Success: Deferred Gratification and Hard Work

‘”I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career,” Michael Jordan once observed. “I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve entrusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over, and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”’ (Chua, 117). Success is something most people want to achieve in life. It consists of continuous hard work and no matter how much one fails as long as one continues to work hard and not lose enthusiasm, one will succeed. Impulse control is also being able to make decisions, take the action, and execute a plan regardless of the obstacles, discomforts or difficulties that may come.

The documentary film, “Spellbound” talked about how 8 kids worked hard to get into the Spelling Bee Nationals. In the article, “The Immigrant Advantage, Mr. Bhuiyan had impulse control and worked hard for something he wanted and eventually became an I.T and earning a six figure salary. The book, “The Triple Package” talked about how having impulse control can lead to success. Two qualities of being successful are hard work and impulse control.

Hard work is one key to success. Achieving it is different and so is the road but the route has one thing in common: hard work. It makes people determined to reach for their goal. For example, it helps athletes to keep going in sports and winning, helps an average student become exceptional and it helps transform destinies. Today’s world is competitive and a lot of people want success in their life. In “The Immigrant Advantage”, Mr. Bhuiyan went from working at a “minimart to waiting tables at an Olive Garden to six-figure I.T jobs.” (Giridharadas). To be a better person in life and to be successful, working hard is necessary and the results is a lifetime of rewards. Hard work is challenging but not impossible.

“In 1962, Ralph de la Vega, the ten-year-old of a wholesale grocer in Cuba, arrived in Miami with no family, no English, and no money; in his memoir Obstacles Welcome, he writes of living on U.S. government-supplied “Spam-like meat” that came in containers “the size of paint cans,” and cleaning bathrooms to put himself through college. In 2008, de le Vega became CEO of AT7T Mobility, with 65,000 employees and annual wireless revenues of more than $50 billion.” (Chua, 38) Hard work helps one reach their heights and never give up their spirit. If one focuses their energy in a strong manner on their goal and then start working on it, the choice of their goal and the effort taken in reaching it are rewarding. If one wants to achieve something because for the love of it, and not because it is the done thing then no amount of hard work is tiring. Hard work is the inspiration that leads everyone to succeed in life.

Impulse control is another key to success. It is the ability to keep decisions, follow through without changing one’s mind, turn down immediate pleasure and instant gratification in favor of gaining the long-term satisfaction and fulfillment from achieving higher and more meaningful goals. For some, no success, achievement or goal can be realized without it. For example, in the late 1960s, there was a “Marshmallow Test” given “to try to determine how children learn to resist temptation. It began by putting treats in front of three –to five-year olds.

The children were told that they could either eat their chosen treat (often a marshmallow) or, if they waited a few minutes, get another one, too. Children who held out for 15 minutes received a second marshmallow.” Years later there was a follow-up done on about 650 children and the results showed that the children who “held out were doing much better academically, with fewer social problems, than those who hadn’t.” (Chua, 118). Impulse control is important because it contributes to academic performance and self-regulation. Kids who can wait have a tendency to do better academically and able to control their own emotions and behaviors, which will set them up for more success in life.

Many people want to succeed in life in whatever they choose to do. Success is usually the reward for hard work and having impulse control. When walking down the road to success there are many temptations and it can prevent what’s needed to be done to become successful and without impulse control it’s very easy to get sidetracked. Hard work is necessary to achieve goals that we set for one’s self and succeed.

Work Cited

Chua, Amy. The Triple Package. New York: The Penguin Group, 2014. Print
Giridharadas, Anand. “The Immigrant Advantage.” New York Times 24 May 2014: n. pag. Print Spellbound. Dir. Jeffrey Blitz. 2002. DVD