Throughout history, effort has consistently been an important contributor to success in education and employment. More specifically, many individuals have worked significantly harder than others in an attempt to achieve greater accomplishments in these sectors. In this essay, I will examine the causes of this psychological phenomenon before presenting my argument about whether it is always beneficial.
To begin with, there is some compelling evidence supporting this popular belief. First, education and employment are two of the fundamental elements of a wealthy and stable society. This means that people who are either educationally underachieving or occupationally unproductive are more likely to be undervalued and underutilized than their more productive counterparts. Moreover, hard work has long been considered one of the most crucial virtues throughout human history; therefore, one’s societal status is highly dependent on the amount of effort they invest. The idea that ‘success is attainable solely through personal effort’ tends to be more motivational, largely because it celebrates individual agency and resonates with people’s desires for autonomy and self-determination.
Personally, I partly agree with the view that hard work is consistently effective across a wide range of situations. Admittedly, it is an unavoidable characteristic of achieving success beyond education and employment, yet it should be utilized in a proper and strategic manner. A widely overlooked yet implicit reality is that personal exertion without a well-planned strategy cannot guarantee equally successful outcomes. One of the most noteworthy examples is that a large proportion of IELTS candidates believe that focusing on and cultivating high-band vocabulary alone can help them achieve high bands in real tests, yet the actual result also depends on other criteria, including task requirements, coherence and cohesion, and grammatical accuracy and range, all of which strongly require strong critical thinking and an excellent use of English.
All things considered, I firmly support the view that personal effort plays a crucial role in shaping one’s success in education and employment; however, it should not be seen as the sole determining factor. To accomplish greater success in the long term, individuals should adopt appropriate strategies to optimize their own potential, instead of solely focusing on hard work.