essay on defining success

How Do You Define Success?

Meeting personal goals must determine the success of one's life..

Posted July 7, 2021 | Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster

• While ideals are subjective, a chosen and fulfilling lifestyle with which others may disagree can be considered a success.
• Our particular criteria for success will closely relate to our social, political, educational, and religious values—in a word, our ideology.
• Most writers employ a business model in talking about success—a model that focuses as much on monetary worth as much as anything else.

Can you call yourself a success if the one thing you feel you’ve accomplished in life is marrying and having children? Or if, despite many failures, at least you avoided ending up on the streets? Or even if you did end up living on the street?

In the homeless instance, it’s unlikely you’d regard yourself as successful, particularly if you were reduced to begging others for loose change to purchase a burger—or beer. Still, it’s crucial to ask yourself who reserves final authority to judge the success of your existence?

And when you ponder this question, you’ll probably grasp that we all have our perspective on what makes a person successful. Further, our criteria will closely relate to our social, political, economic, educational, and religious values—or ideology. And inevitably, such ideals are subjective. Moreover, since people’s assessments of success are tied to their ideals, then it’s the unique experience of the person being evaluated whose “verdict” should be given the most weight.

That said, it must be admitted that the bulk of the popular literature on this subject—I’ve yet to find a single scholarly piece dealing with it—focuses almost exclusively on success criteria as derived from a business model. And this model has mostly to do with the number of one’s earnings or one’s accumulated wealth generally.

Seen more in a family context, success has routinely been estimated along the lines of how good a provider the individual has been for their spouse and children. Still, other writers talk about fame (or admiration) as much as fortune, while comparatively few talk about happiness . And if they do, it’s mostly about how material prosperity eventuates in happiness—a position undoubtedly open to debate.

This post, essentially existential in approach, will make the case that meeting one’s personal goals—whether others approve or not—must determine the (subjective) success of one’s life. At least theoretically, even a person who lives on the street, if consciously their overriding motive was to repudiate the conventions of various societal institutions, would have to be regarded as successful if their chosen lifestyle was somehow fulfilling to them.

Questioning Attempts to Clarify a Topic That Resists Definitive Categorizing

Merriam-Webster’s definition of success is relatively typical of how dictionaries characterize it. It’s indicative of just how subjective the concept is, and I’ll use it as an example of the term’s rich—but unresolvable—complexity.

For many, success means reaching a goal, accomplishing a task, or otherwise accomplishing what they set out to do–Essentially, something is a success when the outcome turns out well, is desirable, or is favorable. Beyond that, the definition of success is personal.

Note Merriam-Webster's hedging through twice employing the word “or.” By stating that “many” people see it in 1 of 3 ways, it extends its definition by talking about its possibly “turning out” in 1 of 3 ways. And then (suggesting it can’t really define it any more specifically) ends its description with the caveat above.

Note, too, that although most writers consider the ethical dimensions of success, Merriam-Webster avoids alluding to this facet, no doubt, because defining what’s meant here by “ethical” is also subjective and personal.

One’s moral system, that is, may not accord with others because they hold themselves to different guidelines and principles. And dictionaries lack the prerogative to make moral pronouncements independent of widespread usage.

Questioning Various Assumptions That Try to “Depersonalize” the Concept

One author , for example, asserts that success is achievable “when you try your best in all aspects of everything you do.” And that’s actually a position several writers take. But logically, why should anyone put maximum effort into doing something not exciting or important to them, or that they don’t care about and in no way are required to?

Perfectionism is hardly a coveted trait—it’s mostly a burden—and, too, it lacks any inherent relationship to people’s experiencing themselves as successful.

Writers generally have advanced their own biases about success, revealing a lot more about their values than making the abstraction tangible. Here’s but one example in a piece entitled “19 Definitions of Success You Should Never Ignore” (2021) . I won’t list all the 19 examples offered. Just a few will suffice for what I want to illustrate:

• Success is always doing your best [ the most frequent criterion];
• Success is having a place to call home;
• Success is understanding the difference between need and want;
• Success is believing you can (and this presumably will ensure your success—but I’d add that this position ignores the fact that, realistically, no one can do or be everything they wish);
• Success is learning that you sometimes have to say no; and
• Success is knowing your life is filled with abundance (the author’s idealism again, but try convincing someone living in poverty with seriously addicted, abusive parents).

Those who’ve written about success don’t discuss degrees of success. They see it as either present or absent (as they do failure). That orientation also oversimplifies—or overlooks—all involved in how a particular person feels about their achievements or what they believe constitutes those achievements.

Coming Up With Your Definition of Success

It’s vital to emphasize that their genetics and culture heavily influence a person’s notion of success. Consequently, their self-evaluation may not be truly authentic because it may not have resulted from thoughtful self-reflection or soul-searching.

Here’s an excellent example of a writer’s confessing that what she believed defined success was imbibed from messages implicit in our society:

For most of my life, I had a narrow definition of what success meant. It involved people knowing your name, and having enough money—i.e., lots of money—to buy an endless stream of designer handbags and big cars. It wasn’t a definition I had opted-in to, but [was] fed to me from childhood through films, magazines about celebrities, and our education system. And I swallowed it whole.

But to be true to yourself, vs. simply conforming to societal norms, what’s necessary is to discover what—given your inborn predilections, passions, and gifts—you want your life to center on. And then, evaluating how well you’ve accomplished your priorities will verify how successful you’ve been.

To put this somewhat differently, you could view yourself as successful but, in the eyes of the world, be seen as a dismal failure. And this discrepancy could just as quickly go in the opposite direction. Consider, for example, the many instances of distinguished celebrities’ taking their own life.

Yet as one Quora writer encapsulates it: “Living life on your terms and conditions is the most challenging task in the modern world [since] most people spend their entire life living on the terms and conditions of [others]. In his own (admittedly, somewhat exaggerated) words:

In their childhood, they live as their parents decide. In their schools, they live as their teachers decide. In their home, they live as their spouse decides. In their office, they live as their bosses decide. In their old age, they live as their children decide.

To conclude, despite the “terms and conditions” you may have internalized from your environment. Finally, you alone get to decide how successful you’ve been. And if you feel you haven’t lived up to your specified ideals, you also have the freedom (with or without professional help) to make new lifestyle choices that can transform how you see yourself.

© 2021 Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. , is the author of Paradoxical Strategies in Psychotherapy and The Vision of Melville and Conrad . He holds doctorates in English and Psychology. His posts have received over 53 million views.

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What Does Success Mean to You?

• Boris Groysberg
• Robin Abrahams

Share your stories with us.

How do you know if you’re successful? Do you rely heavily on objective metrics such as your job title, the size of your bank account, or the colleges your children are getting into? Or do you focus more on the subjective, such as the satisfaction of solving thorny problems at work, the joy of collaborating with clever colleagues, or how happy you are at home?

• BG Boris Groysberg is a professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School and a faculty affiliate at the school’s Race, Gender & Equity Initiative. He is the coauthor, with Colleen Ammerman, of Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021). bgroysberg
• Robin Abrahams is a research associate at Harvard Business School.

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Definition Essay: Success

The American Dream is a large house, a speedy car, and financial freedom. For some, it includes a boat, a RV, and a cottage by the lake. However, another definition of success doesn’t list any of these. Success does not have anything to do with material goods but is rather tied to broader concepts.

One measure of success is how happy a person is. For some people, they might feel their happiest when they have luxurious items. However, this is not universally true and is consequently not a true measure of success. Happiness for most people is a happy and loving family. If this is someone’s definition of success, then their family is what defines their success. For some, this success might mean trying new things and a lifestyle that supports it. Success is tied in with happiness because they are both highly subjective.

Health can also be considered a defining factor in success. People feel unsuccessful if they, or someone they love, are not healthy. For instance, can father feel successful if his child is ill? This is why doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and hospitals are so important. Not only do they allow people to live longer, but they also allow people to feel successful in their life.

Finally, success can mean overcoming hardships. No one likes hard and rough times with tears and pain. Someone who has come through the pain often feels like he or she has accomplished something. An individual that has overcome an obstacle achieves a measure of success. As David Brinkley has stated, a man can be proud if he has laid “a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” The most valuable lessons can come from failures. Like Dale Carnegie said, “Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” And who could understand the meaning of success if they did not experience disappointment? Light would not exist without darkness and success would not be truly achieved without failure. But we all hope that this failure is only temporary.

People want to achieve success and make plans to reach it. However, with a narrow interpretation of success, many people have no chance of finding it. They will continue to find themselves going the wrong way, missing out on opportunities, and happy moments along the way.

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Personal Definition of Success Essay

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Success is a single monosyllabic word that carries a different meaning to every person; this is the reason of having no absolute overall definition of it. In Compact Oxford Dictionary (2008), success is to accomplish, something wished, planned for, and attempted to achieve through hard work. The origin of the word success is Latin successus that means to come close after, it relates to the extent of achievement rather than to the volume of work done (Oxford Compact English Dictionary, 2008). To define success, one has to look first at the standards, keys, and models of success.

Success can be an achievement, a moment, or fruition, in any instance, success incorporates both perceptions and experiences; one of the major problems in defining success is that experiences and perceptions felt internally. On the other hand, evaluation of success is often by someone else (external), in other words there are objective and subjective standards for success. Further, the meaning of success differs with different community cultures, in industrial well-developed communities, three outcomes that decide what success is. These are influence, wealth, and prominence. An absolute definition of success will ignore people paving the way for success; an example is a schoolmaster who works hard to provide the suitable learning and teaching environment. Another is a volunteer at a local hospital providing support services to the elderly patients or chronically ill children, is that person successful or the hospital administration or doctors. This is another reason of having one’s own definition of success (Herb and Sweeny, Pp.23-31).

Success can be the achievement of autonomy that is one’s freedom to take decisions based only on his interest. For others, success is to achieve emotional satisfaction and constancy in the course of life, for others still it is achieving glory as for the Olympic athletes. What model an individual looks at as a successful one depends on one’ objectives in life to decide which model to look at (Herb and Sweeny, Pp. 23-31).

The keys to achieve success are many; however the most important one is to love what one is doing, that is simply to understand that success is not the gate to happiness, but happiness is the a key to success. Second, and of equal importance is to define one’s objectives in this stage of life, that is what does one want? In addition, defining one’s objective in life and the steps or the road to go through that is when does one want it? Of equal importance is to define how to achieve these objectives that is how does one want his image to be? Concentration on one’s goals (always keep focused), and balancing the various values and principals in life , moral, spiritual, physical, and psychological are two important pillars in considering personal success (McNamara, Pp.102-103).

The way Radun in 2007, defines success is convincing. Success is an aim in itself; rather it is a long road to pass through, it is not an end but a continuous expedition. To include all success view and experiences, a developed definition of success on three pillars, first is what can be achieved? Second, is a clear plan for the future. Third, is to enjoy the journey to achieve these objectives. In this sense, a person is successful, if that person likes what he does, has gratifying relationships, and has an achievable plan for the future.

As life issues are connected, one should always keep a broad vision of life to be able to assess issues in life and move towards them in an inclusive way.

Works Cited

• Herb, Greenberg, and Sweeney, Patrick, et al. Succeed On Your Own Terms. New York: McGraw-hill, 2006.
• McNamara, Carter. Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development: A Collaborative and Systems Approach to Performance, Change and Learning. Minneapolis: Authenticity Consulting, LLC, 2006.
• Rauden, Lori. “Success Coaching: A New Definition of Success.” The Online Self Improvement Encyclopedia. 2007.
• Soanes, Catherine, and Hawker, Sara (Editors), et al. Compact Oxford English Dictionary Of Current English, 3rd Edition. London: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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How do you define success? (in your personal & business life)

No one wants to be a mediocre individual, nobody wants to be a failure. Doesn’t matter whether we speak about individuals or organizations, each of us wants to be successful. But what does it mean to be successful? And how do you define success? And how should you define it in a job interview?

Each person has its own idea of success. It depends on our present situation, on our role models, upbringing, and how we see the world around us. And also on the limitations we set for ourselves. And while most people measure success in terms of money and possession, there are certainly individuals (or even organizations, and many of them) who have completely different criteria. Spiritual, religious, personal and other aims and their attainment is a synonym of success for these people.

But how to answer the question in an interview? Let’s have a loot at 15 sample answers first, including quotes from some famous figures. Below the answers you will find additional explanation and hints on how to make the best possible impression on the interviewers , while you try to define success in your interview. The answers will work also for the popular alternative of this question: “What is your interpretation of success?”

15 sample answers to “How do you define success (in your personal & business life)?” interview question

• Success is being part of something bigger , helping an organization to meet worthy goals, to bring some value to the world. I would love to be a part of your success story.
• Success is being able to do your best every day in all roles you have in life , whether it is a role of a son, father, or an employee. That’s something I aspire to every day, and a reason why I get out of bed every morning. At least that’s my personal interpretation of success.
• A successful man is one who enjoys their life , who knows why they wake up and go to work, and who sees a purpose in everything they do. I definitely consider myself successful, but a job with you would make it even slightly better .
• Success is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal. (Earl Nightingale)
• Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. (Einstein)
• Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. (W. Churchill)
• Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. (J. Wooden)
• The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty. (Z. Ziglar)
• Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. (S. Sivananda)
• Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. (A. Schweitzer)
• Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. (D. Johnson)
• Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life; it’s about what you inspire others to do. (not attributed)
• You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it. (O. Winfrey)
• Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. (B. Lee)
• The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. (V. Sassoon)

Focus on the organization, connect your goals with theirs

Only a few individuals (typically people with equanimity and inner happiness) measure their success in terms of what they did for someone else , or what they are trying to achieve for other people or living organisms.

Surprisingly this is the best answer you can give in an interview– focusing on the others, demonstrating selfless attitude to life and to people around you. It doesn’t really matter if you get an employee of a month award, or achieve a promotion in the shortest possible time… What matters is how the company, and their clients, benefits from your work , and from the value you create in the job.

* May also interest you: How do you deal with failure?

Process matters more than the final result

Nobody has a total control of what they achieve in life. Many variables play their role, and we can certainly not say that for sure we will achieve this or that in our life, or for an organization. In fact we do not even know what tomorrow will bring. Just look at the pandemic as a prime example of unpredictability .

What is more, setting such goals can easily make us upset (especially when we can’t achieve them), and it makes us focused more on the future, instead of enjoying the present moment , and giving our very best to the activity which we do right now.

Mark my words: It is an effort that counts . In terms of employment, and being successful as an employee, it means trying your best every day in work. And you can certainly refer to this process in an interview. Law of action and reaction cannot be broken. If you try your best, and are consistent in your efforts , it will eventually pay off–for both you and your employer. Because it cannot be any otherwise.

Want an unconventional answer? You can use a quote of someone famous.

Many famous people have been asked how they define success . Artists, scientists, politicians, athletes, philosophers–you name it.

And while some of their answers won’t really work in a job interview, others are perfect for the purpose. Check my little collection of such quotes in the list of sample answers above. What is more, referring to words of someone famous (famous in good means), you show the interviewers that you like to read, and are inspired by successful role models. Feel free to use one of the quotes in your interview, but do not forget to mention the author of it.

Final thoughts, answers to other questions

Each company wants to be successful, or at least to survive. In order to do so, they need employees who dream of success , and who can connect their personal goals with the goals of the corporation.

Try to find this connection and present it in your interview. Do not forget to talk with enthusiasm , and to show motivation to do a good job, to be successful in your new role.

Remember that even the best words won’t make any impact if they do not correspond with your non-verbal communication , with the impression you make in an interview. Your verbal and non-verbal communication are equally important on a big day…

What’s more, this isn’t the only difficult question you will face while interviewing for any decent job. You will face questions about prioritization, dealing with pressure, dealing with ambiguity , and other tricky scenarios that happen in the workplace.

If you want to make sure that you stand out with your answers and outclass your competitors, have a look at our Interview Success Package . Up to 10 premium answers to 31 tricky scenario based questions (+ more) will help you streamline your interview preparation, and get ready for every challenge you may possibly face in your interviews. Thank you for checking it out, and I wish you best of luck!

May also interest you:

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• What makes you unique? 7 sample answers to this tricky question. Each of us is a unique living being, but the question is how to describe our uniqueness in the interviews.
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What Is Success?

• Posted September 5, 2014
• By Mark Russell

A large majority of youth appear to prioritize aspects of success — achievement and happiness — above caring for others.

This is one highlight of a report released in June by the Ed School’s Making Caring Common Project ( @MCCHarvardEd ) . The report is based chiefly on a survey of nearly 10,000 diverse middle and high school students that the project conducted in 2013. The report also points to a troubling gap between what adults say and what students perceive about the importance of caring, kindness, and respect: Adults claim to prioritize caring, but that’s not the message that teens are hearing.

“Our founding fathers envisioned a society that balanced success and happiness with the common good,” says Rick Weissbourd , Ed.D.’87, codirector of the project and a senior lecturer at the Ed School. “We now seem to have lost that balance. And the irony is that the intense focus on happiness doesn’t appear to be making children happier.”

Weissbourd said the good news is that the survey clearly shows that caring is still valued by the students they surveyed.

“Our challenge is to help parents and educators show that they prioritize caring and goodness and give our youth an opportunity to build their moral muscles,” Weissbourd says. “We’ve drawn on our knowledge of moral development and social emotional learning to develop clear strategies designed to do just that.”

Some of the strategies the report suggests include conducting a survey of the school climate, cultivating student leadership to address troubling aspects of the school’s climate, building student’s capacity for empathy and self-regulation and their commitment to the common good, and ensuring that all students have a positive relationship with an adult mentor.  — Mark Russell is the project’s media and programming director.

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Success — The Definition Of Success As A Lifestyle

The Definition of Success as a Lifestyle

• Categories: Career Goals Personal Goals Success

About this sample

Words: 705 |

Published: Mar 18, 2021

Words: 705 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Success definition essay outline, success definition essay example, introduction.

• Defining success in various ways
• Emphasizing the broader aspects of success beyond materialism
• The importance of considering life's impact and satisfaction

Success is Completeness

• Success is having a complete life, including health and social connections
• Material wealth alone does not define success

Success is Emotional Wellbeing

• Maintaining emotional and mental health is crucial for success
• A quote by Albert Schweitzer emphasizes happiness as a key to success

Success is Minimal Distress in Daily Life

• Finding a job or pursuit one enjoys is essential for success
• Mark Twain's quote highlights the importance of enjoying one's work
• Success is achieving without significant distress

Success is about Maintenance, not Just Achievement

• Success involves maintaining emotional, mental, and life balance
• The analogy of success as a mixture of ingredients with individual preferences
• The idea that everyone has a unique yet similar definition of success

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How to Define Success in Life: My Definition of Success

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Extended Definition: Success

Society often defines success as attaining wealth, power, and status. The dictionary defines it as the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted (Grouden & Jose, 2015). However, I believe that success is much more than just material gain or the attainment of a set goal. Success is the ongoing process of becoming the best version of oneself and making a positive impact on the world.

The path to success is more important than arriving at the finish line. It is the accumulation of seemingly little day-to-day activities that ultimately result in personal development and advancement. It is not just about establishing and accomplishing goals but also about gaining knowledge and developing as a result of the trip itself. It is not enough to just amass a particular amount of money or get a certain amount of notoriety; rather, one must strive to develop into a complete version of themselves, both in their personal and professional life.

The road to success is one that must be travelled slowly and with complete commitment. It is the accumulation of seemingly little day-to-day activities that ultimately result in personal development and advancement. The journey to obtaining success is not only about accumulating a particular amount of income or gaining a certain amount of notoriety; rather, it is about developing oneself to become an ideal version of oneself, both personally and professionally. This not only involves planning and attaining objectives but also gaining knowledge and developing oneself as a result of the journey itself.

For example, an individual who is working towards becoming a successful entrepreneur may set a goal to start and grow their own business. Along the way, they may face obstacles such as lack of funding or difficulty finding the right team members. However, instead of giving up, they learn from these experiences and use them to make adjustments to their business plan and strategies. They also grow as a person by learning how to handle stress, make difficult decisions, and build resilience.

Another example could be an individual who is working towards becoming a successful athlete. They may set a goal to win a specific competition or achieve a certain level of performance. Along the way, they may experience injuries or setbacks in training. But, instead of giving up, they learn from these experiences and use them to make adjustments to their training plan. They also grow as a person by learning how to handle adversity, set priorities and maintain discipline.

In both examples, achieving the set goal is important, but it is not the only measure of success. The journey itself, and the personal growth and self-improvement that come with it, are just as important. It is about becoming the best version of oneself, both personally and professionally. Success is not a destination but a continuous journey of self-discovery and self-improvement.

The first step in achieving success is setting a clear and achievable goal. This goal should align with one’s values and passions and should be something that truly motivates and inspires the individual. The process of achieving this goal should be challenging but also rewarding and fulfilling (Grouden & Jose, 2015). Along the way, one should also be open to learning and growing, as well as making adjustments to the goal as necessary.

The second step in achieving success is taking action. This means putting in the hard work and effort to achieve the goal and being willing to take risks and make sacrifices. It also means being resilient in the face of obstacles and setbacks and not giving up when things get tough. It is about having the drive, determination, and persistence to see things through to the end.

The third step in achieving success is making a positive impact on the world. This means using one’s skills, talents, and resources to help others and make a difference in the world. It is about being a responsible and ethical member of society and using one’s success to make a positive impact on others. This step is not only important for the people and causes one is helping, but it also brings a sense of fulfilment and purpose to one’s own life.

One example of this is the case of Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. He is known not only for his success in the technology industry but also for his philanthropic work. He and his wife, Melinda Gates, established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to improve healthcare and reduce poverty worldwide. Through the foundation, they have donated billions of dollars to various causes and have made a significant positive impact on the lives of many people (Gates, 2019).

In conclusion, success is not just about achieving wealth, power, or fame. It is an ongoing process of personal growth and self-improvement, and it is about making a positive impact on the world. Making a positive impact on the world is an important aspect of achieving success. It means using one’s skills, talents, and resources to help others and make a difference in the world. It is about being a responsible and ethical member of society and using one’s success to make a positive impact on others. It is about setting and achieving goals, taking action, and using one’s skills and resources to help others. Success is a journey, not a destination, and it is something that we can all strive for in our own unique ways.

Gates, B. (2019). Bill Gates: The Best Investment I’ve Ever Made. The Wall Street Journal, 16.

Grouden, M. E., & Jose, P. E. (2015). Do sources of meaning differentially predict search for meaning, presence of meaning, and wellbeing. International journal of wellbeing, 5(1).

PART 2: Questions

• What is the significance of your essay? Why should readers care about what you have written? (2-3 sentences) Sophia says: Think about why you decided to analyze this particular image, or why you picked the word you chose to define. Your interest in in your subject matter should be clear to readers.

I feel this essay will be of interest to readers since it provides a new, more comprehensive definition of success. This definition of success emphasizes personal growth and having a beneficial effect on the world, rather than merely money gain or the achievement of a predetermined objective. It invites readers to look beyond conventional cultural conceptions of success and to pursue something more meaningful and satisfying. In addition, readers may relate to the provided instances and contemplate how they might apply the essay’s themes to their own life.

• Which areas of your draft do you think will benefit most from revision? (2-3 sentences) Sophia says: Consider the organization, style, focus, development, and conventions of your draft. Which areas did you struggle to complete?

The examples and explanations used to support my definition of success are the sections of my draft that I feel might benefit most from improvement. I am uncertain as to whether the provided examples are sufficiently clear and successfully show my idea. I also believe that the explanations may be refined and broadened to give more persuasive and specific evidence for my concept. In addition, I should examine the order of my copy and ensure that my thoughts are logically connected and flow together to form a coherent piece of writing.

• Consider the strengths and weaknesses of your writing. How can you capitalize on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses in future essays? (3-4 sentences) Sophia says: Think about what was easy about writing the draft, and what was more difficult. For example, if you write paragraphs with strong topic sentences, but repeatedly use the same type of sentence to provide supporting details, you can improve your paragraphs by varying sentence structure.

I find it rather simple to compose an essay. I consider my primary ideas and create a paragraph for each of them. I aim to make the introduction engaging and conclude by summarizing my main points. My weakness, I believe, is that I’d like to be done with my first draft, but I’m usually not.

The ability to revise and produce several drafts is what transforms an adequate piece of writing into a solid piece of academic writing. For future essays, I will keep this in mind and keep in mind that what I produce the first time does not have to be flawless, and that via revision and editing, I can polish my work and communicate what I want in the most efficient manner.

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Essay on Success

List of essays on success in english, short essay on success – essay 1 (100 words), essay on success: definition and how to achieve success – essay 2 (250 words), essay on success: parameters, qualities for achieving success and conclusion – essay 3 (300 words), essay on success: what is real success – essay 4 (500 words), essay on success: success and hard work – essay 5 (500 words), essay on success: education is the road to success – essay 6 (650 words), long essay on success – essay 7 (1000 words), essay on success: intro, success in life and success for students  – essay 8 (2500 words).

The students should be able to distinguish between true success and success of ill deeds. The short essays for students shall enlighten them with the true meaning of success. The essays written in simple language are very informative and shall prove to be beneficial for students of all classes.

Success is much more than riches, power or fame. Success is simply the feeling of satisfaction and happiness one gets from leading a particular way of life or carrying out a particular activity. Success in any field or aspect of life can only be achieved through serious hard work and a little bit of opportunity. One of the most important recipes of success is determination and it might as well be the most important secret of success. To become successful, it is necessary to never give up until the aim of happiness and satisfaction in life is fully met. The happiness and satisfaction can be found in very different things in different people.

‘Success’ is a very powerful word. Many of us run behind it; most of us want to conquer it. So, what is success all about? Does this mean acquiring money or fame? Success means different things to different people.

Definition of Success

The Oxford dictionary defines success as “ The accomplishment of an aim or purpose ”.

This is the definition of success in theory, but in reality it differs according to people’s interests and goals.

It is very important for every individual to define their own concept of success rather than following someone else’s footsteps. We must analyze what makes us happy, what gives us contentment, and what motivates us . No one can list out our needs better than us.

True success means understanding our dreams and working joyfully to make those dreams come true.

How to Achieve Success

Many great people have suggested various ways to achieve success. But the real secret ingredient to nail success is to believe that we are already successful . With this strong affirmative thought, success can be easily achieved if we follow these three success factors:-

• We should follow our passion because that is where our heart and soul is. When we follow our passion there is no need for us to put any extra effort.
• The path to success is always challenging. We should build confidence to face any challenging situations.
• The third and most important success factor is discipline . When we work in a disciplined manner, things will automatically fall in place.

If we stick to these three factors, nothing can stop us from tasting success. Success is a journey which continues even after the goal is achieved.

Success is perhaps the most desired feeling that all of us want to experience in the pursuit of our goals and also in day to day life. Apparently, every individual has his or her own definition of success.

Parameters of Success

None can deny that the world blindly respects and trusts wealthy people. Money is the prime dynamic force that drives this world. The sooner we acknowledge and appreciate this fact the better. Academic success is a prime concern for all in the initial part of life, especially in the school days. For those who continue perusing studies, academic success is the epitome of everything. It is mostly observed that success in personal life becomes a tough task for those who have all the riches. Here is where the common people feel successful to have a happy personal life.

Qualities for Achieving Success

One should not regret their decisions taken in the past and must refrain dwelling in the past. We must give deep thought before taking any decisions and uttering words from the mouth. For making a successful decision one must ask questions to oneself like: What Do I Need To Do? What Will Be The Outcome? Will It Be Worth Doing? One must keep the emotions for success and failures intact and should not showcase it to others. Successful people never wait for applause or acknowledgement of their work as they eventually get it. To become successful one must keep friends close and enemies closer. A successful person never demeans the weak and never underestimates anyone.

To become successful one has to understand what is important in that instant, recognize and work on the weaknesses, take criticism and hold on to the strengths. From a broader perspective Success defines the contentment, peace of mind and sheer happiness that is achieved. One should remember that only perseverance can lead the path to success.

Introduction

Real success is something we should all strive to attain. Real success can simply be said to be achieving a higher position or very high position in our chosen field or area; it can be politics or business or even education. In the world we live in today, we have equated success to riches, prosperity, fortunes, cars, houses and so many mundane things. We believe that once a person has enough money to be able to afford what he or she wants, the person is successful. This is a total and complete misconception that will be discussed here.

Money isn’t a measure of success?

While it is important to note that having money is a part of being successful and you can classify as rich person as being successful, money is not all that success is about and we have a lot of people around us that are seemingly rich but still count themselves as not successful. In fact, sometimes we see wealthy people and conclude that they aren’t successful. If this is true then we can safely conclude that success is deeper that money or other superficial and physical things can we might acquire or own. Money is very important to success in life but it is not a necessity and neither is it the only key to success in life.

What is real success?

Real success is way beyond the physical things we can see, real success is all about the feeling of satisfaction we get when we accomplish a task or do something, it is the happiness we get just by remembering what we have achieved and how we did it, real success has to do with a lot of positive feelings about ourselves and pride in what we have been able to do. As we can see, real success can only be achieved within one’s self and that is why a lot of people who we think are successful still believe they aren’t just because they aren’t happy with what they are doing or they feel they can get so much more out of life. From this, we can see that it is very important to attain true success in life.

How one can attain real success

For one to be successful, the first and most important thing one needs to do is to set goals and objectives. Only through the setting of goals can one really have something to pursue and claim success when we got those things or meet the set goals and target. A very important ingredient in achieving real success is determination. If one is going to get real success, one has to be determined to never give up no matter what the situation might be. Another very important ingredient is hard work as we can’t expect to be successful if we don’t work hard and do all it takes to meet all of our set goals. It is important that we get all the skills that are required for us to be successful in our chosen field.

The yardstick of success varies from people to people. The success story of an individual begins from the moment of his/her birth. A human child begins the winning streak by challenging every obstacle from the moment of conception to delivery. So no human is ever a failure, and hence confidently we can say that the very existence of every human in this word bear an element of success.

At the primary level, success lies within the parameters of cracking competitive exams and identifying one’s aptitude as to which profession the individual can flourish. On broader terms, a successful life is indeed a happy life reflecting upon how far one has reached. Success is not just related to material success.

How to become successful in life?

Nobody has ever become successful within a split of a moment. It is not an arduous task either. Strong determination coupled with hard work is the key to success. The first step to any attempt is to set the goal. There can be short-term goals, and long-term goals and both play a significant role on your road to success. Once the target set, then you have to do strategic planning. It is advisable to set a time frame as well. It will enable you to evaluate yourself on a regular basis. Fixing a time frame can also check into our procrastinating nature.

The next most important factor to become successful in life is hard work. It is the key to success. The adage rightly says that ‘no pain, no gain.’ You need to keep in mind that nobody else is going to do what we ought to do. If we put little effort and saw the seeds of hard work and perseverance, then we are sure to reap success and bounty. If you have strong willpower and the fire to ignite your dreams, then nothing can pull you back.

Stay focused on your objectives rather than hoping:

You can inspire yourself by being a self-motivator and critic. It opens room for self-improvement and appreciation. As it is said that ‘well begun is half done,’ do not hesitate to sparkle a start. Once we get a push, the rest will fall right in place. Even if we stumble down a couple of times, do not let go of our dreams. Failures are part and parcel of any successful entity. Mistakes are quite common and what needs to do is that we acknowledge them, and bear them in our mind. It ensures that we learn from the mistakes and in turn do not repeat them.

Nobody has ever been successful overnight. Patience is yet another golden rule. Just convince your mind that you are strong enough to be successful, though not today, at least some day. Never be disappointed if you lose. Trust in yourself and believe that you will reach there and you deserve to reach there. Your strength and weakness define the person you are, and the realization of it is rather important. Selfless dedication and hard work will definitely get you there.

Once you achieve your goals, you can be a strong inspiration to others. There is a warrior in you and never shut it down. You are capable of climbing higher and boom into a fantastic personality. Whatsoever, live a humble life, spread positivity and bear the torch to others’ road to success.

Saying education is the road to success is just another way of saying education is very important for all of us in life, without education there would not be a lot of progression in both our individual and collective lives as human. It is very important that we get education in order to get success in life. Most times, people generally limit education to the four walls of a classroom or a school.

Education has roots in every area of our existence; education can be said to begin from the home, parents and family members educate and train the children on good characters that they should imbibe and teach them to remove some habits and characters. All of these good characters imbibed by the child through education at home can help the child become very successful in future.

We all know that without good characters and morals, it is extremely hard to become successful or make it in life as people would not want to be associated with such person. We are also educated on good communication and interpersonal skills that are very necessary for us to make it and become successful in life.

Importance of education to success

We need to know the true value and worth of education. Education helps to facilitate our skill, knowledge and learning; it gives us a different view of the world and refines our personality, helping us to build very positive attitudes. Education is a totally essential tool in ensuring a bright future.

Education can serve as a tool in achieving anything and everything good about life. When we get a high level and degree of education, we earn respect and recognition from our family and the society at large.

Education can go a very long way in changing our thoughts and level of reasoning; it broadens our worldview and provides us with the opportunity to get knowledge and technical skills that are highly needed in life. We can improve our knowledge level and skill by watching educational documentaries and programmes on the TV, reading the news and keeping up to date with all of the happenings all over the world, reading a lot of books that can educate us. Education can go a long way to make us into more rational and civilised people. Education guarantees our place among people in the society and can help us achieve all of our dreams and aspirations in life.

Education and success

Success is the goal of all of us and it is our mission. Life can sometimes be full of different opportunities and challenges. Success can only be attained if we have all of the required and needed tools.

The most important tool for success is education because without education, we wouldn’t be able to have a wide view of the world and be able to innovate and develop. A lot of youths and children today cite the examples of the successful people that didn’t graduate from school and still went ahead to be successful in life. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook famously did not graduate from Harvard university but still went ahead to become very successful. The truth is even though Mark didn’t graduate, he was well educated and wouldn’t have been able to start Facebook if he had no knowledge of coding and wasn’t enrolled in Harvard at all. From him, we can learn that education isn’t limited and can basically be any way of widening our knowledge and improving ourselves. We should never confuse education with getting a diploma or a degree. Only education in or out of school can make us be successful in life and give us the true career we want.

Without education, life would be totally meaningless without education. The only path to true success in life is education, every one that has been, is and would be successful in life needs education to do that.

The modern world has a way of doing things, that is, modern man has his own particular view on how things should look. That view is completely different from the perspectives upheld by those who came before us, so to say. Like the ancient Greeks were obsessed with performing heroic deeds, or medieval European Christians with martyrdom and upholding saintly principles, we can argue that modern man has an obsession with success. Or more precisely, one aspect of that new worldview is to compare people between each other through the notion of success.

In a way, the beginning of the 21 st century is preoccupied with the concept of success more than ever before, both individual and collective. That fact can is seen in many aspects of our daily lives, people are not just oppressed with celebrities and successful people they want to live that lifestyle or achieve some sort of greatness. Looking at the current state of things one is encouraged to analyze the situation further and to find the reason behind these phenomena, or at least to offer a new perspective on worldwide trend.

What Makes a Person Successful?

There are many ways a person can be successful. Most people will think of celebrities, politicians, artists, entrepreneurs, etc. They will think of someone who is known the world over because of the thing they do, the thing they are good at. That’s all fine, but there are successful people who do not like to be celebrities and there are, most definitely, celebrities who cannot count as successful people.

What then makes a successful person? Is it how they do things? Is it what they get in return? Is it in the number of things they can amass in their life? Most of those things can count as some part of our overall image of such a person. But, how can we define it? What is it actually?

What I like is simple answers, they are usually correct and the most practical at the same time. Even though not all answers can be simple, this one is. When you look up the word success in any dictionary you will find that it is considered an accomplishment of an aim or a purpose.

Surely people were able to accomplish an aim or a pulpous in their lifetimes, even several, before the 21 st century. Why is it that this noun has such relevance for the classification of people in this age?

History of Success

If we take a look at history, as I mentioned before, we can see that every age has a different occupation. When we talk about the ancient Egyptians, we do not talk about single individuals who made this country so great we talk about the collective in general. But also, we do not know the names of the people who actually accomplished the construction of the pyramid we remember the person who ordered it and did nothing to build it.

Sometimes when I think about all the great artists whose names I do not know, that built humanity in the name of kings, it seems as if it was forbidden for individuals to be famous if they were not born into some sort of noble family.

That drastically changed with the return of democracy to Europe and the liberation from the old-world view that separated people into casts, genders, and races. The new perspective born from revolutions gave every man the right to control their destiny and therefore the right to become successful, to achieve one’s dreams and ideals. Celebrating success can be seen as a collective celebration of the boundless human potential to do incredible things. Is it always so shiny? Or is there a dark side to the story?

Can Success Harm us?

We all know that being successful has its price and the people on the top can often be alone, because of the many sacrifices they had to make to get there. There are also countless examples of people who have achieved success professionally but their health and social lives fail because they cannot handle the strain that comes with maintaining that image of perfection that is expected of them.

Then there is also the psychological pressure any person can experience when they become obsessed with succeeding in the things they do. This emotion can cause such discomfort for people that they can freeze in key moments when they should be at the top of their game. Not to mention the depression some people experience when they come in contact with the images of people that exist on social media. There is a lot in being successful that we put under the carpet, or we just consider it as part of the game, something that we should bear. It does not have to be that way.

Sharing Success

People are made to be in a group and therefore everything they do they should do for each other; however, this fact of human existence has also been a breeding ground for nationalism and other group-oriented ideologies that made the 20 th century so dark. The striving to be successful, the best, the most dominant will make people perform incredible and inspiring things but it will also make them give legitimacy to the worst monstrosities. How do we draw the line between the good and bad aspect of wanting individual and collective success?

Maybe we should stop looking at success as part of domination and make it part of what makes us authentic as human beings. What do I mean? If we start celebrating everyday people when they express themselves or make something that is fulfilling for them and makes other people grow we will support others to develop this aspect of their humanity and not concentrate on domination and subordination. We should support the celebration of collective endeavors that strive to enhance the human race as a whole and not adore individual examples as if they were the meaning of life.

The secret to success is not in money and fame, but in reaching that feeling of fulfillment when you know you have accomplished something that truly matters to you and other people around you. Dreaming big and then having it, it’s not impossible.

If you’ve been feeling a little low lately, this essay on success is sure to boost your motivation levels and set the goals right for you! We hear about so many successful people from all the areas. Some of them may be our favorite singers, actors, scientists, writers, social workers, politicians, and what not. Their achievements inspire the hearts of many and urge them to do better.

While we tend to focus on the sensation of the final outcome, the journey toward the goal is what matters the most. Sadly, human nature forces us to look at everything through the eyes of instant gratification. But the stories of success are not created overnight. In real life, any small big achievement demands tons of efforts and sacrifices.

If success is a building, consider each effort to be a brick, that has to be put in day and night tirelessly. Dreaming about achieving a goal in life is a lovely idea. Nonetheless, working on it every day is more than just a fantasy. You have to make it happen.

Do you pray or meditate? What happens at that moment? You sit quietly and focus all your attention and energy into the prayer or in watching those thoughts. Prayer commands sincerity. True worshipping is when the heart is pure and honest.

In the same way, success is a conscientious phenomenon. It asks for dedication and ethical diligence. For a real success, there are no shortcuts and there is no quitting too! Yes, we all get tired and hopeless. That doesn’t mean we have to give in to those feelings and quit. Keep working no matter what!

At times, when you feel that you can’t go on anymore, take a break. Rejuvenate yourself, talk to your loved ones, rest a lot, create a fresh perspective. And come back again with a greater force and zeal. You never know when the efforts will turn into the sweet fruits of success. One thing common in all the great personalities was that they never quit!

Personal Definition of Success

There is no fixed definition of success. You see, success is quite a relative term and its meaning changes from one person to another. However, it is sure to say that being able to feel content with your life and achieve what you dreamed of, is what makes you a successful person!

A prosperous life is not strictly about having all the materialistic comforts around. To some extent, this may be true. But, all in all, it’s only a microscopic way to measure someone’s success.

Let us introduce you to some of the most powerful quotes on success given by the different eminent personalities.

Everybody’s favorite, the great feminist and poetess, Maya Angelou says, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Winston Churchill quotes it as, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Not to mention, America’s former first lady, Michelle Obama who expresses her own views on success. According to her, “Success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.”

In the words of Albert Einstein, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

Anne Sweeney, who remained the president of the Disney Channel from 1996 to 2014. In her words, “Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.”

It is evident enough how these miraculous and charismatic visionaries have described success in various terms and that there is no particular way to define it. The only authentic parameter should be your own satisfaction and happiness.

What is Success

We have understood that success is an abstract notion. Now, it is time to get to the bottom and explore some basic questions about it. Have you ever tried to inquire into what success means to you? What are the things that would make you convinced that you are a successful person now? Does your heart yearn for fame, money, peace, joy, love, or something else?

These questions are crucial. They make your mind clear and set your priorities more effectively. Always remember that a virtue that appeals to you may not mean the same to another person. Everybody has their own preferences and goals in life.

The bottom line is regardless of what the goal is, we can each be successful in our lives as long as the achievement makes us happy and content. It could be your education, a well-paying job, having a loving family, social security, or freedom to live the way you want to.

Anything, no matter how small or big, that fills us with a sense of purpose and gratifies the heart leads to success. If you are a happy person and love your life, then success is yours! For a long time, our minds have been trained to believe that money is the greatest source of joy. However, it’s not true!

Undoubtedly, wealth is a strong means to create comfort and security for us. But if it was the only thing needed for success, why do the richest people still deal with depression, anxiety, fears, and failures? Have you ever thought about it?

Physical wealth does not guarantee an insusceptibility to dissatisfaction and failure. Thinking otherwise would only create a bottomless void within you. People madly run after money and career. And yet when they are well-established, they still may not feel the joy and peace within. What is the missing piece in their lives?

Success in Life

Life is a rollercoaster, isn’t it! We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. Overcoming your flaws and frailty is a victory in itself. If you are thinking of coming out as a winner in life, don’t confine yourself to monetary values. With money, you may feel “technically” rich and yet have no access to the truest joy.

There are many dimensions to success. But everything depends upon our ability to recognize them. What are these dimensions, by the way! Let us explore a few of them.

You must have heard the famous quote, “Health is Wealth”. We need to understand the hidden value of this quote today more than ever. Ask yourself, if you would be able to enjoy anything in the same way if you were suffering from an acute or chronic illness? No, but such physical ailments are a bitter truth to many. To these people, achieving a partial or full recovery, having a long and respectful life is a success.

For the emotional souls, having their loved ones around, giving them a quality life, and taking care of them is what counts as the real victory. A person who cares about the whole society, for him/ her the true meaning of succeeding would be providing the basic amenities to the underprivileged, fighting for human rights, or creating awareness.

And yes, the biggest of the aims could be as simple and meaningful as leading a peaceful life. It could be about not having regrets and ill feelings toward others. They could also be as big as winning a gold medal in the Olympics, breaking the stereotypes, getting out of a toxic relationship and having a stable life.

The point is, success cannot be put into a singular category. And comparing one’s goal with the other person would be like comparing apple to an orange, or fruits to vegetables. Each person is unique. Their journey of life is different and so are their goals and parameters of success.

Success for Students

The keys to successful academic life are open secrets. As a student, your progress depends on the level of self-discipline, dedication, and hard work. If you are able to pull off these habits in long-term success would never leave you. Right? Nonetheless, the matter is not so simple.

In today’s time, students are looking for “success” more desperately than ever! Considering the cut-throat competitions, it is quite understandable also. The pressure of family’s expectations makes things even more complicated. The students have no option except to excel in their studies, but at what costs?

First of all, academic success is dependent on a limited number of subjects. The true potential of a child or a young one cannot be fairly measured based on such a narrow line. Moreover, somehow we have come to believe that excellent grades are a must for a student’s survival in this world. Fortunately, that’s not completely correct.

The practical life is much more than a few subjects. Most of the things we learn at school and colleges are plain theories. The bookish knowledge hardly proves to be of any help in the real world. What makes you rich is the experiences you gain on a daily basis.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that grades and books shouldn’t be taken seriously at all. You need to understand that these things play a partial role in forming the ladder of success. The better word to focus on would be ‘growth’.

If winning the race and grabbing a seat in some reputed college takes a toll on your mental, physical, and psychological health, then, we are seriously doing something wrong here. After all, these are the same factors leading to the rising number of suicides among the youths.

Not getting good marks doesn’t mean that you are not good enough for anything. It just means that you haven’t explored everything yet. There are many great personalities like Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, J.K. Rowling, who were a failure on the scales of conventional methods. But they proved everyone wrong.

All you need to remember is that never lose faith in yourself. If you really love what you do and consistently pour all of your energy into that task, then, definitely success is waiting for you! Make a routine of your choice and follow it religiously. Stay punctual. Fix your eyes on the goal and keep working.

Success and Hard Work

You can only work hard when you are fit overall. A good health is not just about having a strong body but also a strong mind and willpower. For all these things, you need energy. So, pay attention to things that you are feeding to your sensory organs. This includes from the proper diet to releasing stress, stay positive, working out, having those around who believe in you.

Don’t just work hard on your curriculum only. Take charge of other aspects too. As much as possible, include healthy foods in the diet. Staying positive induces good hormones in the body and the effect clearly shows in your performance. To strengthen your mental health, meditate every day.

Sitting around greenery, talking to your loved ones, reading positive books, are some of the other ways to replenish your energy levels. Make sure to work out every day, or at least go for a 30-minutes walk. Keep yourself hydrated. Drink plenty of water and other fluids.

Apart from focusing on the positive steps, be careful of the negative factors too. For instance, any negative conversation or toxic people in your life may suck away all your energy and charm. Try your best to avoid these triggers. Not only that, distractions like television, online chats, social media, parties, etc. should not be underestimated.

Keep your body and mind clean like a temple. It will help you work harder and with more effectiveness. There are no shortcuts to success. However, prefer to work smart rather than work hard. Never ever neglect the amount of sleep you get. There is no substitute for proper sleep.

Lack of sleep makes you cranky. Your concentration and memory become poorer. The learning becomes slower. So, a million dollar advice would be to get sufficient sleep, that means up to 8-10 hours. A few hours may be up and down depending on the person’s body requirements.

It is okay if the hard work makes you tired. However, the whole idea of hard work should not suffocate you. They say that if you love what you do, you don’t have to work a day in your life! If the set goals don’t well-align with your heart, explore something that does. Your goals should be set by you and not anyone else.

Success and Failure

Do you fear failure? What is the definition of failure according to you? How important is a failure for success? Let us find some answers to these amazing questions and doubts that we all face within us. To make things easier, here are a few great quotes for you!

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” – Gena Showalter

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Must have changed your perspective a bit! Well, it won’t be wrong to say that failure is a part of success. It is an inevitable part of that process. Like two sides of a coin. You cannot expect to taste success until you have learned to embrace the failures.

There is an interesting story about it with a strong message. There used to live a guy who owned a grand and luxurious car. That car always stayed inside the house. The man never drove it. One day, one of his friends visited him and asked the reason for not taking the car out on the road.

Do you know what the man replied? He said that he would take the car out when all the traffic lights are green. He was waiting for an impossible thing to happen! Can you believe that? It’s ironic but yes, we all do the same metaphorically.

When we don’t take steps due to the fear of failure, subconsciously, we are waiting for everything to be perfect. So perfect that there would be no tiny scope for failing. That means there would be no red lights at all. How is that even possible!

Leave the fear of failure behind. The only thing you should be scared of is not making efforts. Because that kills even the slightest chance of success. Be humble and embrace failure. Learn from your mistakes. These lessons are valuable. No book would teach you the way your experiences will.

Success is a cumulative and relative term. Without peace and love, money and fame don’t count as success. True success would satiate your soul. It would fill your life with joy. Shrug off the idea of comparing your life with someone else’s. Every person follows a different path and journey. That is why the meaning of success also varies from one individual to another.

No matter how difficult or impossible seems the goal, never quit. Keep working and one day you would succeed. Don’t confine your ambitions to just making money. Listen to your heart and follow it. The voices within us are our guiding lights!

Try to be a good person before becoming a successful person. Only an individual who has earned the love and respect of all has achieved the truest success.

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5 strategies to unlock your winning college essay.

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 29: People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard ... [+] University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

The college application season is upon us, and high school students everywhere are staring down at one of the most daunting tasks: the college essay. As someone who has guided countless applicants through the admissions process and reviewed admissions essays on an undergraduate admissions committee, I've pinpointed the essential ingredient to a differentiated candidacy—the core of your college admissions X-factor .

The essential ingredient to your college admissions X-factor is your intellectual vitality. Intellectual vitality is your passion for learning and curiosity. By demonstrating and conveying this passion, you can transform an average essay into a compelling narrative that boosts your chances of getting accepted to your top schools. Here are five dynamic strategies to achieve that goal.

Unleash Your Authentic Voice

Admissions officers sift through thousands of essays every year. What stops them in their tracks? An authentic voice that leaps off the page. Forget trying to guess what the admissions committee wants to hear. Focus on being true to yourself. Share your unique perspective, your passions, and your values. Authenticity resonates deeply with application reviewers, making your essay memorable and impactful. You need not have experienced trauma or tragedy to create a strong narrative. You can write about what you know—intellectually or personally—to convey your enthusiasm, creativity, and leadership. Intellectual vitality shines through when you write with personalized reflection about what lights you up.

Weave A Captivating Story

Everyone loves a good story, and your essay is the perfect place to tell yours. The Common Application personal statement has seven choices of prompts to ground the structure for your narrative. The most compelling stories are often about the smallest moments in life, whether it’s shopping at Costco or about why you wear socks that have holes. Think of the Common Application personal statement as a window into your soul rather than a dry list of your achievements or your overly broad event-based life story. Use vivid anecdotes to bring your experiences to life. A well-told story can showcase your growth, highlight your character, and illustrate how you've overcome challenges. Intellectual vitality often emerges in these narratives, revealing how your curiosity and proactive approach to learning have driven you to explore and innovate.

Reflect And Reveal Insights

It's not just about what you've done—it's about what you've learned along the way. When you are writing about a specific event, you can use the STAR framework—situation, task, action, and result (your learning). Focus most of your writing space on the “R” part of this framework to dive deeply into your experiences and reflect on how they've shaped your aspirations and identity.

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The most insightful college-specific supplement essays demonstrate depth of thought, and the ability to connect past experiences with your future life in college and beyond. Reflecting on your intellectual journey signals maturity and a readiness to embrace the college experience. It shows admissions officers that you engage deeply with your studies and are eager to contribute to the academic community.

Highlight Your Contributions—But Don’t Brag

Whether it's a special talent, an unusual hobby, or a unique perspective, showcasing what you can bring to the college environment can make a significant impact. Recognize that the hard work behind the accomplishment is what colleges are interested in learning more about—not retelling about the accomplishment itself. (Honors and activities can be conveyed in another section of the application.) Walk us through the journey to your summit; don’t just take us to the peak and expect us know how you earned it.

Intellectual vitality can be demonstrated through your proactive approach to solving problems, starting new projects, or leading initiatives that reflect your passion for learning and growth. These experiences often have a place in the college-specific supplement essays. They ground the reasons why you want to study in your major and at the particular college.

Perfect Your Prose

Great writing is essential. Anyone can use AI or a thesaurus to assist with an essay, but AI cannot write your story in the way that you tell it. Admissions officers don’t give out extra credit for choosing the longest words with the most amount of syllables.

The best essays have clear, coherent language and are free of errors. The story is clearly and specifically told. After drafting, take the time to revise and polish your writing. Seek feedback from teachers, mentors, or trusted friends, but ensure the final piece is unmistakably yours. A well-crafted essay showcases your diligence and attention to detail—qualities that admissions officers highly value. Intellectual vitality is also reflected in your writing process, showing your commitment to excellence and your enthusiasm for presenting your best self.

Crafting a standout college essay is about presenting your true self in an engaging, reflective, and polished manner while showcasing your intellectual vitality. Happy writing.

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The Great Society: Defining a Vision for American Progress

This essay about the Great Society explores President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ambitious initiative to combat poverty, racial injustice, and inequality in America. Highlighting key legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start, it examines the impact of these programs on American society. The essay also addresses criticisms and the lasting legacy of the Great Society’s vision for a more equitable nation.

How it works

In the chronicles of American history, few terms carry as much significance or evoke as much hope as “The Great Society.” Introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson during a speech at the University of Michigan in 1964, it symbolized a call to action for a nation on the cusp of monumental change. The Great Society was not merely a collection of policy proposals; it was a visionary blueprint aimed at addressing the critical issues of poverty, racial injustice, and inequality that plagued the country.

It was a bold effort to redefine the role of government and expand its responsibilities to promote the well-being and prosperity of all citizens.

At its essence, the Great Society sought to utilize the power of government to elevate the most vulnerable members of society and create a more just and equitable nation. This marked a significant departure from the limited government philosophy that had dominated American politics for much of its history. Johnson envisioned the government as a positive force, capable of enacting meaningful change in people’s lives, rather than a necessary evil to be minimized.

One of the most notable pieces of legislation linked to the Great Society is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This groundbreaking law prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, paving the way for greater equality and justice in American society. It was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement and represented a significant advancement in the pursuit of racial equality.

However, the Great Society extended beyond civil rights; it also aimed to tackle the root causes of poverty and inequality. Johnson launched a series of ambitious programs designed to lift millions of Americans out of poverty and equip them with the tools needed for success. Central to the Great Society agenda was the War on Poverty, which included initiatives such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start.

Medicare and Medicaid, in particular, signified a fundamental shift in the perception of healthcare in America. For the first time, the federal government took responsibility for providing healthcare to the elderly and the poor, ensuring that financial barriers would not prevent anyone from receiving medical care. This revolutionary idea transformed the lives of millions and laid the foundation for future efforts to expand healthcare access.

Similarly, Head Start aimed to address the educational disparities that often kept children from low-income families trapped in a cycle of poverty. By offering early childhood education and support services to disadvantaged children, Head Start sought to level the playing field and give every child a fair chance at success. This initiative recognized education as a key to breaking the cycle of poverty and building a more prosperous future for all Americans.

Beyond domestic reforms, the Great Society also significantly impacted America’s global relationships. Johnson’s vision of a “world without poverty” led to an expansion of foreign aid programs and a renewed commitment to international development. Through initiatives like the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress, the United States aimed to promote economic growth and social progress in developing countries, believing that a more prosperous and stable world would ultimately benefit everyone.

Yet, despite its achievements, the Great Society faced substantial criticism. Some argued that it represented an overreach of government power and feared that it would lead to excessive spending and deficits. Others criticized its implementation, claiming it did not go far enough in addressing the structural issues that perpetuated poverty and inequality.

Moreover, the Great Society encountered fierce resistance from entrenched interests and political opponents who sought to undermine its goals. The backlash against civil rights and social welfare programs sparked a conservative resurgence that would shape American politics for decades.

Despite these challenges, the legacy of the Great Society endures. Its accomplishments in civil rights, healthcare, and poverty alleviation laid the groundwork for many of the social programs and policies we take for granted today. Its vision of a more just and equitable society continues to inspire Americans who believe in the government’s power to effect positive change.

Reflecting on the Great Society’s legacy reminds us of the enduring power of ideas to shape history. In an era of deep divisions and partisan conflict, it serves as a reminder that progress is possible when we have the courage to dream big and work together to make those dreams a reality. Though imperfect, the Great Society’s vision of a better America still shines brightly, lighting the way forward for future generations.

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64 Examples of Social Issues Topics for 2024

May 21, 2024

Writing assignments asking students to engage with social justice/social issues topics target skills vitally important to success in college and beyond. They require writers to demonstrate critical, ethical, and dynamic thinking around demanding topics that present no quick and easy solution. Often, they will call for some amount of research, building textual and media literacy and awareness of the research process. In other words, these kinds of essays can be valuable in teaching students how to think and learn for themselves. But another, underappreciated learning outcome of these essays has to do with their function as communication.

This last feature can be easy to overlook in the context of writing assignments. Questions of audience, authority, and impact seem less significant when you know your teacher must read your essay. However, taking these questions seriously can not only enhance your odds of writing an excellent essay, but could also foster skills instrumental to real-world writing situations.

This article provides a list of social justice topics carefully selected to demonstrate the range and scale of available subjects. It also explains how you might approach writing about these issues with an eye for defining them and understanding the audience. Identifying a great topic that interests you enough to write about is an important early step. But what’s equally or even more important is to understand how to write about it clearly, directly, and persuasively.

How to Write a Successful Essay Grappling with Social Issues Topics

Writing about social issues topics is best improved through asking questions about purpose, context, and outcome. Why this topic and not another? Who is the audience, what do they know, and where might they stand on an issue? What are the typical ways others address the issue? What knowledge, perspective, or plan of action has been missing from that conversation? Why is this topic important to think about? Why is this essay important to read? These questions are crucial to delimiting which social justice topics to focus on and the strategy for writing about them. Answering them in the process of selecting a topic and developing a writing plan can help achieve the following components of good essays:

1) Defining the Issue

A frequent problem with student writing involves tackling questions or issues that are overly broad or vaguely defined. When selecting from social issues topics, it’s actually a smart strategy to think small. Rather than purporting to solve world peace, essays work better when drilling down into more localized and easily defined issues. This will help to communicate clearly what the issue is, convince the reader of its relevance, and successfully indicate that a short piece of writing could meaningfully contribute to the conversation around the issue.

2) Finding and Using Evidence

In many cases, essays on social issues topics will require some amount of research. When incorporating secondary evidence, it’s vital to find sources that are relevant to the topic and signal their credibility. However, even if research is not formally required, it can help toward establishing the purpose of a piece of writing within a larger discussion. Looking toward how others typically address an issue can help toward understanding whether an essay should aim to fill a gap in knowledge, supply a missing perspective, or outline actions that have not been proposed.

Successful Essay Grappling with Social Issues Topics (Cont.)

3) understanding audience.

Student essayists are not overly incentivized to think about questions of audience. However, understanding audience can help toward both defining an issue and acknowledging the purpose of writing. The most important thing to reflect on is the audience’s reason for reading a piece of writing. Why should they care about this social issue and what the essay will say about it? Understanding the reason for reading will help toward envisioning the ideal reader. Then, the essay’s language and arguments can be tailored to what that ideal reader already knows about the topic and their likely attitudes and beliefs.

4) Making an argument

This step follows the others and builds upon each. After clearly defining an issue that is appropriate in scope, an essay should clearly state its purpose or position. It should then interpret relevant evidence to support that position or fulfill its purpose. Then, it should aim to convince the audience by organizing evidence and reasoning into paragraphs structured around topic sentences that support the purpose or position. As these steps make clear, the argument is the essay. Making an argument entails justifying the act of writing itself, as well as the reader’s decision to follow the writer in focusing on an issue from a unique vantage point.

The following list of examples indicates some of the range of social issue essay topics. When considering these or other examples, writers should consider how they can foster purposive essays that understand how they are entering and changing the conversation around the issue.

Example Social Issues Topics – Tech and Labor

Artificial intelligence and digital technology.

• The environmental impact of emerging AI technologies and industries.
• Whether AI is a paradigm-shifting revolution or part of a long, gradual history of technology-assisted creative or technical work.
• The biases that exist in AI systems and data and ways of redressing them.
• The emergent use of AI tools in modern warfare.
• How a specific political movement or group of activists has embraced digital communication technologies to advance a cause.
• How digital self-publishing has affected trends and systems in the publishing industry.
• How social media algorithms promote addictive behaviors and their effect on minors.
• A surprising or disturbing effect of government and corporate digital surveillance practices.

Social Issues Topics (Continued)

Economic and labor issues.

• Causes and effects of unionization in industries connected to the gig economy.
• Disparities in wages between men and women affecting a key industry like tech.
• How changes in minimum wage policies affect other wage earners.
• The impact of globalization on labor rights and standards in the film industry.
• Comparing the outcomes of universal basic income and guaranteed minimum income as novel social welfare programs.
• How faculty and graduate student unionization movements respond to shifting labor and ideological conditions at universities.
• What geographical factors and/or trends in property ownership shape income inequality within a select area?
• Job fields under threat by automation and AI and strategic responses to the prospect of job replacement.

Example Social Issues Topics –Education and the Environment

• The effects of the COVID pandemic on textual and media literacy in children and young adults.
• How educators are responding to the challenges and opportunities of generative AI.
• Areas of learning affected by bans on “critical race theory” and LGBTQ-related topics in schools.
• How digital culture has affected the attention spans of young learners.
• The sources of increased student debt and its effects on the culture of higher education.
• The history and educational role of political protest on college campuses.
• How the end of affirmative action could affect the role colleges have played in promoting wide social mobility.
• The source of debates around “school choice” and how it is changing the face of education.

Environment and Sustainability

• Geopolitical tensions salient to the transnational effort to combat climate change.
• Protest and advocacy strategies adopted by environmental advocates and different ways of measuring their effectiveness.
• Solutions for the disproportionate environmental burdens on marginalized communities.
• Whether mass consumer behavior or the practices of the economic elite are most responsible for climate crises.
• Comparing the effectiveness of political optimism and pessimism in efforts to redress climate change.
• Environmental challenges that result from destructive practices of modern warfare including ecocide.
• Global meat consumption, its contribution to climate change , and proposed solutions.
• The benefits and drawbacks of green capitalist and “de-growth” movements as radically contrasting approaches to combatting climate change.

Example Social Justice Topics – Human Rights and Geopolitics

Human rights and equality.

• How the end of Roe v. Wade has changed the political landscape around women’s reproductive rights.
• Whether cultural or legal solutions could work best to prevent violence against women.
• The alliance between feminists and political conservatives that has emerged in the clash over LGBTQ rights.
• How news media outlets have influenced widespread political efforts to curtail the rights of transgender people.
• Tensions between private corporations and governments around diversity and inclusion efforts.
• The effect of enhanced police oversight by civilians on the disproportionate use of force against minority communities.
• Barriers to housing, employment, or health services faced by people with disabilities.
• How exploitative work practices affecting minors exist despite legal efforts to curtail them.

International and Geopolitical Issues

• How migrant crises have influenced new border and immigration policies.
• How contemporary proxy wars differ from earlier methods of international conflict.
• Tensions that exist between global humanitarian aid agencies and actors in Global South countries that receive aid.
• How efforts to ensure affordable access to medicines across the world were affected by the COVID pandemic.
• How globalization has changed the world distribution of wealth inequality.
• Weighing the humanitarian costs of solar and electric energy production against those of the oil industry.
• How cultural differences around gender and sexuality influence global movements for women’s equality and LGBTQ rights.
• How authoritarian and/or religious political movements have become internationalized.

Example Social Justice Topics – The Legal System and Government

Justice and legal system.

• Restorative justice alternatives to traditional carceral approaches in the legal system.
• Efforts to eliminate cash bail and their potential effect on disparities in pretrial detention and bail practices.
• Legal challenges that new technologies have created in terms of defining or prosecuting crime.
• Methods of preventing and prosecuting police brutality and harassment.
• How the locations of prisons affect local communities and economies.
• Ways to combat mass incarceration through rethinking policing and sentencing standards.
• Academic, professional, and legal services in prisons and their effect on imprisoned populations.
• Mental health challenges present in the legal and carceral systems.

Politics and Governance

• Methods of global governance that have emerged to address transnational challenges like climate change and public health.
• Questions related to freedom of speech principles that have emerged in the digital age.
• Mutual aid efforts that address areas of public need that have been unaddressed through traditional political methods.
• How participatory media encourages broader civic engagement and government transparency.
• Political solutions for addressing the phenomena of food deserts or food apartheid.
• Responses of local governments to sharp increases in homelessness after the COVID pandemic.
• The internationalization of culture wars and political polarization around issues relating to race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
• Philosophies about the conflict between ideals of multicultural openness and respect for cultural differences.

Final Thoughts – Social Issues Topics

The above social justice topics provide a sense of the large range of urgent issues an essay might topic. However, it’s best to reflect on how a piece of writing can define an issue so as to make clear that it is capable of doing something meaningful with it. That could entail looking for similar, more niche issues to address. Or it could mean deeper thought about an issue for which the writer anticipates they could provide missing information, perspectives, or plans of action. While many readers care about many topics, it’s vital to understand how an essay can create a tangible relationship with an ideal reader. Only then can a writer spur others to think or act in novel and potentially transformative ways.

Additional Resources

• Good Persuasive Speech Topics
• Debate Topics
• Argumentative Essay Topics
• 60 Senior Project Ideas for High Schoolers
• 101 Topics for the Science Fair 
• 100 Creative Writing Prompts 
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Tyler holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Missouri and two Master of Arts degrees in English, one from the University of Maryland and another from Northwestern University. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in English at Northwestern University, where he also works as a graduate writing fellow.

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University of Missouri

Defining a Tiger

Graduate student Lily Williams’ time at Mizzou unveiled the power of both preparation and adaptability in her pursuit of public relations success.

As the leader of MOJO Ad’s Team Mirus, Williams worked on a Sour Patch Kids advertising campaign for the client Mondelēz. “We are a professional service agency working for a global client and creating award-winning campaigns before even entering the workforce,” Williams said. “That is honestly the best hands-on experience the School of Journalism could offer.”

Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism in strategic communication as well as minors in business and political science in May 2023.

Williams sits in the EU Council room in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States program in October 2023. The trip invited master’s students the opportunity to learn about how international reporters cover geopolitical issues. “This trip absolutely lived up to my high expectations,” Williams said. “It was my first trip to Europe. I was building connections with global journalists and politians, and learning about policy in my area of study.”

May 31, 2024 Contact: Deidra Ashley, [email protected]

Graduate student Lily Williams is the definition of a go-getter.

From proactively seeking out learning opportunities in the Missouri School of Journalism to taking on leadership roles in student organizations and pursuing a graduate degree while finishing her senior year in college, Williams has demonstrated persistent initiative and a relentless drive to excel in every aspect of her academic and professional journey.

An aspiring investigative broadcast journalist during her senior year in high school, Williams felt she had found the perfect place for her college experience at Mizzou. But Mizzou scored a win, too — throughout her nearly five years at the university, Williams has embodied exactly what it means to be a Tiger.

“She's one of those special students who comes through the program every so often who just makes her presence known,” said Jon Stemmle, professor of strategic communication. “I feel like I know where she's going to be 10 years from now. It's very humbling to be able to help a student like her reach the potential that you can see in her.”

A highly motivated student and natural planner, Williams quickly embedded herself in the journalism school, ultimately leading her to discover a love for strategic communication.

“Mizzou has anything and everything that you could ask for from a college experience,” Williams said. “You’ll find strong academics and incredible people who can encourage you to break out of your comfort zone. When I interview or talk to people in my professional network, they say there's no students like Mizzou’s, because our programs provide you with tangible skills and experience in whatever field you want to go into.”

That training is precisely what led Williams to spend almost five years at MU, where she is now in her final semester of the accelerated master’s program. She will earn a Master of Arts in Journalism, specializing in public relations, and will write her thesis on cybersecurity incident response. 

Strategic shifts

As a freshman, Williams immediately immersed herself in learning opportunities across campus. In addition to practicing the Missouri Method of hands-on learning in her journalism classes, Williams got an on-campus job as a Writing Center tutor, where she’s helped Mizzou students improve their writing, served as a member of outreach team and developed the center’s annual reports.

“Lily has seen, read, outlined, thought about and responded to work from over 400 students on top of the students she’s worked with as a teaching assistant in other journalism courses,” said Aaron Harms, director of the Writing Center. “Those numbers alone mean that almost by osmosis, her writing and interpersonal skills are getting polished.”

Williams also joined Mizzou’s chapter of the American Advertising Federation and became president during her junior year. With chapters all over the country, the organization provided her with extensive learning and networking opportunities.

Inside the classroom, Williams explored a real-world agency setting through her senior capstone, MOJO Ad, where she led a team of 11 people through designing a campaign for the Mondelēz brand Sour Patch Kids. Before joining MOJO Ad, she faced uncertainty about her abilities. It was Jamie Flink, associate professor at the School of Journalism, along with Stemmle who reminded Williams of how much she had prepared for her role.

“I used to have self-doubt over whether I could really be the leader that I wanted to be,” Williams said. “When you see a faculty member, like Jamie or Jon, have confidence in you as a student and know all that you can achieve, it pushes you to work harder. They've really driven me throughout my experience here.”

Williams’ newfound confidence showed when her team presented its campaign ideas to representatives from the brand.

“It was a moment when I saw all of the opportunities that Mizzou brought me and all of the wonderful people I've become close with, tied into that project,” Williams said. “It was the perfect ending to my senior year —I knew I had made the most of my college career.”

Defining her future

After finding her place and her passions at the university, Williams knew one thing — she wanted to stay. During her junior year, Williams applied to join the accelerated master’s program as a senior.

“It was a no-brainer decision to return to Mizzou for graduate school,” Williams said. “Beyond the outstanding faculty members that advocated for me during my time as an undergraduate student, the School of Journalism has top-tier resources and an application-based program that’s so widely respected in the industry.”

This May, Williams will earn a Master of Arts in Journalism after successfully defending her thesis. [MJ2]  

Throughout her journey at the university, Williams’ work ethic and the support from Mizzou and its faculty pushed her to find her true potential.

“Mizzou has provided me with a community of peers and alumni mentors who have shaped my growth during my five years here,” Williams said. “We have an ever-generous alumni base, and the Mizzou Mafia is real. Even after graduation, I plan to remain closely connected to Mizzou through alumni groups across the country and nurture my relationships with the alumni who’ve led my journey.” Story written by Audrey Brown

Missouri School of Journalism

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Sunak has gambled on election date knowing success under any definition is hard

The prime minister has called an election with a story to tell about the economy. But there was a real - perhaps existential - question about how long Sunak could continue to hold it together.

Deputy political editor @SamCoatesSky

Wednesday 22 May 2024 22:37, UK

Rishi Sunak has made the calculation that 4 July is, if not the best election date for the Conservatives, then the least worst.

Firstly, he thinks there is a story to tell on the economy - albeit one that is not without peril.

Britain is out of recession, while inflation today is statistically within "normal" levels.

Politics Live: Sunak ditches jacket for first election rally - as he asks 'who do you trust?'

Secondly, it's likely a plane will possibly take off for the Rwanda within the election campaign. While this will be branded a success, it avoids the judgement on the true purpose of the policy - to stop the boats.

Thirdly, I understand it was no longer possible to have a budget or further fiscal statement after the big promise to increase military spending to 2.5% by 2030.

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One Tory source told me that the moment they saw that, they knew there wouldn't be further tax cuts and an election would be sooner rather than later.

More on General Election 2024

Julian Knight: Former Tory MP to stand as independent and calls Rishi Sunak 'disastrous campaigner'

Starmer defends private jet to announce energy plans - and insists he's 'not turning off taps' on oil and gas

Tory MP says 'excrement' put through letterbox 'in attempt to bully me'

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• General Election 2024
• Rishi Sunak

But more than that, there was a real - perhaps existential - question about how long Sunak could continue to hold it together.

Read More: General election called for 4 July What happens now an election has been called? Find your new constituency and how it's changed

There are revolts in parliament looming - on abortion, on smoking and on shorter prison sentencing. This potentially avoids some of those.

He was also facing questions whether he would have to do a reshuffle after Chris Heaton Harris, Northern Ireland Secretary, announced his departure at the next election. Precedent that should have prompted a reshuffle - perhaps this has avoided that.

There are also claims - that might never be proved one way or another - that more and more Tories wanted him gone and he could have been tiptoeing closer to a vote of no confidence. Only Sir Graham Brady may know the truth of this.

All of that is now in the past. Sunak has gambled, knowing success under any definition is hard.

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Guest Essay

The Long-Overlooked Molecule That Will Define a Generation of Science

By Thomas Cech

Dr. Cech is a biochemist and the author of the forthcoming book “The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets,” from which this essay is adapted.

From E=mc² to splitting the atom to the invention of the transistor, the first half of the 20th century was dominated by breakthroughs in physics.

Then, in the early 1950s, biology began to nudge physics out of the scientific spotlight — and when I say “biology,” what I really mean is DNA. The momentous discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953 more or less ushered in a new era in science that culminated in the Human Genome Project, completed in 2003, which decoded all of our DNA into a biological blueprint of humankind.

DNA has received an immense amount of attention. And while the double helix was certainly groundbreaking in its time, the current generation of scientific history will be defined by a different (and, until recently, lesser-known) molecule — one that I believe will play an even bigger role in furthering our understanding of human life: RNA.

You may remember learning about RNA (ribonucleic acid) back in your high school biology class as the messenger that carries information stored in DNA to instruct the formation of proteins. Such messenger RNA, mRNA for short, recently entered the mainstream conversation thanks to the role they played in the Covid-19 vaccines. But RNA is much more than a messenger, as critical as that function may be.

Other types of RNA, called “noncoding” RNAs, are a tiny biological powerhouse that can help to treat and cure deadly diseases, unlock the potential of the human genome and solve one of the most enduring mysteries of science: explaining the origins of all life on our planet.

Though it is a linchpin of every living thing on Earth, RNA was misunderstood and underappreciated for decades — often dismissed as nothing more than a biochemical backup singer, slaving away in obscurity in the shadows of the diva, DNA. I know that firsthand: I was slaving away in obscurity on its behalf.

In the early 1980s, when I was much younger and most of the promise of RNA was still unimagined, I set up my lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After two years of false leads and frustration, my research group discovered that the RNA we’d been studying had catalytic power. This means that the RNA could cut and join biochemical bonds all by itself — the sort of activity that had been thought to be the sole purview of protein enzymes. This gave us a tantalizing glimpse at our deepest origins: If RNA could both hold information and orchestrate the assembly of molecules, it was very likely that the first living things to spring out of the primordial ooze were RNA-based organisms.

That breakthrough at my lab — along with independent observations of RNA catalysis by Sidney Altman at Yale — was recognized with a Nobel Prize in 1989. The attention generated by the prize helped lead to an efflorescence of research that continued to expand our idea of what RNA could do.

In recent years, our understanding of RNA has begun to advance even more rapidly. Since 2000, RNA-related breakthroughs have led to 11 Nobel Prizes. In the same period, the number of scientific journal articles and patents generated annually by RNA research has quadrupled. There are more than 400 RNA-based drugs in development, beyond the ones that are already in use. And in 2022 alone, more than $1 billion in private equity funds was invested in biotechnology start-ups to explore frontiers in RNA research.

What’s driving the RNA age is this molecule’s dazzling versatility. Yes, RNA can store genetic information, just like DNA. As a case in point, many of the viruses (from influenza to Ebola to SARS-CoV-2) that plague us don’t bother with DNA at all; their genes are made of RNA, which suits them perfectly well. But storing information is only the first chapter in RNA’s playbook.

Unlike DNA, RNA plays numerous active roles in living cells. It acts as an enzyme, splicing and dicing other RNA molecules or assembling proteins — the stuff of which all life is built — from amino acid building blocks. It keeps stem cells active and forestalls aging by building out the DNA at the ends of our chromosomes.

RNA discoveries have led to new therapies, such as the use of antisense RNA to help treat children afflicted with the devastating disease spinal muscular atrophy. The mRNA vaccines, which saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic, are being reformulated to attack other diseases, including some cancers . RNA research may also be helping us rewrite the future; the genetic scissors that give CRISPR its breathtaking power to edit genes are guided to their sites of action by RNAs.

Although most scientists now agree on RNA's bright promise, we are still only beginning to unlock its potential. Consider, for instance, that some 75 percent of the human genome consists of dark matter that is copied into RNAs of unknown function. While some researchers have dismissed this dark matter as junk or noise, I expect it will be the source of even more exciting breakthroughs.

We don’t know yet how many of these possibilities will prove true. But if the past 40 years of research have taught me anything, it is never to underestimate this little molecule. The age of RNA is just getting started.

Thomas Cech is a biochemist at the University of Colorado, Boulder; a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for his work with RNA; and the author of “The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets,” from which this essay is adapted.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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