<p>Excerpt: The biggest difference between people who succeed at any difficult undertaking and those who do not is not ability but persistence. Many extremely talented people give up when obstacles arise. After all, who wants to face failure? It is often said about highly successful people that they are just ordinary individuals who kept on trying, who did not give up. --Adapted from Tom Morris, True Success: A New Philosophy of Excellence </p>
<p>Assignment: Is persistence more important than ability in determining a persons success? </p>
<p>History, literature, and biographies often draw upon the idea of the common man. Success is not a birthright. It is not a character trait to be born into or inherited. Instead, success comes to the ordinary through extraordinary measures and it is a common belief that highly successful people become so because of their ardent nature. However, this assertion is only half correct; success the child of both ability and persistence
Without ability, persistence is a futile effort. Such is the case of Christopher Mccandless in Into the Wild by Jon. Mccandless was a headstrong young man, determined on his quest to survive in the middle of Alaska and to experience the truths he discovered in Henry Thoreaus Walden. Through his persistence in hunting and foraging alone, Mccandless was able to survive over two months in the wilderness, but his lack of knowledge about Alaskan terrain, inability to properly store food in the wilderness doomed his adventure. Ultimately, he died in the middle of the Yukon.
When persistence is paired with ability success can success be highly probable. One example of this is Napoleon Bonaparte. It is clear the Napoleon is regarded as one of the most successful men in history; he was able to establish himself as emperor of France and then go on to conquer most of Europe. Napoleon was a brilliant military strategist, leader, and propagandist. He could easily charm men into following after his lead and was extremely well liked by the army and the French public alike. Through his abilities alone, he would have been able to live comfortably as a military commander, but because of his desire for more power, Napoleon persisted further, participating in a coup to overthrow the French committee government and establishing himself as head of France. Later, Napoleon embarked on a series of ambitious military and naval campaigns and was able to annex much of Europe, bringing him to the zenith of the success that he is remembered for today.
Though success cannot be short of persistence, it equally cannot lack personal ability; persistence must be built upon a firm foundation of ability in order to fully catapult a person to success.</p>