is success the American Dream?This TED Talk discusses the elements essential to being successful in all of ones endeavors. There are eight vital concepts anyone must implement to achieve "success". First, one must have passion for whatever they do. In Working in the Shadows, it is shown that Gabriel has plenty of passion for his final objective; working minimum wage, seemingly forgotten jobs successfully. The fire behind his spirit stems from his need to experience how another half of Americans truly live. The second secret behind success is work. Nothing worth having comes easy and hard work must be put in when expecting success as an outcome. Gabriel demonstrates this concept throughout the entire novel. He even goes as far as entering himself into the potentially harmful businesses of lettuce cutting,poultry trimming, and delivering take-out in New York to prove the point that only driven people can conquer these jobs. Gabriel's hard work ethic is apparent through every page of the text. The third idea is that one must be good in their efforts to attain success. However, good is interpreted as for good purpose rather than in the moral sense. It is evident that what Gabriel is trying to do is for a good purpose. He is trying to make American citizens see that these jobs, that exclusively immigrants seem to take, are some of the most difficult. The fourth notion on the path to success is focus. One must fully submerge themselves in one matter in order to be successful. This is the step in which Gabriel fell a bit short. He was forced to divide his time between his multiple business endeavors. Due to this split in priorities, Gabriel could never truly be successful. The fifth secret to success is push. One must push themselves to be the best they can ultimately be. It is evident that Gabriel pushed himself to his limits in efforts to appease the wishes of his supervisors and managers. This includes suffering from painful manual labor and willingly putting himself in almost perilous situations. The sixth idea is to serve. One must serve others something of value to be truly successful. Gabriel served others by providing them goods such as lettuce, poultry, and take-out food. The seventh step to success is ideas. Gabriel created this intricate idea that if he did these grueling, immigrant based jobs then maybe the average American would gain a little more respect for these people. The eighth, and arguably most important, secret to overall success is persistence. This is the one concept that Gabriel embodies wholeheartedly. He never gave up and quit his jobs earlier than the previously allotted time frame of two months.
In Working in the Shadows, Gabriel's overall goal was success. He wished to complete his jobs well and to the best of his ability. However, Gabriel could of never been truly successful because he never had the luxury of focusing on a single task. He was forced to juggle his multiple jobs. Should Gabriel of picked one of these jobs to focus on and stay with for over two months, I think we would of seen him be successful in his efforts to truly understand the average life of an American immigrant. |
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