This I Believe: Self-Determination

Jazmyne Thompson
Wagner
Hour 2

This I Believe: Self-Determination “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison I believe that if you have self-determination then there is no such thing as failure, only improvements. This means that if I work hard enough and put my mind to it, I can do it. I may not reach my accomplishments right away but if I do want to be successful I will have to have failed many times before I reach what I to accomplish. Possibilities are endless with self-determination. I believe that failing at something is a part of life and you’re not supposed to get everything right on the first try. In fact, the more we fail the greater our success will be. I believe that if you never fail, then you will never succeed. There’s no rule that says your first attempt or second, or third has to be the one, you may go through multiple attempts. All you can do is learn from your first mistake and think about how you’re going to it do it better the next time. Thomas Edison made 2000 attempts at the light bulb before he was successful. When asked what it felt like to have failed so many times, Edison replied, “I never failed once, it just happened to be a 2000- step process.” When my older cousin was younger he was ridiculed all the time because of his weight. He was told that he was never going to be good enough and that he’d never find love, and that he was stupid and would never be successful. This took a toll on him and he adapted to what everyone else said about him and accepted the fact that they were right at some point. It even came to the point where he tried to commit suicide in the 4th grade because of the emotional abuse he had faced over the years of constantly being ridiculed. My family was very distraught over this and talked to him and convinced him to not kill himself. They told him that he was loved and that if he put his mind to it, he could do anything that he was capable of accomplishing. He listened to these words and discovered that he wanted to transform into a new person and better his life. He did better in school, lost all his weight, and was no longer ridiculed. He is now 28 years old, serving the country in the Marines, has a wife and a six year old daughter. I believe that he proved the people that had doubted him in the past wrong. He did fail a few times, but in the end he reached ultimate success and happiness in his life. He was determined to turn his life into something he wanted to be and he did. This I believe is a great philosophy to live by because self-determination is one of the best character traits to have if you want to be successful. If one is not determined then one will never enjoy the joy of succeeding.