This quote by Booker T. Washington, seems especially to apply to our own First President, George Washington:

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles he has overcome.”

Although George’s success could by measured by the positions that he reached, during which he had to overcome many obstacles.

He was a hero in the French and Indian War, a member of Virginia’s House of Burgesses, a very successful plantation owner and businessman, the First Commander in Chief of the new United Colonial Army. He also was a hero, a tactician, a chief of a spy ring, and a celebrated and distinguished General in the Revolutionary War—which he eventually won against the World’s largest military and navy.

He became the unanimously elected President of the Constitutional Convention which he led with dignity. And, of course, he was elected, not once, but twice, as the President of the new United States of America, which he administered without any precedent, and he set new standards for Presidents to follow.

Washington had to overcome many obstacles in all of his successes. So I would say that George Washington was extraordinarily successful! Wouldn’t you?