became impressed by her attention to detail. What he didn’t expect was her extensive knowledge of animals. He needed someone who could study primates with fresh eyes. For several years, Jane provided insights, as Leakey had hoped.
Leakey was so impressed that he was able to find funders for her to pursue a PhD at Cambridge even though she had no bachelor’s degree. Prior to her PhD, she had already made a breakthrough discovery on chimpanzees. She discovered chimpanzees make and use tools. Until that point in time, the prevailing belief was that only humans had that ability.
Today, people consider Jane Goodall to be the authority on chimpanzees. But she has also become a role model for children. She has opened the doors of science to young women. She has also been a pioneer in efforts to protect the environment for wild animals. Jane has shown what it takes to have a mindset of striving.
Striving is characterized as a continual pursuit of learning and using that learning to impact society. Strivers are powered by their values, both existent and those that are new and emerging. Strivers are not focused as much on society’s wants but on generating new wants that will eventually emerge. They are visionaries focused on a better future for themselves and for society in general.
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“Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating.” -Melody Beattie