Determination In The Book Longitude By Dava Sobel

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Shaping the world The secret to massive riches and power is simple. Throughout human history, we have heard stories of common people like you or me elevated to the highest levels of enterprise, government, and wealth. Many people got there in many different ways,, but one thing is always present: determination. Determination is the will to keep going in the face of adversity, to fight for an end goal no matter what. It is what the world was and is made with. From Rome to enlightenment, from Yorktown to Stalingrad, determination to shape the world as we wished has shaped all aspects of humanity. Determination has shaped life in broad strokes, like the tale of John Harrison, as found described in the book Longitude by Dava Sobel, who devoted his life to aiding the navigation of war ships and traders when ships’ captains couldn’t find longitude, and hence launching the British control of the seas for centuries. Determination has also shaped every individual life, like mine, as I am frantically determined to finish this essay on time despite having waited until the very last …show more content…

Will for something to happen, rooting for it, isn’t determination. Take the servants in the Odyssey. Homer describes them only sitting around, waiting for Odysseus to return. They aren’t determined, they’re only waiting for something to happen, and Homer describes The way they accepted being ruled by the suitors. It can be easily mistaken for determination because it took so long and wanted it so bad, but they did nothing. A better example of determination would the creation of facebook. I’ve been reading an article titled only “Facebook” detailing the many challenges Mark Zuckerberg had to navigate past to see facebook come to the public with being sued or worse. Now net worth is estimated at $19 billion (according to the same article from Britannica). All this due to his

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