“Success doesn’t come to you…”

The Department of Social and Cultural Studies at Moscow Teachers’ Training Institute is definitely the place where students know what success is about. The professional career of many graduates of the department is connected to the stage, public speaking, and working with celebrities. A quotation by Marva Collins that I offered students “Success doesn’t come to you… you go to it” aroused a lively discussion that resulted in a few compositions.

Peter A. Stepichev, MHPI teacher, MELTA coordinator

 I agree with the idea that success doesn’t come to a person but that a person goes to it. If you want something, you have to do a lot to achieve your goal. And if you do something to achieve success, it means that you go to it. I do believe in destiny, but I think it is not the most important thing in the world. So both your actions and destiny are important. Sometimes, if you are not lucky you will not achieve your goal. But life is not a game at all and you have not only to be lucky, but also skillful. And we all know that he that would eat the fruit must climb the hill. These two phrases have a lot in common.

Julia Stupina

Success doesn’t come to the person itself. We should work and improve our skills to achieve all that we want in life. It doesn’t always turn out well because of many other factors. But the person shouldn’t surrender and be disappointed in himself. It is necessary to go forward, to struggle. And then success will necessarily come in any business.

Nastya Sai

Everyone knows that success is a very capricious thing. But it is not similar to fate or to destiny. I mean that success is earned only by your own labour. Success never happens without one’s hard work. Even if you have unforeseen luck, it is not because you are a lucky person. It is just because you’ve deserved it. Nothing happens just because it should happen. Your success fully depends on you, on what you can accomplish.
For example, I have a very good friend. He is very clever, handsome, and he speaks very well. What prevents him from being successful? It is just the lack of confidence. For example, he had been preparing his speech the whole night, had been polishing it over and over again. It was great! Then he came to the front and started to speak. Somebody looked askew at him and he started fussing. He started wondering if he had a dirty jacket or if his tie was upside down. As a result, he stopped speaking and his speech went down the drain. Why is it so? Just because he lacks confidence.
So, as you can see, we have several necessary components for a successful person: intellect, good oratorical skills, an ability to convince people and confidence in yourself and what you are doing. Even if you try to persuade people that they are not people but, rather, some experimental species derived from aliens, you should be so sure about it that you can make everybody believe in what you’re talking about. Then you’ll have a success.

Julia Mityashova