May the Opportunities Be Ever In My Favor

   I chose Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, because I wanted to know how the most intelligent and successful people came to be. I have monumental plans for my future career and I hoped that the answer to my success would be in this book. Boy, was I wrong. I could not help but feel depressed and discouraged in the beginning chapters. Though he acknowledged that lots of hard work was essential for success, such as 10,000 hours of practice, he convincingly proved through the lives of the world's most successful individuals that chance opportunities, date of birth and cultural upbringings far outweigh hard work. At first I was in denial; I strongly wanted to hold on to my belief that hard work is all that matters in reaching success. I did not want to be told that my hard work will go to waste simply because I did not have the perfect date of birth or lucky opportunities.

   However, I slowly started to accept the fact that there is more to success than just hard work. I have to admit, the fact that I am not in control of these factors that play a pivotal role in my life makes me nervous and doubtful about my future. I still plan to work extremely hard and put in my best effort to reach my goals, but there is still a lingering question in my head. Will life hand me the necessary opportunities to become a philanthropist, lawyer, and politician? My heart aches with despair. Everything is against me: I am a Mexican-American female who is not rich and does not have many valuable connections (yet). Nevertheless, I will not surrender myself to this unfair world so easily. Taking this new-found realization with me, I will sacrifice all that is beloved to me in order to reach the level that my already well-off counterpart is at. I will view each obstacle that I face as an opportunity and never lose track of my destination.