Career Case

Bill Cosby once said, "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure". I personally believe what this quote is suggesting is that, in order for someone to succeed he or she must lay down the burdens of thoughts of failure. Some time it is hard to just say, "I want to succeed in something" without having an ambition. Ambition is defined as, "the determination in reaching a goal or any of its relative terms" (Difference Between, 2013). When I was in my adolescent years I was determined that when I go to college I will major in Psychology to help others who needed someone to talk to. I accepted and completed every responsibility that was put before me. Now I am in my last semester of college and will be graduating with a bachelor degree in Psychology.

The statement "Success Through Accepting Responsibility (STAR)" was my high school motto. I believe that in order to achieve something all adolescent should have ambition and beliefs. Having belief with ambitious goals could be a major start in creating changes. In this paper I will discuss about what made it possible for LeAlan and Lloyd to succeed, why having a career ambition would motivate and help adolescent towards changing the way or place they have to live in. I will also provide sample excerpts as well as an empirical study to support my beliefs for why is it important for adolescent to have an ambition. By the same token, the end of paper will discuss why this research supports my idea.

Ambitious people are those who have beliefs, goals and confidence in achieving those goals. They do not want to settle for less but to strive higher in life. All adolescent should grow have ambitious goals. If they can focus on what they want to do during their adulthood, these are the times for them to start planning now. Like mentioned earlier, when I was an adolescent - in seventh grade, I made a decision for myself. A positive one at that, and I didn't let anything stop me from doing what I wanted to do or see happen in my life. Just like LeAlan and Lloyd in Our America, they had ambitious goals. For example, LeAlan and Lloyd knew that they did not want to be like the other kids who completely destroyed their life; instead they wanted to be different and do something about their lives (p. 161).

I believe having an ambition is the most important aspect that would help adolescent succeeds because it will motivate and challenge them to strive for the better things. Having ambition means the individual can accumulate power and makes choices possible. He or she may even be able to learn from experience and avoid taking the same wrong path. For instance, Ms. Tolson in LeAlan interviews suggested that the kids who will not actually make it would have to learn their lesson before changing their lives around (p. 169). Similar to my high school motto, if the adolescent do not want to start off on the wrong foot, he or she should set a career ambitious goal. Even Ms. Tolson suggested that if the adolescent stays strong, they would be able to meet their future (p. 170).

Both, LeAlan and Lloyd, has a career ambition. LeAlan wanted to become some one successful so he knew exactly what had to be done, and that was to accept his responsibility not let environmental stress affect them (p. 173). Lloyd had the same mind set. At time his mind would wonder off going to towards the wrong way, but he was determined with his ambition to make changes, so he tries hard to complete his responsibility in and outside of school (p. 187).

Tracing back to having a career ambition, Lloyd and LeAlan wanted to have a good career in the future so they can make lots of money to move their whole family out of neighborhood they live in (p. 198). This ambition or goal has kept them busy from being

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