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, in which 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 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 more successful person. One of the examples that were provided in the story was the Boston red sox first baseman Carl. Many asked
For Paul it all started with being picked at. As a result his self esteem went down and he stopped carrying about school and everyone around him. When he entered college, he still had the same attitude about not putting any effort towards school work or good grades. As time went by, he started to fail classes because he stopped showing up to them, as well as not handing in any school work to receive some type of a grade. It did not take long for him to drop out of college, and find himself pushing the shopping cards at Sam’s Club. “Getting yelled at by his supervisor, while working on his shift at Sam’s Club he had ran into some of his old friends from high school (101). Embarrassment caused Paul to realize that, the path that he was on, was not going to work out for him and that he wanted to get off of it. For that reason he gathered himself together, and entered a community college to prove to himself and others that he was capable of turning his life around. He definitely did not have it easy; he had to over come many obstacles that were in his way in order to achieve his 4.0 GPA. Even failure, as painful as it is, doesn 't have to be an ending. It can be a learning experience—one that builds strength and gives direction. It can also serve as wake-up call that turns a floating student into a serious one…. (logan 102)”. Sometimes it takes a stranger to open our eyes for us to see what we are and what we want to
In the reading “Zero,” Paul Logan is a student who struggled throughout his academic life by being a failure and having a 0.0 GPA. Logan was an A student and he eventually became a C student in his last years. He got disappointed and dropped out of college. Logan worked at Sam’s Club, and while working he had a moment of realization when he met his classmates from high school. They made him feel bad because they were wondering about how he ended up working at Sam’s Club. He decided that he must start something and succeed. The following fall, after collecting money, he started in a local community college and attended all classes. Clearly, Logan thought it through and made his failure a lesson or a beginning of success.
Paul has an addiction to alcohol that has greatly devastated his life, but he also has a problem with gambling. Paul’s gambling started shortly after his alcoholism and his problems are all related. This is demonstrated when Norman states “… tell my mother and father that my brother had been beaten by the butt of a revolver and his body dumped in an alley” (Maclean 102). His addiction caused a cycle of problems, starting with his alcohol addiction, which led to gambling and from there stemmed money problems. Ultimately his alcoholism left him dead in an alley with his family wondering how it all happened, because he was not connected to them. His life was literally destroyed because of a few thoughtless decisions he made while intoxicated. All of his life problems and experiences are connected by one thing: his need to get a short rush of happiness from alcohol. His past decisions all added up and ended up killing him, and if he would have made wiser decisions in the past he might be still
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
Paul in “Paul’s Case” wanted to get away from the reality and the hostile environment he faced. He was sick of Pittsburgh and the middle-class, Cordelia Street, which he lived on. Although his mother past away, his home life was as normal as could be. This is something Paul hated, normality. At school he would tell other students false stories to try to make his life seem more interesting than theirs. This ultimately caused none of the other students like him, even the teachers lash out at him. Paul was suspended from school, but he didn’t mind. He found an interest in music and in art, although he knew his father would not approve. Paul’s father wanted him to be a business man, have a normal family and have an ordinary life. Although, having a normal, ordinary life was not what Paul had in mind for his future. He dreamt of much more which caused him to believe he would never get his father’s approval.
These temptations, many times, often lead to an increase in the chances of George, Rameck, and Sam's character cracking. For these reasons it made it hard for them to stay on the right track in life and to deviate away from what they were being raised in and to become better than that. Positive influences in their lives prevented them from succumbing to the calls of the streets and of the accepted norms. People such as the karate teacher who helped build self confidence and respect. Unfortunately for Paul he did not have these positive role models in his life to keep him focused and eventually got involved with drugs. He was a senior in high school with graduation just around the corner. Everything was going for him, he was on the Varsity football team, was heading off to college in a few months, and more importantly he wa...
Hardships are a terrible, but normal part of everybody’s life. No matter the hardship, anybody can recover. After viewing the information, it give an idea of how bad each of them had it.When Jeannette from The Glass Castle escapes the depths of Welch and her parents, her life was smooth sailing afterwards. When you have a life as very upsetting as hers, It is expected for more struggles to happen later in life. Not everybody will be as fortunate as her and continue forward with no regression. When Lily from The Secret Life of Bees ran away from home with no clue where she was headed, other than a town written on a picture. Liz from Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story had drug addicted parents and no plans on continuing an education. She reached a life changing decision and started going to school again. This lead to her ultimate goal of going to college, and at one of the most profound ones in the United States. If these three girls can overcome the intense situations they endured, anybody can.
...a career to something that guarantees a successful life. This negative light gives many student the ugly side of college that maybe it isn't as good as it sounds. The function of the essay to deter students from becoming like sheep and following social norms, Murray wants students to become informed before making decisions that can change the outcome of their life for many years.
In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.
He had been scared about being at the bottom of the food chain again. He pulled through well, but had a couple of social issues as this stage in his life progressed. For example, he had some experiences with peer pressure by his fellow classmates. It was important for him to go through this, because he needed to learn about standing up for what he believes in.
"My father was an alcoholic, and I did anything I could to stay away from home. I chose that college because it was the farthest away. But I hated it there, and didn't do very well. Then I began to worry that I'd flunk out and have to go home, and of course my grades just got worse."
Due to this, he used drugs that dropped him out of the college totally. These students don’t want to seem irresponsible, so they make up an excuse, such as the bad friendship. Another reason we drop out of college is that we want to be independent. A lot of news has been saying that students are sensitive during the adolescence.
Everyone in life experiences failure. It can affect people positively or negatively and that all depends on how they react to the experience. If one lets their failure overcome their dreams, it will lead them in the wrong path. But if one views their failures as a motive to succeed and grow, then they are on their way to becoming successful. For me, I let my failures in life help build onto my character and define the person I am today. My childhood injury is my example as I let this moment affect the outcome of my dreams I had then.
Failure is something that can be make or break your life. The one fact of failure that is ultimately true is that failure is something that can always teach you a lesson. Henry Ford was a wealthy man during the 1900’s who invented one of the first automobiles.“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently” Ford said. Henry ford built his first car in 1896 which took him about twelve hours to build. Time and time again Ford had to make cars by hand taking him hours, but he never gave up and continued to work toward an invention that changed the world completely. In 1913 the assembly line was invented by Henry Ford, this machinery was a way to mass produce parts; now you can build one car in two hours instead of twelve. I admire Ford for this invention and the years it took him to discover how to fail and start over again. He never gave up on his dream of providing every American with a way of easy transportation. Over several years of building cars by hand Ford continued to fail. Ford had to fail and learn from his mistakes to become successful. Failure for me is something that changed my mentality about life just like it did for
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.
More is learned from failure than from success. Kids need to experience failure because, it helps them work harder for what they want to achieve life, failure helps them become stronger in real life problems, failure also can teach kids to be thoughtful winners and respectable losers and to never take winning for granted. Winning and losing in sports is very important as well, If you don’t have a winner and a loser in a game the loser will never know what they are doing wrong and how to fix it.