My white knuckles clutched the wheel as my little car whined and jerked into high gear, finally accelerating onto Six Forks. Barely a mile from home, and driving was already intimidating. My credentials were impeccable. I had passed a dreadful thirty hour class with a teacher whose voice carried to the moon and proven my driving prowess to a cartoonish instructor sporting a beret, plaid shirt, corduroy jacket, billowy pants, and a pair of suspenders. A pair of rimless spectacles made his eyes appear small and beady while accentuating his pudgy face. There was no conceivable reason to be nervous, but I could not shake the grim sense of foreboding that hovered over me.…
Society’s negative view of failure seems to be prevalent today, but younger generations don’t seem as afraid of failure as previous generations. Zinsser believes that this is a step toward a more personalized, individual view of success and failure, where people can fail without fear and have their own gage of success.…
An example of being afraid of failure is in lines 10-20, “...In which people thereof,respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States”. Abraham Lincoln has 100 days to free the slaves but he is afraid that he will fail and he was also afraid that the people would rebellion against the United States. How this relates to me is that we both are trying to be successful for the present but also the future. However, we are afraid of failing and that will bring many bad consequences to our life.…
"A Beautiful Girl Combs Her Hair" certainly is filled with beautiful imagery. I could very easily picture the girl "standing on the ivory bed, loosening her hair, watching the mirror..." The poem also contains metaphors. The speaker refers to the girl as a "lotus blossum" and "a wild goose on the sand." I especially liked line 17, "drop the jade comb-no sound." Maybe this is where the translation differs, because it doesn't read "she dropped the jade comb" or even "drops the jade comb" with the subject understood. The image that I see, however, is a beautiful, heavy jade comb falling on a bed so fluffy, pillowy, and soft that the comb doesn't make a sound. The luxurious bed, the silk curtains, the cherry blossoms just down the steps, and the girl's long, thick, perfumed hair make me visualize a paradise as rich as the imagery itself. It seems the speaker is the one who is "Awake at dawn" as the first line says. "The lotus blossom wakes" in line 8. Perhaps he woke early to go watch this girl whom he admires wake up. Or maybe he is so in love with her that he could not sleep for thinking of her. He was already "Awake at dawn" and couldn't stand being without her any longer so he had to go see…
Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” is the story of the Igbo culture on the verge of a revolution; it shows the collision of the Igbo people’s traditional way of life and the “winds of change” that are introduced by British colonials who have recently moved to their region. Within all of the confusion and discomfort throughout the Igbo people who are unsure of how to react to these new cultural practices and beliefs, is one of the main characters, Okonknwo, whose soul possesses so much discontent with this idea of change, that he reacts in a harsh and violent manner in order to resist the conversion of culture, and to further prove that the traditional ways of the Igbo people were what has since established him as being a “real man”, and also because he is afraid of losing his supreme status within society. Okonkwo’s refusal to accept the colonial’s new way of life reflects upon the idea that internally Okonkwo is afraid of losing the power in which he had once possessed, and deals with the fact that his personal ego acts as a deterrent for the “winds of change” upon the Igbo’s cultural life throughout the novel.…
What is a failure? Lack of success fragment. What is success? The accomplishment of one’s goal. Successful athletes have faced a controversy of difficulty in order to make it to the top.…
Managers at all levels of organizations, and at any stage of their careers, can fix their flawed responses to failure.…
“Let me tell you what winning means… you’re willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.”(Lombardi). The famous NFL coach, Vince Lombardi agrees that hard work will lead people to accomplishing their goals, just like how Malcolm Gladwell points it out in his book, Outliers and Paul Tough who wrote in an article for the New York Times. Tadas Bartkus who is an engineer, researcher on jet engine icing for NASA and he has also discovered what it means to be successful, and that’s hard work. Success is as complex as the individuals that achieve it, because every person on this earth as their own mindset, dreams that they want to accomplish, and that every person has their own idea what success really is, it’s a combination of a variety of factors, including hard work,…
In Things Fall apart, Okonkwo was considered a tragic hero. He used to be a great wrestler, a fierce warrior, and a successful farmer of yams in Umuofia. Shortly after Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo accidentally killed someone in a funeral ceremony. He and his family were sent into exile for seven years. Nevertheless, when he returned to Umuofia, he found himself unable to adapt to changing time as the white men came to live among the village. Okonkwo realized that he was no longer able to function within his changing society. Consequently, he committed suicide by hanging himself for his final tragedy. His tragic end was led by his character flaws, a betrayal of his clansmen, and the colonization.…
The novel tells us that the fear of failure is the greatest obstacle to happiness. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” So often we hide behind excuses of not being able to do this or that, but the real story is that we are too afraid to take a chance. It is our fear of failing or looking foolish in front of others that keeps us from being who we want to be.…
With white knuckles, rigid muscles and shallow breaths, I drove down the winding road with its faded lines and crumbling shoulders. My normal, confident and positive self had disintegrated into the scared and doubtful fragment that was left in the driver’s seat. My first time in that seat rattled me like no other experience had.…
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe portrays a character, Okonkwo, as a strong and admired leader. Life is great in Umoufia, Nigeria. Until Okonkwo gets exiled from his village for seven years. During that time the European missionaries came and built a church in the Evil forest of Umoufia. This made Okonkwo anxious to come back to his village and restore the Ibo culture but, it was more of a challenge than he thought.…
Inam, H. (2014). Transformational Leadership Coaching and Leadership Development for Women. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from Transformational Leadership: www.transformleaders.tv/are-you-a-transformational-leader/…
I believe that the American Dream is something that people can still achieve. Although it isn’t something that you can grab however,and perchase. Indeed you have to earn it. You may fail before accomplishing the American Dream. Just because you fail doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish your dream you can always try something different and still be successful. However, don’t let anyone or anybody destroy your dream or ever tell you that your not going to amount to anything because that’s not true. I can refer to this beacause Bill Gates and President Barack Obama is an prime example of the American Dream. Barack Obama didn’t have that problem he believe his teachers and family told him that he would be successful. On the other hand Bill Gates did kids at school criticized and laughed at him calling him dreadful names. But that did not stop Gates from accomplishing his dream. He kept pursuing his dream and at the end of the day when it was all said and done Bill Gates became successful.…
It’s human nature to expect things in life to go the way one wants. Disappointments occur as this nature is never fulfilled, and maybe is on rare occasion. Candy for all three meals in a day is a desire of every child. That will never happen, and then they cry in frustration. Men and women around the world think promotions are always on the way, and are utterly upset when they learn it’s not true. Everyone is different, everyone has their own mindsets, and everyone wants to live their own way. This fact is not accepted by anyone, especially the main character of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okoknwo. Okonkwo’s life was deeply affected by his own extremism, and his choice of living and dying on his own terms.…