Success
"Study hard so you can be successful in the future." I am sure everyone has heard these words from their parents while going through school. We work hard in school to get good grades. We get good grades to get into a good college. We go to a good college to get a good job. We get a good job so we get a large income. Sounds pretty dull and boring, right? So what is success and why are we striving for it so much? Well, depending on who you ask, success can mean anything.
The American Dream is a very generic representation of what many Americans would call success. Living in a safe environment, owning your own home, having a job, and being able to put food on the table every night. However, if you are Mitt Romney, this vision of success means nothing. Someone like Mitt Romney has no trouble with owning a house, let alone putting food on the table (although he might be having a little trouble with having a job right now). This can be seen through the collegehumor.com video Mitt Romney Style, a parody of the famous Gangnam Style (due to profanity in the song, I will not be able to post it on my blog. View discretion is advised: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCRwi71_ns) So what would success mean for him? I believe that success is measure in two different ways: success is measured by the individual and by the society that surrounds them. For example, I would consider myself as successful if I go to Stanford University and make 250,000 dollars or more a year. However, Mitt Romney might see success as become the next President of the United States. Thus, success is relative to the individual.
Success can also be measured in comparison to others. In comparison to Mitt Romney, I am far less successful than he is. If you ask anyone, they will give you the same answer. This is another way to measure success: through comparisons to others. By looking at ones income, possessions, and way of life, society as a whole often measures other people's success. Thus, even though success if a very relative term, it is easily and often measured by society and ourselves.
I like how you used personal anecdotes to liven up the piece. It made it much more fun to read.
ReplyDeleteYour juxtaposition with Romney is a good way to demonstrate both "meausures of success". I laughed when I read "Viewer Discretion Advised". Anyway, good post and great relation to culture.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your critical analysis of success. It will be interesting to revisit your post after we read The Great Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteI like your view and agree on society's perspective on success. If socialism were in place, we'd all be rich and have no goals in life. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteYou are incredibly funny, Sachin. I was laughing the whole way through your post! You should become a writer when you grow up because you would be very successful.
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ReplyDeleteI really liked your intro! Plus your viewpoints on how success is measured, I agree!
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