W. C. Fields: How Businesses Achieve True Success

Success comes in many different forms. Self-happiness, profits, and appreciation by others being just a few. True success, however, is achieved when all of these pieces come together. Reaching success is a difficult task, and W.C. Fields knows this; he says, “Even a dead fish can have direction, it takes a live fish to fight the current.” Businesses, as well, are aware of the many obstacles in the way on the path to success, however, many businesses and firms do succeed. By comparing Fields’ quote to the way in which businesses work it can help to answer the question: how does one achieve true success? One segment of W.C. Fields’ quote mentions, “Even a dead fish can have direction,”. Fields, by saying this, is attempting to convey the idea …show more content…
Fields, the man who said the quote, himself is truly an incredible man. He was born in the early 1900’s and had a life that was far from anything most people could imagine. Fields ran away from his home due to tensions that had arisen between him and his father and learned to juggle, play pool, and perform comedy. Despite his lack of experience, he was hired at an amusement park in Pennsylvania as an entertainer. Fields’ life ended so greatly and in high fame because he differentiated himself from those around him. At that point in time, the working man was most of the time either a farmer or a self-made business man. Fields was able to realize true success in his life by taking risks and dedicating himself to his new field, entertainment. Fields’ success in life by becoming an entertainer almost directly compares to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s success at apple. The two men, Jobs and Wozniak, were men of brilliant minds who knew they could revolutionize the technology industry. These men were dedicated to their new company and would even sell their personal belongings, such as Jobs’ car and Wozniak’s calculator, in order to fund the growing businesses. These small investments paid off immensely for Apple, as their company, known for revolutionizing technology, is today worth approximately 800 billion dollars. Fields’ and Apple’s success are both amazing to look at because of the many risky decisions that they had to make to realize success. Both Fields and Apple were so dedicated to their trade that it allowed their success to grow at an incredible rate. By analyzing and comparing Fields to Jobs and Wozniak, success is seen to be achieved by dedication and risk, and it is worth it to young businesses to follow these guidelines as it may allow them to be very