What is Greatness? Paper written by student Emma Newcomb

Every once in a while I have a student who just seems to "get it..." 
Emma is one of those students.  She is talented, certainly -- but more importantly, she is tenacious.  When I balked at high belting songs, not wanting to push her too far too fast, she threw a fit... and came in the next week with a gorgeous clear belt on "Let it Go."  (Which was followed by a tenuous agreement not to do it too much at home...)  When she reaches a new level in piano, she brings a piece from the back of the book in the next week, "just to see if she could."  
Emma knows what she wants and she knows what kind of work is required to get it... which makes her a complete joy to work with, even (maybe especially?) when she argues with me.  This paper which she is generously allowing me to share was inspired by an article in Fortune magazine 
that exemplifies the work ethic she is attempting to develop.  Enjoy!

Emma Newcomb

Composition

December 19, 2014

What is Greatness?

Most people think of greatness as fame or success.  Your name known by many people, being on TV, or anything like that is considered great.  Maybe some actors or famous people are great, but not all of them are.  Many people are unaware of what greatness really is.  Greatness is a hard thing to achieve and is not extremely common.  So, what is greatness exactly?

Greatness is working hard to achieve your goal.  You need a lot of perseverance to be great at something.  Say you want to be an amazing singer.  You can work your way up to your goal, but it is not going to be easy.  It will take many hours of practice.  Geoffrey Colvin's "Secrets of Greatness: Practice and Hard Work Bring Success" article informs, "Even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established, researchers call it the ten-year rule."  The ten-year rule is a statement that you need at least ten years of practice to be great at what you do.  John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University states, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average."  That means you have to be really serious about practicing.

You can be great and not be famous, but also you can be famous and not be great.  For example, you could be a incredible artist, but not be famous at all, or you could be a famous artist, but not exactly be a great artist.  Some actors and pop stars today are wildly famous, but do not make good decisions.  How would you compare Miley Cyrus to Bono from the band U2?  Bono has been made a knight by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, participated in worldwide charity events, and won many awards with his band, while Miley Cyrus has questionable clothing and dance moves.

            You may be wondering, how do you achieve greatness?  The answer to that is hard work and perseverance.  Geoffrey Colvin explains, "Nobody is great without work," and also, "You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense."  People who are really serious about being extraordinary at something work at it every day.  They are passionate about what they do.  You have to practice your chosen skill intensely, not just normally.  Bethany Hamilton, after losing an arm to a shark, still pursued her dream of surfing and worked hard at it.  I do not mean just doing it every day, but paying attention to her mistakes and constantly trying to improve.  Her brother videotaped herself surfing, and then she watched it later and critically analyzed herself.  Working hard like that is not easy.  It is time-consuming and difficult.  However, it is essential if you want to reach greatness.

It is not just certain people who can be great.  Any person can achieve greatness.  If that is true, then why is greatness so uncommon?  The answer is that not everybody is ready to commit to the hard work it takes to achieve greatness daily.  "If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare," claims Geoffrey Colvin.  You can't expect to be amazing at something so quickly and easily.  All great people have to work very hard.  You are not just born with the ability to do something perfectly.  "It is a skill, not a talent," my voice teacher Chavaleh Forgey always tells me.  Some people believe that great people were born that way.  "You do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist," states Geoffrey Colvin.  I think you can be born with some natural talent, but you still have to learn quite a lot.  For example, Albert Einstein was born not with talent, but instead a learning disability.  His teachers said he would never amount to anything.  Instead, he rose above the average and became great.  So, greatness is not a gift, it is something anyone can achieve.

Just because anyone can be great, doesn't mean that it will be easy.  Geoffrey Colvin informs, "You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful."  This is true, but even if you work extremely hard at it, you still usually have to go though failure first.  Many people have failed or have had to overcome a difficult setback before becoming great.  Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs.  His childhood was very hard.  However, he pushed though and kept a positive attitude, along with becoming an amazing speaker.  His biography observes, “This dynamic young evangelist has accomplished more than most people achieve in a lifetime.  He’s an author, musician, actor, and his hobbies include fishing, painting and swimming.”  Abraham Lincoln failed in business and lost eight elections before becoming a great president.  I think that failure is what motivates some people to keep going, even if they fail multiple times.  In a way, failure is a part of greatness.

Unfortunately, most people give up after failing instead of pushing on.  That is a main reason why greatness is so rare.  You cannot expect greatness to come easily, but some people do, and then are defeated when they find it so hard.  They are discouraged and decide to just give up.  After all, giving up is so much simpler than enormous amounts of hard work every single day.
            Greatness is an uncommon and special thing.  It takes a lot of time and concentrating, and is hard to climb up to.  There are many bumps on the road to greatness, but if you want it you have to get over them.  Anyone in the world can reach greatness, because no one is just born with amazing talent.  It is open to anyone.

Works Cited

"Bio - Life Without Limbs." Life Without Limbs. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2015.

"Bono." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 03 Jan. 2015.

Colvin, Geoffrey. "Fortune." Secrets of Greatness: Practice and Hard Work Bring Success. N.p., 17 Oct.

     2006. Web. 31 Dec. 2014.

"Famous Failures (Motivational)." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2014.

 Emma practicing "Shy" from Once Upon a Mattress 

 

Emma as Cosette in the LCA production of Les Miserable

Emma about to sing "Let it Go" at the Tulare County Fair