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Perseverance is the key to success
Perseverance is the key to success
Perseverance is key to success
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When we think of successful people, many names come to mind: President Obama, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, etc. They're all very well established and have achieved what many call the American Dream. Another name among those that many may think of is Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire and founder of Microsoft. Who hasn't heard of his story? A college dropout reaches great fame and wealth as he pursues his lifelong dream of computer programming. How amazing! If Gates can become so rich and famous despite dropping out of college, anyone can, right? Everywhere around the world people work hard day and night. They work in hopes of achieving something grand. Almost everyone believes that the harder you work, the more you will earn, and therefore the
I agree with Gladwell that hard work can lead to success. Too often we think success happens because someone has money or gets lucky. This is wrong. Success takes hard work, imagination, and motivation. “Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.” (Gladwell 52) If you assert yourself and use your mind and imagination, you can create those
People who work hard enough become successful and build a good life for themselves and their family. Millions of Americans and others who admire America have believed this for generations. However, is this still true? Brandon King debates his interpretation of the American Dream in his published work, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” During his essay, the speaker highlights how important the American Dream is to the economy and providing a distance from inequality. The speaker emphasizes his belief that the American Dream is still alive within America and that people must work hard to achieve it. When discussing the American Dream, King will agree that the idea is alive and thriving in the minds of Americans; yet, I argue that the idea is on hold within American society due to lack of upward social independence and economic mobility.
This idea about becoming multimillionaires over a short period of time or mere hard work has been wide spread through success stories of people’s achieving opportunity in spite of the disadvantages that everyone else has. It seems that in America people are willing to believe any success story that they hear and because of this it gives many Americans a false image of the real world or life. Many people see champions like in boxing for instance, to be complemented with fame, money, and better life while doing what they enjoy the most, but they fall short to realize that there can be one champion. It success stories like these that Mantsios in “Class in America-2012” says that the media has a terminus influence on the perspective of success stories and suggests that Americans live in a facade going from nothing to extremely wealthy society (391). What this shows is that through the use of media people are becoming blind to the idea it will take much more than hard work to achieve upper class status. Because of this blindness, the rich will keep getting richer while everyone else will spend their lives falsifying hope that one day they too will achieve upper class levels status. In the film Trading Places, Ophelia says, “[reading Louis ' palm] You 've never done a day 's work in your life” (trading places). In the film, Luis lived a privileged life where he did not have to do labor-intensive work for a living in comparison to the upper class Americans. The film clearly demonstrates that the idea is falsified, since it can be concluded that the people in the upper class (the one percent) do not work hard at all and still make tons of money
The “American Dream” of opportunity for advancement in society while hard work leads to financial security seems to be a remnant of a folklore, a myth
...at the American culture places economic success at the pinnacle of social desirability, without listing legitimate ways for attaining the desired goal (Merton 672-682). Today, the American Dream no longer reflects the dream Adams had, but instead, the idea that one can only call themselves truly successful if they have become rich, regardless of the way they got there. The American Dream does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it, but with the media strongly persuading people that money guarantees happiness, people are encouraged to do whatever it takes, even it means disregarding their morals, so that they achieve ‘success.’ The inability to achieve this goal often leads people to destructive, and ultimately life-threatening criminal behavior as their feelings of anxiety and frustration over this vision of the “American Dream” get the best of them.
There are some well-known examples of everyday people, such as Oprah Winfrey, who became wealthy and successful through hard work, giving credence to the idea that in America everyone has the opportunity to become anything they want to be by putting forth an honest effort. Although most people will find living an American Dream of riches to be out of reach, everyone has a dream of succeeding, and that is what unites us and makes our nation strong. Our common dream that anything is possible is the Spirit of America.
In America, it is believed that the way to be successful is on must sacrifice and have the determination to obtain one's dream. However, the truth is has much as one works so hard that dream cannot be obtained unless one is fortunate to be born in wealth or has luck. For instance, in "Sam Walton/ Jay-Z", Jay is a perfect example that a dream can be obtained by luck. Born and raised in the projects Jay-Z did experience poverty, and his lifestyle influences him to seek for a better lifestyle. Although he did obtain his dream; becoming rich, and now considered one of the greater rapper. Jay Z had to go through a notorious lifestyle, to the point of risking his own life to become the person he is
Living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, our culture has naturally valued prestige and luxuries. We admire fancy items and often judge other individuals by the clothes they wear, the car they drive, and the schools that they attend. The “American Dream” serves as a motivational factor for people; believing that hard work and dedication can bring “success” to ones’ life. Although this is partially true, it is difficult for individuals in the middle class and lower class.
When I was growing up, I often reflected on what my chances of success would be later on in life. I always wondered if I would have the same opportunity to make as much money as top richest 1 percent of Americans who hold 34 percent of the total national wealth.(Mantsios 284) These were the rich and successful people I had seen in movies or on television that made billions of dollars a year. I was raised in a middle class family and my parents from the beginning did everything in their power they could to provide me with an opportunity for success. My father, who came from a lower class family, dropped out of college after his sophomore year and began working in construction. When my mother became pregnant with me, my dad decided he would launch his own construction business. I have witnessed first hand how hard he works each day to make the living he does, working from dawn till dusk, 6 days a week. My father is good at what he does but in contrast to the top one percent of Americans, his annual salary (along with the other 99 percent’s) is incomparable pocket change to them. Although my father began with nothing and was able to work his way up and out of the class he began in I still wondered why he was not able to make as much, or even half, in a lifetime as some elite Americans make in a month. It seemed crazy to me that the majority of wealth in America is concentrated within a group of a few, elite Americans that make hundreds of times more than what the rest of the country’s citizens do. I began to ponder the questions: Does everyone in America have an equal opportunity to succeed?...If not, then why? Do the other 99 percent not work hard enough?. I whole-heartedly believe that the amount of effort an individual puts int...
Look at the outcome with hard work he became the president. In the speech from the keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention by Barack Obama he says “Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America……. I stand here today grateful for the diversity of my heritage.” (Obama 78,79) In America we have many opportunities other people don 't have such as scholarships, FAFSA, loans, and Financial Aid, but people have now gotten lazy and want the work done for them like how Glenn Llopis from the article “Why most people will never achieve the American dream” says “Today, you must be able to successfully navigate yourself through a filter…. they certainly are no longer capable of enabling it for you. That’s no longer their responsibility (and the truth is-it never was).(Llopis 2) This just explains how other people became so dependable on the government and bigger corporations to hand out the opportunities as a given with no effort and work, but obviously everything in life requires hard work. The American Dream for many other people can just be to have a shelter and be happy by being safe as well, not a fancy life for example in the poem “I Hear America Sing” by Walt Whitman he shows how Americans are very joyous and happy with their position “The Day what belongs to the day-at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.”(Whitman
The American Dream, recognized as being the earning of a college degree, the owning of one 's own home, taking vacations and experiencing upward social mobility, is a very important belief that helped create the success that America is today. Many people believe that anyone who works hard and has determination can achieve this American Dream. In this day and age, experiencing the American Dream is believed to no longer be as available to Americans as it once was. The economy and corporate America have had a strong impact on the availability to reach this state of success. Everyone wants to live the American Dream, whether they know it or not. I have never met a person who did not want to become successful. Even I had a strong belief that the
“The American Dream is a term that is often used but also often misunderstood. It isn 't really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that” (Marco Rubio). The American Dream was a great term to attract many immigrants to this country in the belief that families can restart and reach their dreams. The idea that one can radically change their life and to become “rich” was very attractive and can give great incentive into moving across the world to pursue. With today’s migration, economic, and lack of education situation we have in the United States the American dream no longer has the same meaning it once did.
The idea that this country offers so much opportunity that can be obtained by anyone provides people with the ability to dream their own dreams. The American Dream can be a motivational fire, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, one must focus on building a balanced life for themselves, participate in honest work and practice their craft to have marketable skills are just stick out from the competition. People work their whole lives making money so they can satisfy their desires. The idea of being able to purchase the items people always dreamed of is an achievement in itself. Having a great family owning a home and having beautiful things to fill it with is a common dream amongst people. Many people take pride in what they possess. People want to own nice homes, nice cars, and nice clothes. Some need to look successful in order to feel successful. These people feel successful when they can admire what their hard work has given them and when they can see they build something their kids can also benefit from.
It is something most strive for and most defined differently but I 'll come back to a central point of making it big and getting out of bad circumstances. People travel miles and across oceans to obtain. Though many people in America take their situation for granted, many immigrants journey miles to have the opportunity to have the dream. Once here and settled, many immigrants come to the conclusion that is harder to attain the American dream than previously broadcasted. Though the news, media, and social networking sites tell us differently, the odds of making it big time are rare and slim. America 's elite keeps the rage to riches in American dream value alive to inspire people to work harder. This gives the lower class people work for them inspiration to work harder to get into their positions. The elite show off their big houses, fancy cars, and tell the story about how they made it to middle and low class workers. This helps in ensuring people have the same dream. All the while, the big time elites know how hard it is and how slim chances are of making it in this
This is one never talked about secret of success. Action is the main word in success. Bill Gates as a small young kid he kept telling his childhood good friend, Paul Allen that he never had anything to lose. When Bill Gates had numerous odds against him such as several cases and the American Law against him, he still constantly carried out action by creating more software which the people wished to have. Microsoft would have not seen the light now of what it acquires if without Bill Gates. This was because of his regular delivery of dreams to his vision and targets. He dropped out from one of the world best universities from Harvard and not every person from there went to attain great heights similar to Bill Gates did, which shows the basic truth that schooling is just a toll for accomplishment and does not define achievement itself.