Achieving Greatness Takes Hard Work

847 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Path To Success

In the article, “What it takes to Be Great,” Geoffrey Colvin makes the argument “you will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.” He explains that anyone can become great and no one is born with a gift for a specific profession. Colvin uses many examples to support his statement such as Tiger Woods, a golf champion, Winston Churchill, a great orator, and Michael Jordan, a basketball player. They have proved that “the ten year” rule, deliberate practice, and aiming to get better has helped them achieve greatness. (Colvin) Tiger Woods, at 18 months, was encouraged to play golf by his father. By the time he was 18 years old, he became the youngest winner ever of the U.S. Amateur Championships. Winston Churchill spent hours rehearsing his speeches and became one of the 20th century’s greatest orators. Michael Jordan was kicked off his high school team because he wasn’t good enough to play. After training intensively he became one of the best basketball players. There are many others that have achieved greatness through this practice such as Usher, Sirena Williams, Thomas Edison, and Diane Warren. I believe perfecting your performance by a continuance of practice results in a huge improvement to greatness. We are like play dough. We can mold ourselves into greatness through years of deliberate practice, “…activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results, and involves high levels of repetition”, with the ultimate goal of extending our abilities to improve.
Usher worked really hard to be what he is today. ...

... middle of paper ...

... Work Bring Success." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 19 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/
• Abegunde, Mickey. "Justin Bieber And Usher: "We Both Want To Grow And Innovate As Artists"" Capital. Global Limited, 12 May 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
• Rodney, Dave. Usher. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2007. Print.
• "Usher." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Dec 06 2013 http://www.biography.com/people/usher-38321 • Bradley, Michael. Serena Williams. New York: Benchmark, 2005. Print.
• O'Neil, Dana Pennett., and Pat Williams. How to Be like Women Athletes of Influence: 32 Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 2007. Print.
• "A Brief Biography of Thomas Edison." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Outliers And Epstein's Sport Genes

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    When you train hard enough you can master or finesse a skill, therefore several people don't require training. Specific people are born with genetic enhancements that assist them with the skill and grants them an upper hand. David Epstein believes that genetics assist with the activity and does all of the work(Epstein,7). Malcom Gladwell believes that training pays off, moreover that if you train hard for plenty of hours you could surpass a prodigy(Gladwell,11). In Gladwell's writing Outliers, he talks about facts on how if you train for 10k hours you can master a skill. In Epstein's writing Sports Gene it revolves around a boy that was born with a genetic enhancement that doesn't train nevertheless is almost a pro without any training at

    Read More

  • The All-American Professional Girls Baseball League

    2183 Words  | 5 Pages

    Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in the commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them, like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World

    Read More

  • Examples Of Interviewing The Coach Maldonado

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    I learned a lot from interviewing the Coach Maldonado. The main thing I got out of this interview was something I was taught growing up. The outcome depends on how much work you put into doing a task. It’s not something I really learned from Coach Maldonado but it reenforces the idea. I like this idea because if you 're not going work hard for something then why should you expect great results as an outcome. The harder you work for something the more rewarding it becomes at the end. Now a days if you want to become great, it takes a lot of work and time. Professionals didn 't screw around in college and expect to be professional over night, no they worked hard to get at the level they 're at.

    Read More

  • General Electric Corporation: Case Analysis: General Electric Corporation

    1501 Words  | 4 Pages

    I’ve learned that it’s better to think out of the box than always stick to the same routine. You can compete in an ever-changing marketplace if you’re always doing the exact same thing. Sometimes you have to let go of what’s not working instead of trying to fix it, as not everything and everyone are fixable. More importantly this case study affirmed that staying true to what you believe in, allowing your natural abilities to shine, and caring about the overall welfare of all parties involved are at the core of being a great

    Read More

  • The Williams Sisters: Double Trouble on the Tennis Court

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hightower, Kyle. "Female Athletes Pushing the Boundaries of Sports." Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL). 02 Jul. 2005: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • How Did The Light Bulb Change Thomas Edison's Life

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thomas Edison was born in Ohio Milan, on February 11, 1847. His father and mother had seven children including Thomas. Thomas going to school at age eleven in public school but only lasted for 12 weeks. The problem he had was that he was a self-taught child. So his parents had to take him home a home school him. So his parents gave him chemistry and electronics books. Thomas was a smart kid growing up learning fast. But before he had plunged into great books before he was 12. Later Thomas is mother had got him chemicals to have him experiment. His first laboratory was the cellar of his family’s house. As he learned more he had

    Read More

  • Biography of Thomas Jefferson

    1762 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Thomas Jefferson biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. ."Thomas Jefferson biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Gender Pay Gap for Women Athletes

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women sports have come a long way, since the days when women were only allowed to watch. “The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years later since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of Women’s soccer around the world , Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields. Venus Williams, net worth is 60 million dollars; 27 million came from playing tennis (celebritynetworth 4). Her sister, Serena Williams has a tennis...

    Read More

  • What Was The Impact Of Thomas Edison's Life Before The 1900s

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper will be an effort to explain about Thomas Alva Edison and his life before the 1900s. Thomas Edison was an American inventor, he was considered the most prolific inventor in American history and one of America’s leading businessmen who came from humble beginnings to work as an inventor of major technology. He was also giving public recognition as a participant in the production of helping build America’s economy during the nation’s vulnerable early years. Thomas Edison was born on February 11th, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was the last and youngest out of seven children of Samuel Edison Jr., an exiled political activist, and Nancy Elliott Edison, an accomplished school teacher. When he was seven years old he suffered from scarlet fever

    Read More

  • how to become a great baseball player

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    Being great at a particular sport, such as baseball, is actually quite simple. It takes a mix of talent and even more hard work. I have seen a very large number of athletes come through this high school with all the talent in the world, but had no work ethic. Talent is only a fraction of what is needed to be great.

    Read More

  • The Inventions Of Thomas Alva Edison By Thomas Edison

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    I, Thomas Alva Edison, was born was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11th, 1847. I had seven siblings that were all older than him. My parents were busy people. My dad, Samuel, owned a lumber factory. My mom, Nancy, was a school teacher. I attended a school in Michigan, but I only went to school for no more than three months in his entire life. I was then home schooled by my mother. When I turned thirteen, I got my very first job as a newspaper boy. Since, I was a newspaper boy who worked by the railroad, I made my own lab that I could access from the railroad. I even saved a baby’s life after he almost got run over by a train. I opened my first ever real lab in Newark, New Jersey. I had over 300 workers working in this lab. After I opened this lab, I created a second lab. This second lab was in Menlo Park, New Jersey. This was probably the most important lab of my life because I created some of my most famous and most used inventions in this lab. Some of these inventions that I made here was th...

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of How To Transform An Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone wants to get better at something, but some want it more than others. In “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium”, the narrator wants to get better at basketball, so he wakes up everyday at 4:30 to go with his dad to his work. Everyday, the narrator would wait 3 hours in his dad’s car until the gym opened, only to sit on the bench and watch the other men play basketball. Finally, one of the best players, Dante, tells the narrator he can play but he’ll get “smoked”. However, the narrator proved him wrong. The narrator learns that if you persevere, work hard, and have confidence, your dreams may come true. In How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place

    Read More

  • The key to Resilience

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...if every time you practice piano you improve a lot, wouldn't you be more likely to practice a lot” yes this is the type of trait that needs to be developed like reading, playing soccer , and walking we aren’t just born with it so class time for me would be for practicing my essay writing and getting better at it. Grit is the way that we more accurately read who is a top notch and who is just there but not really there with an open mind. “The most successful people in life are both talented and gritty in whatever they've chosen to do” having a mind set like these people mirroring their strategies will only set us up for success because they have the formula we just need to get it. We are the ones who control our future so we need to follow the great minds that have already done it to put us in a better position to improve and see new thing that will than help us.

    Read More

  • Inequity in Athletics

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    Overall, the differences between what male athletes and female athletes must do in order to become successful is vastly distinct. A woman must be able to cope with receiving a lower salary than a man, expose herself to public eye in order earn time in the spotlight, and conform to society’s traditionalistic ideals of feministic traits to live up to the standards of a female athlete. Will people ever be able to see past these discriminatory stereotypes? Everyone needs to face the fact that women are capable of so much more than what society expects them to be, sees them to be, and pays them to be. It is time that female athletes are noticed for their genuine talents and not for any unnecessary opinions.

    Read More

  • Invention, Innovation, and Interdependence

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thomas Edison is widely regarded as one of the most influential inventors and innovators of the Twentieth Century. Edison’s efforts ushered in a new era of technology; a world in which electricity would be harnessed and made to bow before man’s will. Walter Lippman wrote, “It is impossible to measure the importance of Edison by adding up the specific inventions with which his name is associated” (qtd. in Baldwin 409). Edison’s decades long career was a synergistic melding of his success as an inventor and his prowess as a promoter and businessman. He exemplified the ideals of intelligence married to hard work and perseverance. He forever changed the landscape of American invention and the limits of technological change (Baldwin 409).

    Read More

More about Achieving Greatness Takes Hard Work

Open Document