Spiegel's Essay Want To Succeed, Lose A Little

499 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Failure and success introduction

Rob Spiegel’s essay “Want to Succeed, Lose a Little” explains two novelists opinion on failure and success. Novelist Ernest Hemingway expresses that “ I write from the authority of success.” On the there hand novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald had a different view on success, Fitzgerald said “I write from the authority of failure.” Fitzgerald response was completely accurate in my case. It was only a few months before my 18th birthday when i found out news that was going to impact my whole life. Before I explain to you this life changing event, let me tell you how my life was going. I was 17 and not succeeding. I almost felt like my life was getting pulled from me little by little, depression was no joke but suddenly became my best friend. My best friend was my worst nightmare it slowly pulled me to hate the people I loved, pulled …show more content…

I left high school, left my dream of basketball, but my best friend continued on my side. I slowly started to tear away from the medication, sounded like a bad idea, but when I flushed the pills, I was able to flush my worst enemy my best friend too. My grades started to pull from F’s and D’s to ABC’s. Success was near I could feel it. Back to a few months before my 18th birthday and a few months into night school. I found out I was 6 months pregnant, the scariest time of my life. It felt as if I walked into the bathroom my best friend would be awaiting me, failure sunk deep in my mind. I was only 17 I knew nothing about money management, barely knew about life. My mother the strongest individual I know told me “ this will be the biggest curve ball thrown at you, but it will take a team to hit it out of the park.” Skipping over the three months I had to prepare with my family, failure was not the case, success was near. Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never, never give

Show More
Related

  • Leon Leyson's The Boy On The Wooden Box

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”

    Read More

  • Nathan Wallace Failure

    221 Words  | 1 Pages

    That exact statement makes me or any reader feel that failure doesn’t always have to be perceived to be negative. Failure can improve personal growth. We are always scared out the outcome failure will bring, but that is the silver lining for our personal growth. If we concentrate more on the effort we put into a certain task, we can grow by the steps we take along the way. Anyone can succeed, no matter their

    Read More

  • Success in Willa Cather's My Antonia

    2593 Words  | 6 Pages

    The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions,  or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in  Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was.  But to Willa Cather in My

    Read More

  • Human Lot To Try And Fail Analysis

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    David Mamet once stated, “..it is the human lot to try and fail..” This quotation implies that an individual will attempt to achieve success throughout their lifetime, but he/she will also have to face the failures as well. The quote relates to the philosophy that in order to achieve something, one will have to work for it. This quotation is correct and is further supported by two literary works. The two novels are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Pearl, also by John Steinbeck. In these two novels, the protagonists know that their goals are very farfetched and out of the norm, yet they both try to achieve it and ultimately fail.

    Read More

  • The Concept Of Failure And Success In 'Zero' By Roger Von Oeches

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    If you fail and succeed afterwards, does it really mean that you achieved what you strived for? In both of the stories “Zero” by Paul Logan and “Too err is wrong” by Roger von Oeches, both authors focused on the concept of failure and success going hand in hand with one another. In life, sometimes you have to climb a mountain, and face the obstacles that might be preventing you from achieving your goals. In my opinion, Logan narrative does represent von Oeches concept to a certain degree that failure can lead to success. In von Oechs story he used many tactics to demonstrate the failure can cause you to become a more successful person.

    Read More

  • Personal Essay: My Philosophy Of Success

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    My philosophy of success, is me growing into the person I want to become and being comfortable with the choices I decide to make in life. Success is not something I can achieve overnight, it’s something I must plan for then proceed to working hard for it as well. Without hard work, there isn’t anything successful about the job I want to get done or the job I wish to get done. Doing anything without hard work and dedication, and expecting the best outcome is not success; it’s mediocrity. Being mediocre/ will only allow me or anyone else to have a ‘Victim’s Mindset.’

    Read More

  • Exploring Success: Insights from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    People have different success stories that explain the ups and downs they have had to go through to achieve all they got. Most of the world’s admired men to day who have turned out to be the inspiration of most of the people that are excited and determined to succeed in life never started where they are. This essay brings to light various concepts based on the success story book by Malcolm Gladwell which if well applied, they will get any man successful. There is a common denominator in the successful and that is their way of thinking that places them in a unique categoryin life, they react and perceive situations differently even in the same circumstances.

    Read More

  • Can Arrogance Make a Company Generate Crisis?

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Farrell, Michael W. “The Law of Success- Success Often Leads to Arrogance, and Arrogance to Failure.” Ezinearticles.com. 9 June, 2011. Web. 3 May. 2014.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Failure Is A Good Thing By Jon Carroll

    408 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Failure Is a Good Thing, author Jon Carroll refers to failure as a learning experience. Carroll explains that failure is needed for growth, that failure may keep a person “on their toes” so that they may never get too comfortable with what they are doing. He also goes on to state that failure is something that we should all strive for, ironically, in order to feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Carroll refers to his family, his friends, and his own experiences with failure and how they solidify his beliefs. Jon talks about his job as a columnist and how every week someone’s column has to be the lesser column.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass's Idea Of Success

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    Success is, in many ways, a branch of perspective, and yet societal norms seem to dictate what many view as success. Through my personal experience, and through the reading of Frederick Douglas I believe that the idea of personal success, in correlation with perspective, is a subject worthy of debate. Dissecting the difference of what many view as success and what may actually be success is essential for growth personally, and for people collectively. For example; currently many in our society view triumph as the acquisition of a copious monetary status, usually preceded, or followed by recognition for actions, ideas, etc… whether or not one views these actions or ideas worthy of widespread recognition. Nevertheless I myself believe that

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay About Grief

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was July 22nd when I got the phone call that my great grandma was in the hospital. It was so shocking to me I didn’t even know what to think I had just been up there to see her two days ago prior to then. My dad had called me and told me in a calm but of course I know my dad to well to know that he was calm but actually pretty scared and frantic. I was at work and a perk to my job is that I work at a family owned business that is actually close to my family.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Best Day In High School

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    What I had thought was the best day in my life was probably the worst. Skipping from fourth grade to sixth grade has cursed me to struggle with my education because I missed that crucial year. From then on, I seemed to struggle with math and reading and I received little help in the form of tutoring. It has taken years to gain confidence in my academic abilities. I am still struggling academically, but know that I must create my own path for success rather than blame the mistakes of the

    Read More

  • Overcoming Fear Of Failure

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    He went home, locked himself in his room and cried. But now he owns six MBA champions, and 5 MBA MVPs; that moment of getting cut from his high school basketball team become nothing. Walt Disney was fired from his first job because people said he is lacked of imagination and had no original idea; this man is now the creator of the biggest company on producing cartoon and children entertainment, Disney. This man failed in business twice and was defeated in eight elections. With all of his effort and never giving up when things get hard he became the tenth president of the United States; this name named is Abraham Lincoln. Those people are examples of overcoming failure and become successful. They did not let the pain of failure stop them from being successful. They keep fighting and thrive for victory. Those are examples of failure is only help people to reach their goal sooner or later. What matter is how hard you try and how bad you want to be success.

    Read More

  • The Death of my Father

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone has milestone days in his/her life that change the direction of his/her life for better or worse. Let me tell you one of my experiences that I will never forget from when I was 12 years old.

    Read More

  • Essay On Success And Failure

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The failure is the mother of success” this Chinese quote said that failure is not the end. Failure is where people learn from their mistake. People cannot be successful all the time. Indeed, there are many people who learned from their failures before being successful. Each failure that people had met is a helpful lesson and valuable experience to help them become a better person.

    Read More

More about Spiegel's Essay Want To Succeed, Lose A Little

Open Document