assignment- can success be disastrous ?
ESSAY
The one thing that everyone wants is success in whatever they do. But success is not always beneficial; it can often end up being disastrous. We all have goals in life that we would like to achieve and often we work towards achieving this goal but do we also sometimes forget everything around us in this pursuit. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to achieve one’s goal but we need to also make sure that this dedication does not affect us adversely.
Indira Nooyi, is the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world; Pepsi Co. But to reach such a high level she has said that she had to make a lot of personal sacrifices. To this day Indira regrets the fact that she paid little or no attention to her own family especially her daughters. This makes us realize that success in life and career is not the only important thing in life. Sometimes we just need to move out of the rat race and focus on the small things in life. The focus on success can sometimes force us to make decisions which have disastrous implications further in life. Corporate success is myriad with decisions which do not seem moral but are important to climb up the ladder. A lot of the time a lot of people think that achieving something can solve all the difficulties in their lives
People often have one long term goal and a lot of short term goals. For one of my seniors the goal was to clear the prestigious IIT-JEE examinations. He believed that just by passing this exam and getting admitted to an IIT would solve all his problems and he would not have to work hard for anything again; He was horribly wrong. He ended up getting selected for an IIT but had a lacklustre performance in the institution itself. As he considered that he had achieved his goal and did not need to work hard anymore. This shows us that achieving only one goal in life in not the end of all worries in the world. A small amount of success can sometimes deter a person from ever working hard to achieve ever greater height of success.
For me success was very important in this cutthroat world with high competition. So I worked hard to clear competitive exams and win competitions. I achieved success in all the activities I chose and soon this got to my head. I became overconfident and started neglecting my studies thinking that i had enough knowledge for everything. After a few months when I realised my performance in both school and outside activities was going down I realised that I let a little bit of success get to my head. I had greater goals to achieve and even more success waiting for me in my life, this is what drives me to work harder and achieve each and everything that I ever wanted in life.
We are the master of our own lives we can improve it on our own as well as ruin it too. We need to realize that success in life is not everything; there are other important aspects too such as family and friends. We also need to remember to make sure that we have multiple goals making us strive for greatness and one goal that we believe is the solution to all our problems. We also need to remember that a little bit of success can often prove disastrous; when we start thinking that we have achieved everything which we ever could.
4
Your third paragraph could probably be shortened a bit and summed up in one word: overconfidence.
Avoid using “things” in formal writing; it is too vague and there are much better words.
Consider rewording this.
Examples and argument are decent, but are a lot of errors with comma and semicolon usage, for example:
Remove first comma, and the semicolon should be replaced with a comma.
I’d put commas after “day” and “family.”
Comma after “down” to separate the clause.
Semicolons usually separate independent clauses (e.g. both left and right can function as standalone sentences), but the second clause is not a complete sentence.
4
It is hard to follow your logic in the second and third paragraph. These two paragraphs seem to belong to another essay, not really examples of success being disastrous.
Assignment: Does true loyalty require unconditional support? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
True loyalty does not always mean unconditional support of a group, person or a nation. Loyalty is one of the most important values that all people must have. But what does loyalty entail for a person. Does it mean that a person should do whatever a group or another person tells him just because he is compelled by his extreme sense of loyalty to that group or person? Or should the person act in the group’s best interest? There are many examples in history where people have been compelled to do things just because of their sense of loyalty.
Blind loyalty is never right. A man called Jones in the 1980’s led a group of his loyal followers to a place he called ‘Jones town’ in South America. Soon these people started wielding weapons and started killing people on Jones’s orders. None of them stood up to him; ultimately it led to their demise in one of the world’s worst genocides. As we can see that blind loyalty in not always good as this let to the macabre massacre of people just because of one man’s whims. Loyalty is not always to a country or a group. Sometimes we are loyal to the people around us, like our friends and family.
Friendship is one of the strongest bonds between two people. And loyalty plays a major part in this relationship; one must be truly loyal to a friend. What is true loyalty? My friend had a habit of always being whimsical and jocular; this sometimes gets him in trouble. One day he got into a fight with a senior and it turned violent. Ultimately both he and the senior got sent to the principal’s office. This is where I was asked about who started the fight as I was a witness to all of the violence. I knew who started it. It was my friend but should I tell this to the principal? I had to make a decision, do I be a loyal friend and tell a lie or listen to my mind telling me to tell the truth. I finally ended up getting my friend in trouble for the fight. But after this incident did I actually realize the true meaning of loyalty.
Loyalty does not always mean staying by your friend’s side whatever the case may be. Rather is means that you have to think what is in the best interest of your friend. If I had lied my friend would forever do this and never be contrite about his actions or behavior. By telling the truth I made sure that my friend would change his ways and improve upon himself. By this we learn that loyalty has multiple facets to it. Loyalty plays an integral part in life of a soldier, in which he has to be extremely loyal to his country, sometimes even putting his life on the line for the greater good. But this doesn’t meant that the soldier has to follow orders which may be against all moral fibers in his body, like taking part in a genocide or an invasion of a non hostile country. Loyalty has to be something which makes someone work selflessly for a greater good.
Loyalty will always be one of the most important values a human being can posses. But we need to always think about what we do in the name of being loyal. Are we acting as protectors of our country’s borders by being a soldier or are acting as mass murders who invaded a country. Do we always help a friend even if he is wrong? I do not think so rather we should point out his mistakes and make sure that he changes his or her ways. Loyalty may mean different thing to different people but we just have to make sure that whatever we do in the name of loyalty is for the betterment of a person or a nation.
Rate this one too, thanks in advance.