Book Review Success Built to Last

The presentations, “Richard St. John’s Secrets of Success” and “Richard St. John’s Success is a Continuous Journey”, by Richard St. John, informs listeners that there are eight steps a person must perform in order to be successful and success is not a one-way street. In the first presentation,“Richard St. John’s Secrets of Success”, Richard shared a personal experience about the eight steps he took to become a successful business person. In the second presentation, “Richard St. John’s Success is a Continuous Journey”, he explains why people become successful and then fail. He also mentions his personal experience about failing because he got comfortable in being what he thought was “success” and he did not continue the steps he did to get there.

When I think of wildly successful people, people like Michelle Obama and Steve Jobs come to mind; my name usually does not appear on the list. Granted, I have not invented anything of use to the general public, or dedicated my life to any worthy cause, nor am I making oodles of money by anyone’s standards. But in other ways, am I not as successful as them? I have (generally) earned good grades, I have great friends, I am hardworking and independent, and I have skills that many people do not have. However, in the same vein, how much of my success can I really claim as my own? Just like Malcolm Gladwell observed in his book Outliers, there is always a lot more to success than there appears to be—and as I found out in the course of analyzing

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

It is every person’s wish to progress or, move from one point to another in life. Everybody loves being successful. However, there are a number of factors, which should be put into consideration in order to be successful. These are fundamental things that got you where you are, but will not get you to your destiny. On this note, this paper will discuss at length, the important factors that should be taken into account, so as to be successful. The paper will start by introducing the relevance of success, and later delve on what factors will get you there, and sum up by giving an overall view on the topic at

Being successful in life is not always easy, because of different ways that success can be achieved. With many theories out there on success, it is hard to figure out what is needed to be done to gain success. In everyone’s lives there are many different beliefs out there that can lead to it. In the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, there are numerous theories that are covered with examples of successful people. They clearly show how success can be done in not just one way but in many others. The most known people that are considered to be successful are billionaires and celebrities. They all have gained success in their lives in their own diverse ways. A good set of successful people in the world today to talk about are Mark Zuckerberg, Whitney Houston, and Nicholas Sparks. These people all come from different backgrounds before gaining their success. Malcolm Gladwell discussed many theories in the book “Outliers” that can relate to the success of the people mentioned above. The true knowledge behind success can be achieved in numerous ways.

Society heavily influences our work agenda, often times pushing a human to the brink of wanting to just hit the easy button and move back in with their parents at age 50. Most people float through life thinking that the only way to be successful is to work the hardest and keep moving forward; however, to achieve success in any endeavor, a person must fail. These such failures can be the epitome of someone's success. Under it all, there is an art to the simplicity of living the easiest life possible.

Success, whether you achieve it by getting a perfect ACT score, becoming a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, or through a sticker for getting all your spelling words correct, achieving success can be accomplished in any way. The meaning of success to me is when one ambitiously works hard and takes the utmost advantages to a certain extent. This past summer I was given a great opportunity to read a story by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success in which Gladwell refutes the standard argument that successful people are so simply because they put in a whole lot of hard work and effort. Alternatively, Gladwell offers the thesis that "people don't rise from nothing"; instead, successful people are "beneficiaries of hidden

Everyone has their own interpretation of the word success. Individuals might even have their own personal explanation of how they came to be successful. However, these personal explanations are usually incorrect. Malcolm Gladwell, Steve Jobs, and the film, Dead Poets Society have a mutual understanding of success, making them interconnective. Although success can be interpreted in various ways, success is attained through hidden advantages, extraordinary opportunities, and significant intelligence.

How the world defines success varies from one's personal achievements and the culture from which that motivation to succeed grows. What is to say the worlds greatest achievement is the ability to praise the very accomplishment of others, or perhaps its biggest atrocity. The success of others is often viewed not in their achievement that originally made them a successor, but what that prosperity has done. What is the atrocity of success is not its foundation, but the multitude of fortune’s it might bring. Such fortunes include money, popularity, and power. No “successful” person is absent of these staples to their success. Perhaps what is worse is how success, in its most prevalent form, creates sentiments of exclusivism.

There are certain musts that are required to be successful in a chosen activity. For example, to succeed in any profession, people must develop and practice a winning attitude through strategic planning, which will help them to reach their goals in incremental and measurable stages. The F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby” explores the wealthy life and death of the title character, “Jay Gatsby,” who, according to Nick Carraway, “represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him.” Gatsby’s wealth came “by one word and that word is work,” which fits the definition of “self-made man.”

The word succeed sounds good, but not it's super easy to reach it. Even the most famous persons fail until they can succeed and be where they at now.

There are many people in this world who are known for their success. But, have you ever wondered why? What made these people succeed? Why are their lives such a success?

How Successful People Lead, by John C. Maxwell, Center Street, New York, NY, May 2013, 148 pages. Reviewed by David A. Hudson

Everyday throughout our lives people see successful people on what he or she are doing now to be successful and not what he or she did to achieve success. Although some people say success is by being audacious, Doctor Tyler Gunderson believes that success is by “showing up everyday.” Doctor Gunderson who is employed at KSB believes that no matter what the day is like he or she has to try their best even if things are not going his or her way. However Doctor Gunderson not only believes that success is by “showing up everyday” he also believes that he or she should be open minded on opinions that people give, but not take their advice because every person is different.

The first of my strengths is the achiever and according to Rath (2007), achiever describes a constant need for accomplishment, an internal fire pushes you to do more, no matter how small the