Prompt: Do you agree that persistence is the major factor in success, and that talent, genius, and education play, at best, secondary roles?
They say that “If there’s a will, there’s a way”. Persistence is a major key to success, overshadowing all the other secondary elements such as talent, genius, and education play. If persistence isn’t there, nothing else will matter, because persistence is like the first domino, if it falls, all the other dominos fall after it. Beatrice Prior from the book Divergent by Veronica Roth and Liam Payne from the famous boyband One Direction serve as perfect examples to prove my point.
In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, the world was divided into five factions (Erudite, Abnegation, Candor, Amity, and Dauntless), and each person had to fit in one of the factions. Beatrice Prior didn’t belong to any of the factions yet she had to pick one to stay in for the rest of her life. Beatrice chose dauntless who are basically policemen, and was pretty much talentless and uneducated when it came to being part of “Dauntless”. Beatrice was very persistent, and she wanted to fit in “Dauntless” really badly. Months passed, and with her persistence, Beatrice became one of the most important member of her faction. Although Beatrice wasn’t talented and educated at first, these two factors came along persistence as time passed, and Beatrice became successful.
Many talented people come on reality shows such as American Idol and The X-Factor but don’t get to move along to further stages and levels because the judges tell them to work harder on themselves and maybe come back the year after. Most of these people immediately give up and never become successful in their lives because although they were talented, they weren’t persistent. Liam Payne went on The X-Factor for the first time in 2008 when he was merely 14 years old, and he didn’t get through because the judges told him that he could work harder on himself and on his voice and come back later on when he’s got his high school diploma. Two years later, Liam Payne came back on The X-Factor, better than ever, and got through. Liam then met four other talented boys and is now part of the most successful boyband in the world along with these four boys. Liam didn’t give up and stayed persistent, and even though he was talented, his persistence is what got him where he is now.
No matter how smart, talented, or successful one might be, persistence always comes first. Without persistence, one cannot be successful because life isn’t easy and people will always try to knock us down, and those who stay down and give up and cry will lose, but those who stand up and brush it off are those who also win and become successful.