Achieving Greatness Takes Hard Work

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In the article, “What it takes to Be Great,” Geoffrey Colvin makes the argument “you will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.” He explains that anyone can become great and no one is born with a gift for a specific profession. Colvin uses many examples to support his statement such as Tiger Woods, a golf champion, Winston Churchill, a great orator, and Michael Jordan, a basketball player. They have proved that “the ten year” rule, deliberate practice, and aiming to get better has helped them achieve greatness. (Colvin) Tiger Woods, at 18 months, was encouraged to play golf by his father. By the time he was 18 years old, he became the youngest winner ever of the U.S. Amateur Championships. Winston Churchill spent hours rehearsing his speeches and became one of the 20th century’s greatest orators. Michael Jordan was kicked off his high school team because he wasn’t good enough to play. After training intensively he became one of the best basketball players. There are many others that have achieved greatness through this practice such as Usher, Sirena Williams, Thomas Edison, and Diane Warren. I believe perfecting your performance by a continuance of practice results in a huge improvement to greatness. We are like play dough. We can mold ourselves into greatness through years of deliberate practice, “…activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results, and involves high levels of repetition”, with the ultimate goal of extending our abilities to improve.
Usher worked really hard to be what he is today. ...

... middle of paper ...

... Work Bring Success." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 19 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/
• Abegunde, Mickey. "Justin Bieber And Usher: "We Both Want To Grow And Innovate As Artists"" Capital. Global Limited, 12 May 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
• Rodney, Dave. Usher. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2007. Print.
• "Usher." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Dec 06 2013 http://www.biography.com/people/usher-38321 • Bradley, Michael. Serena Williams. New York: Benchmark, 2005. Print.
• O'Neil, Dana Pennett., and Pat Williams. How to Be like Women Athletes of Influence: 32 Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 2007. Print.
• "A Brief Biography of Thomas Edison." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

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