Essay 192 – Success is often measured by wealth and material belongings

GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 192

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Success is often measured by wealth and material belongings. Do you think wealth is the best measure of success? What makes a successful person?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

In this materialistic society, wealth and material possessions quite often are indicators of an individual’s success or achievement. In my opinion, wealth or material belonging is an incorrect yardstick to measure one’s success. However, the capacity to deal with challenges, positive mentality and charisma lead an individual to become truly successful.

The vast majority has primarily used wealth and material possessions for the measurement of success for a long time. These two indicators contribute enormously to a wrong perception of achievement. This is because the definition of success differs from individual to individual. A successful person is able to discover his or her own definition of success, which in turn, helps him or her to avoid wasting energy and precious time by pursuing another individual’s notion of success. Ideally, the measurements of success are not centred on wealth and material belongings. Money and material possessions can potentially be the outcome of being successful at what one is doing. But these two factors should never be the measurement of achievement.

However, various factors contribute to an individual’s success. First and foremost, the ability to overcome one’s circumstances makes a person successful. To illustrate, the way a person grew up and the challenges she or he has faced in life could be a good indicator of his accomplishment. And truly successful is the person who is able to surmount all the hurdles, no matter how formidable.

Second, a positive attitude helps an individual cope more easily with daily life’s affairs. In fact, it instils optimism into their life and makes it easier to remove worries and negative thinking, which in turn, cause constructive changes into their life, and thereby making them successful. Last but not least, charisma is another important factor that leads to success. This does not mean every charismatic individual becomes successful, but all successful people have some kind of charisma.

To conclude, wealth and material belongings are not true indicators to measure success. It is actually the outcome of success. In order to be successful, however, one must have the ability to overcome difficulties of life, positive attitude and charm.