As finals are fast approaching, I find myself struggling to find motivation.
I teeter on the tightrope between the two different trains of thought.
One is that good grades and socialistic achievement are key to success, and the other is that determination, timing and connections are what land you on the cover of Forbes Magazine.
I find myself going back and forth thinking, “Will these grades even matter in the long run?” and “If I don’t get good grades, I’ll never get a good job.”
There is no clear answer to which way is the right way.
If you were to take a look at some of the most successful people in the world, they are almost equally divided onto these two pillars.
Some worked to get into the top schools and made the top grades, and their success continued to grow from there.
On the flip side, you have people who barely passed college, if they even graduated, and end up owning some of the most successful enterprises in the world.
Some people fall into great jobs because they knew the right people and had a charismatic personality.
Others have gotten the top jobs because their resumes and scholastic accolades were the best of the bunch.
Some people make the cover of Time Magazine before the age of 30.
Others are barely making ends meet in the their 20s but later end up surpassing their peers not only in the success of their bank accounts but also in the amount of good they have brought to the world.
In your quest to determine which path to success is best, you can read countless self-help, secret-to-success books or, for the less literally inclined, scroll through inspirational quotes on Pinterest and Thought Catalog, and still not be any closer to an answer.
Chasing the key to success will only lead you to run around in circles no better off than before you started.
You can’t model your life after someone else’s success because your life, your dreams, your goals and your experiences are exclusively yours.
The person on your left might make the top grades and get the top job out of school, but you might be the more successful person 10 years out.
The person on your right might be scrapping for passing grades now but end up with a building or whole college named after him by your 25th class reunion.
Success is a hard-to-define benchmark with a virtually unlimited amount of means to achievement.
The key is to not lose your balance on the tightrope by keeping your eye focused on the horizon that is your future success.
It doesn’t matter which side you gravitate toward or how many steps it takes you to get there. Just don’t fall off.
Anna Rush is a second-year law student from Hattiesburg. She graduated from Mississippi State University in 2011. Follow her on Twitter @annakrush.
