Analysis Of Success: Threat Or Inspiration?

Success: Threat or Inspiration?

This quote by Margaret Mead embodies her view of how people perceive success in other individuals. It is rather intriguing that she begins by stating that society 's view of success is confused before she goes on to explain what that perception is, this is interpreted to mean that there is a flaw with the way success is perceived. People who are personally detached from us are praised, especially those who have extraordinary talents and those who are close to us who experience success are seen as a threat. This viewpoint of the world makes one wonder how she developed such a view. Personally, while I think this is an accurate statement I also think it is relative to a person 's idea of success and how they feel …show more content…
Most have an ideal perception of how they would like to view the world, but sometimes struggle to due to their desire to gain success by comparing themselves and competing against others. However, some perceive success through a less prideful manner. These people praise the success of others despite how close or impersonal the relationship. While they desire success for themselves, they don 't view the success of others as a threat because they acknowledge that someone 's strength might not be theirs. These individuals focus more on comparing their current selves to past selves, and asking if they 've improved from the person they used to be. While they might see a quality they like in another person and wish to obtain such a quality they set about it in a different manner nor does they become jealous of the person who already possesses the quality they desire, but rather feel genuinely happy for them. I know a few of these people and even used to this kind of person myself. I didn 't used to compare myself to others and feel threatened by their success, but after my high school hell I became a different person with a different outlook on life in general. Mead 's view is a balance between the two more extreme views and is how most people perceive …show more content…
If this could be the majority view there would be more honesty and genuineness in the world and thus more kindness and compassion towards others and their successes. In order to make this a majority view we 'd have to reform our society in several ways and while it would be by no means easy, if we wish for this view to become common, these reforms would be necessary. By redeveloping our political system we could focus less on the wealth of the person and more on their views and not just what they say they 're going to do, but look at what they have done. This would give us a different view of what success is supposed to look like. Also reforming our school systems would help use change these viewpoints of success in the minds of the children who will someday be leaders and workers of the world. By getting rid of common core we will be allowing more flexibility in our school systems. "If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid," Albert Einstein stated. While we should be teaching our kids the same things and giving them the same learning opportunities, we need to allow them to choose their own method of achieving success. Take math for example, common core will present a problem and teach them one way of solving the problem and this is where the flaw lies. If we present