A stereotype that has been commonly repeated indirectly not only by your parents but by parents all over the world-“Good Grades=Success”. We, kids have been forced to believe in this age old misconception. No employer is going to go “Oh hey, your PSLE score is above 270.
Here’s the key to the managers room. You are hired. ” Real World success never equates to good grades. If success and opportunities were measured by grades then the corporate world would not ask for bio data in resumes, where other qualifications are also mentioned.
Nor would they interview the prospects in order to find out what they are like as people, rather they would give a blind appointment to the people with the best paper qualifications. But the definition of success is varied throughout. We all have a very definitive vision of success, “I want to be rich, I want to be powerful, I want to be happy. ” These are many of the superficial interpretations of success. So one very basic counter-argument many would give is that their vision is to achieve the highest academic qualifications and thereby achieve academic success.That is a very shallow interpretation of success as you have failed to take into account the standards of the real world.
Let’s say that you want score good grades believing you could become a doctor. If so, then you have failed to recognise the fact that being a doctor requires more than straight A*’s. You need heart, compassion and possess a sense of morality. As being a doctor requires you to have to be committed to serving and caring for others and for that, one requires more than a degree. Or let’s say that you study for good grades believing it would permit you a high managerial position at a firm.Once again you are not taking into account the standards of the real world.
You have to have a good attitude and a willingness to work hard. It’s is what most firms are looking for these days. In the previous examples given having a strong moral code is constantly mentioned as a factor in the real world and on a bigger scale, success itself. A moral code encompasses values and ethics. ; The two help decide our course of action.
Without it, our actions would be immoral and despicable. There would be no way to work towards a goal because there would be no way to pick between a limitless number of goals.Even with an ethical standard, we may be unable to pursue our goals with the possibility of success. To the degree which a rational ethical standard is taken, we are able to correctly organize our goals and actions to accomplish our most important values.
Any flaw in our ethics will reduce our ability to be successful in our endeavours. Value sets aside a rule we follow personally, values are what sets us apart from senseless animals. For example, Doug Baker, CEO of Ecolab, a $4 billion dollar cleaning-products manufacturer, tells us that "living by my personal moral code is one of the key reasons I have this job.Ed Zore, CEO of Northwestern Mutual, says, "Being moral -- which to me means being fair, predictable, up-front and not devious -- all of this has been very important in my career. Everybody knows what I stand for.
People know that we will never, ever be deceitful. We won't leave a nickel on the table, but in the end our word is our bond, and this is a real advantage in business because people want to deal with us and want to deal with me. " Gary Kessler, a vice president with Honda, credits his principles and values for his career success. "I was VP of a business unit at Bausch and Lomb when I was 36 and at Honda when I was 45.I think I had the good fortune of working with people who recognized that I had sincerity and a conviction to do the right thing along the way.
" Doug Baker and Gary Kessler is one of the many examples of how a moral compass is important to achieving success. What about people who can’t excel at studies and drops out of school? Do we assume that these people are bound to fail in life as they are unable to accomplish the obtainment of a paper qualification that they will fail in life? If so, we would consider people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to be failures as they have failed to complete tertiary education.But don’t we? Because these are people that have contributed something to the world that helped to make lives easier, more convenient, better. This is something not many can achieve. It takes a special talent to accomplish a success of such magnitude.
Rather than advocating to youths of today to drop out of school, we are trying to illustrate that success can be found, even if you lose the chance to accomplish academic excellence. We pander to the general masses to destroy this stereotype, to tell our youths that success is something more. Something that cannot be underlined nor judged based on academic excellence.
