exploratory research essay

Where do you think success comes from and why?

According to a report by Carnegie Institute of Technology “85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” which is your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate and lead. Only 15 percent of that success is due to technical skill”. The first fact describes the roots of success. Personal success is a measure of patience. Success includes not only financial success but also personal success.

To answer the question where success comes from I can say " Success comes from the passion of technical ability, and the ultimate measure of success is failure. " This is my strongest belief. This means that success is an in between of Paul Tough and Mark Rowlands. I know that there are various elements of success in this article, but I will see success in financial terms. Therefore, successful people are equal to the rich. When it is said that success is rooted in passion, the point being made is that no amount of success is sustainable without passion. In the Mark’s article, “Tennis with Plato,” aeon, He insists there is no need of constantly doing something out of compulsion. He is of the opinion that success is from doing something we truly like, if it has financial rewards then even better (Rowlands). In the article, “What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?” The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure” (Paul). Failure is a measure of passion and success.

The reason why it is the root of success is that financial success is all about consistency. This is a passion. Consistency is therefore a byproduct of passion and a shortcut to success. No one explains passion than mark Zuckerburg. When facebook was only 2 years old he was offered $ 1 billion for him to sell it. He was only 22 and this was a lot of money. However he declined because “there were changes and developments that needed to be made and he had to be part of the team” (Hoefflinger). Sincerely speaking most teenagers will sell their dream for couple thousand dollars.

The second part of the thesis is by technical skill. Many articles try to point out that many successful people either dropped out of college or were total failures in school. This is partly true. According to Paul Tough, in the community we live in the only sure way to at least a middle class life style is through education. Still on Mark Zuckerburg, he is one of the people that dropped out of college but are still successful.

This sounds like the perfect “I do not need education to succeed” (Tough). What people never say is that Zuckerburg was from a well-educated family and that his parents hired a computer tutor for him when he was still a teenager (Dukcevich). This shows that he was not completely oblivious of computers and programming when he conceived the idea. The point is not to hold a degree. The idea is to get the appropriate technical skill. While a degree gives you a better fighting chance lack of it is no limitation anyway. This is why I began by explaining the 15% that constitutes success.

Personal success can determine whether a person's satisfaction depends on how much satisfaction is achieved. In the article, “The Moral Bucket List” the author argues that self-made people achieve pure inner virtues from their intrinsic moral achievements.

Finally success can only be measured by failure. It is easy to assume that the more zero’s in your account the more successful a person is. Unfortunately the success is a ladder on a wall. It can go either way. Thus a truly successful person is one who has failed immensely and still climbed to the top. Success is truly the ability to overcome every obstacle along the way. This third component of success tries to establish the fact that success is not a guarantee. Simply because you have a passion and skill you might not achieve success (Leonhardt). Failure is inevitable but growth is possible. Lupita Nyong’o a Kenyan raised actress had a deep passion for acting, she went to college and studied performing arts, and however she was rejected severally and could never land a spot in the acting scene (Murley).

She begun to take up roles that were underpaying just so that she could keep her dream alive until she landed a role in “12 years a slave” and she became a household name. Therefore there is no success without failure, people who begin at the top must be ready to hit rock bottom, pick themselves up and climb to the top again.

In conclusion, success is not determined by either education, or passion or failure. It is a by-product of different things placed together at the perfect time. There are many ways to be successful and there are different levels of success. When it comes to financial success, setting goals and achieving them step by step is the overall success. It is important to look at people ahead of you financially and try to borrow a leaf from them. However one must always remember that success is about being unique and individualistic. It is about being the best in everything you do, getting the relevant mechanisms do it and preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

“Financial success is not happiness but it is a good reward for hard work and commitment.”

Works Cited

Dukcevich, Davide. "College Vs. No College." Forbes (2014): 3-5.

Hoefflinger, Mike. "Inside Mark Zuckerberg's controversial decision to turn down Yahoo's $1 billion early offer to buy Facebook." Business Insider (2017): 4-7.

Murley, Sue. "Educated entrepreneurs: check the stats, not the stereotype." McGill Publications (2016): 2-6.

Rampton, John. "9 Success Habits of Wealthy People That Cost Nothing ." Enterpreneur VIP (2015): 2-4.

Rawlings, Hunter. "College is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one." The Washington Post (2015): 4-7.

Rowlands, Mark. "Tennis with Plato ." AEON (2014): 3-5.

Tough, Paul. "What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?" New York Times (2016): 2-7.

Leonhardt, David. "Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say." New York Times (2014): 1-5.