Success in The Best American Essays by David Foster Wallace

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Recommended: Balancing career, motherhood, and family

There was once a man, for the sake of the story we’ll name him James. James had been lucky enough to be born into a great family. His parents had decent jobs their whole lives, so his family had money. With that money and a little bit of hard work it was not too hard for James to make it into one of the top universities, and graduate straight into a decent paying job. After a few years working at that job James had earned a nice house and a beautiful car. At this time he realized that he felt like he needed something more. James decided that with where he was financially now would be a good time to start a family. He began the long journey looking for a wife; and a few years later he found the perfect women, fell in love, and had a child. The one thing James didn’t know about having a family and having a job is how to juggle the two together. He didn’t want to have less money now than he did before he got married, so he started working more hours in order to make up for the income he was losing. In doing this he missed his only child growing up. Before he knew it he was missing his son’s baseball games. His wife was begging him to come home. James was making empty promises, and he was losing control of his life. One day he came home from work and saw a bunch of boxes. His wife came out of their bedroom kissed him on his cheek and walked out the front door; followed by their son. That night James reflected back on a lot of the choices he had made. He realized that he had been doing everything wrong. He thought back to a time when his father took days off of work to do things for him and his mom. At that moment he realized that he needed to change his ways. He realized that there are many things that had a play in his su... ... middle of paper ... ...rson needs an eye opener to see where they are and how they got there. Works Cited "10 Things You Must Give Up to Be Successful." Marc and Angel Hack Life RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and, 2008. Print. Hauhart, Robert C., and Jeff Birkenstein. "Globals" And The American Dream: A Survey Of Student Aspirations In An American Studies Course." Perspectives On Global Development & Technology 12.1/2 (2013): 355-374. Business Source Complete. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Schawbel, Dan. "14 Things Every Successful Person Has In Common." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. "Stories About Role Models." Dreamofthingscom Stories About Role Models Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014. Wallace, David Foster. The Best American Essays 2007. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.

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