Success is......

           

       We dream, we talk and we picture success many times in our lives, even though, we define the meaning of success differently. Our society also set up a standard rule for success, as they defined success in a dictionary as “the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like”. I think to judge a person’s success shouldn’t be narrow in these stubborn categories. Everybody has different goals and they can be successful by the time they achieve their goals.

The book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer tells the true story of Christopher McCandless who is growing up in an upper middle class family, and just graduated from University. He is a successful student and a great son in people’s eyes. But he gave up all the wealth and honor and chased his goal to Alaska. Some people may thinks he is stupid or ridiculous for making this decision, in fact Chris is never regret and feel successful of what he is doing. At the same time, it also shows a point of view that mental success is also important, and being penniless doesn’t reduce the happiness of success.

 

What helps you succeed in your community? What prevents your success?

Family

      On of the biggest weapons to help me succeed in my community is my family. I couldn’t come to the States for my education without my family’s support. Their love is my source of courage; I know they will never give me up no matter how bad I am. Even though Chris didn’t get along with his parents and he refused all their gifts for love and left them without a word, his parents still looked for him and hoped he would come home. I think Chris’s knowledge was what helped him to survive penniless, and his parents  played a big role in it. Family helps a lot in our journey to seek success, and we can get unlimited love and support from our family.
        

Relationships

        Another one of the biggest weapons that helps me succeed in my community is the relationship I had. In Chris’s journey into wild, he received much help from the friends he met on the trip. He always sends letters or postcards to his friends wherever he goes. Without any money or valuable things to exchange for rides and food, Chris’s friend gave him a hand when he needed it and never ask rewards.  After we leave our families, we as individuals in the society are building our own social network. The bigger the network is, the more support we have. Nobody would succeed by themselves without anybody's help.

Money

            Money can be used as a shortcut in many ways, you can use it to buy many things and even success sometimes. It creates opportunities for people to achieve their success and gives the rich privileged an advantage over others. This unfairness makes Chris very uncomfortable, he doesn’t understand why people treat others so badly and money is one of the reasons that causes the problems in our society. I think money is like a double-edged sword; it can help people to succeed and prevent one’s success at the same time.