Tenacity Matters

Why is it that some college dropouts, even high school dropouts end up way more successful than the average college or high school graduate? Is it luck or connections? Who's to say it isn't both?

In reality, the fact is that those people have a thing called tenacity. It is needed to achieve what one wants no matter how difficult it it may be. I've been thinking about why some obviously bright students get such dim grades? Are they just unlucky or they have all the wrong teachers? No. These low results are because there is nothing to work for, there are no goals set. A person could be the most tenacious one you will ever meet, but you wouldn't know it just by looking at their report cards.

Report cards are sterile; they are impersonal indistinguishable, and cursory. Ask anyone, what can you tell me about a person from their transcript? Besides what electives they took and a number on a scale, it is nothing. No wonder colleges ask for a personal essay. Some students get into a university because of that essay, because percentiles, ranks and GPA's have nothing but numbers to offer. Colleges want a good fit for them, and the factor that decides that, is not a number on a scale, it is the essay. Those great essays that stick out are written by those tenacious people because they want to go to that college. Since they had a set goal in mind, it didn't matter that their GPA wasn't as high as the average accepted student at that college, and it didn't matter that their ACT or SAT scores weren't quite up there, their essay was exemplary.

The bottom line is that these people need something of value to work towards. A set bar to push, a purpose. Otherwise, isn't it like endlessly going through motions that just get more and more arid each time through?Having tenacity means that a want becomes a need, and obstacles are merely bumps in the road to that need.