Transcriber: Linda Z. Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
What's the definition of success?
Let me reword this, what is society's definition of success?
Society’s definition of success is
if you’ve earned wealth or gained respect
you found success.
And there are adults and teenagers chasing this success.
I think success is when you achieve or earn something happily.
I came to this conclusion when I asked my friends and family a question:
what do you want to be when you grow up?
Some said they wanted to be teachers, artists, fashion designers.
Some said they wanted to be engineers, lawyers.
I noticed something. My younger cousins didn’t care about
how much money they would make or how famous they’d be.
They innocently just told me what they wanted to be.
My friends that are my age and older,
they said careers that make a lot of money or like earned respect.
And after this, I came to a conclusion that my perspective
on success is when you achieve or earn something happily.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I think this is a really important question
and I’ve been asked it ever since I was little.
When I was nine or 10 years old, that’s when I knew what I wanted to be.
And this career would bring me true happiness.
My dad had told me stories about my grandpa. He had cancer.
And he was very cautious about these things, like if something was wrong,
he would right away go to the doctors.
Unfortunately, it started off as coughing. It started getting worse.
And he went to the doctors. They did a CT scan and everything was fine.
That's when they decided to check inside.
When they checked inside, there were cancer cells just everywhere.
There were so many, you couldn't cut them off.
Now, remember, the technology we have right now wasn’t here 16 years ago.
So after a few months, he unfortunately passed away.
This inspired me to become a doctor.
This career is truly going to bring me happiness because at the end,
I'll find my success. I am a freshman in high school,
and there are juniors and seniors choosing their colleges.
And the first thing they may look at is the salary,
the amount of money they'll make rather than thinking,
will I be happy with this career in 35 years?
I am only 15 years old, and what do I know about success,
so let me give you a family example.
Ever since my dad was younger, his dream was to start a business.
So after college, he decided to start a business.
He decided to start a medical supply business.
It was a business which would supply pharmacies. After going through lots of
paperwork and locations, he found the perfect store, and then it was time
for advertising and he made business cards.
And after about a year, the business was a success.
Now, you may think the business was a success because he got lots of buyers
and he was earning money. But no,
it was a success because he had finally achieved his dream.
My dad took the right path to success and he achieved his dream happily.
I am a freshman who wants to go to college in the future and society has put
a definition on this too. Society’s perspective is if you go to
an Ivy League school, if you go to Harvard, if you go to Yale,
you’ll definitely be successful in the future.
But no, you can go to community college and still be successful as long
as you find your purpose at the end.
And society has put this message into our brains:
good school equals success.
But you can still go to community college and find your success.
So let me give you an example.
Let's say you want to be an accountant,
you can go to Siena College and become an accountant.
You don't have to go to Harvard to become a successful accountant.
As long as you find your purpose at the end, you know, you found your success.
I am only 15 years old and what do I know about the adult world?
All I know is that I want to find my happiness and find success,
and I'll do that by becoming a doctor.
I'll use my knowledge and skills by helping people.
I hope you find your success and the end result is happiness.