The Power of Opportunities and Connections

Opportunities, opportunities, opportunities, I've heard it multiple times since I was nine years old. I've known that opportunities can get you far in life, but I didn't know that it was necessary in order to be successful in life until I read this book. I go to a camp that constantly talks about the importance of networking and opportunities and in a way I knew opportunities could be helpful to a successful life but didn't know how helpful it'll be.

While reading the chapter The 10,000-Hour Rule it made me reconsider my life and all the opportunities I have passed up because I was simply too lazy and opportunities I seized because I thought it would greatly benefit me, "These are stories, instead, about people who were given a special opportunity to work really hard and seized it,(67)." People like Bill Gates and Bill Joy didn't just become successful on their own, they got help and received opportunities not taking them for granted. During this summer and school year, I have received numerous opportunities, some in which I didn't take because I didn't see the importance of it, others I put my all into. One opportunity I can recall during the summer was being a Tour Guide for my sleepaway camp. Not only did being a tour guide help me build much needed social skills, it also helped me make connections that will later benefit me in life. Not many people can say that they met Dana Canedy, a Pulitzer prize winner and senior editor for the New York Times and keep in contact with them to this very day. If I decide to pursue my dream in becoming an author, she is a great person to help me since she herself is an author and a pretty good one at that.

When I continued reading this book, I learned that a network of support or connections is important to becoming successful and gaining opportunities. Chris Langan tried to make it on his own and though it gave him an adequate life, it didn't give him a truly successful one, he could have become something big if he wanted to, if he had the help, "He'd had to make his way alone, and no one... ever makes it alone(115)." I thought that being smart enough was going to help me be successful, but I was wrong. Now that I think about it, In The trouble with Geniuses, Part 2 it talked about how there is two type of intelligence, practical and analytical. As I read this part a man we all know popped into my mind, Donald Trump, surely he does not have much analytical intelligence, but he does have a lot of practical intelligence which is why I can now see why he's "successful" today, plus that extraordinary opportunity of getting a small loan of a million dollars from his father of course.

I chose these two chapters because I felt a strong connection to them, it made me question my decisions, and I'm sure it's going to make me question my decisions in the future for the better. With that being said, I'm going to stop taking some opportunities, or talk to some people, instead, I'm taking all the opportunities I can get, and connecting with as many people as humanly possible. I want to be happy and successful and now I know, I can't do that alone.