Write an article entitled “Hong Kong youngsters: the road to success”. In your article, discuss the qualities and the skills you think are important for children to become successful individuals and what can be done to help them succeed.
Hong Kong Youngsters: the road to success
Nowadays, much focus is placed on the intellectual development of children. Parents send their children to several tutorial classes to strive for better academic results. Students focus on studying textbooks and past papers for a good result in public examinations. It is undeniable that an excellent result may lead to the road to success. Yet, it is neither the only way nor a must to get the ticket of a promising future and successful life. Other personal qualities or characteristics are also important for children to become successful individuals.
To commence with, children who want to become successful have to learn to be humble. Being humble allows a person to make improvements continuously throughout his life. No one is prefect. There must be some room for improvement for every person. But whether one can discover his weaknesses and subsequently make improvement depends on his attitude. Pride is a magnifying glass which makes one just focus on his success but fail to remember his failure. But on the other hand, humility is a pair of glasses which allows a person to discover his weaknesses. Confucius was the most famous teacher in ancient China. He had taught countless brilliant people but at the same time, he was not proud of his achievement. He said there must be a teacher around him, whom he could learn something important from. He also said that as long as he was still alive, he would like to keep learning new things. Even though his social status was really high, he was humble to learn from people who may have lower status or who were less intelligent than him. Therefore, humility is one of the keys to success because it makes one improve.
Being humble does not mean looking down on ourselves. There should be an optimal balance between humility and confidence as the latter is also a recipe of being successful. Being confident means that a person is willing to trust his own ability and is brave enough to express his opinion. For youngsters to be successful, they must believe that they can one day be successful so that they can have the motivation to step on the road to success. Daring to dream is also a sign of confidence. Some youngsters do not even believe that they can fulfill their dream, let alone striving hard for it and achieving success. Disneyland is a world-famous theme park, which attracts many children, but a hundred years ago, who would believe that such a fantasy park could be a great success? Yet, the founder of the park Walt Disney was confident. He dared to dream of having such a park and believed that he could make his dreams come true. Finally, he did it. Hence, confidence is a determining factor for deciding whether a youngster can become a successful individual. Only by trusting himself can he fully utilize his ability.
Last but by no means least, enthusiasm leads youngsters to success. No matter in what area, all successful individuals are enthusiastic about their work. Mozart loved music, Edison loved science, Newton loved chemistry, Michael Jackson loved dancing. Myriads of examples can be listed to show that all successful people have a common characteristic, which is being keen on their field of study or investigate more on a particular dimension without being bored or tired. It is an extraordinarily important feature for a successful individual.
Humility, confidence and enthusiasm are three crucial elements for teenagers to be successful individuals. Teachers and parents play an important role in helping the children to possess these three qualities.
Firstly, for humility and confidence parents and teachers should encourage youngsters when they have done something good but point out their weaknesses when they fail to achieve some tasks. Also, as they are much more mature than youngsters, they can help the younger ones to know more that they are not the best but they are unique. Furthermore, they should encourage the youngsters to express their own opinions and give them chances to try. Even though they may fail in the tasks, they can certainly learn a lot from failure. Their self-esteem can be built if they find that their opinions make a difference. In addition, learning more about the world and broadening their horizons can let them know they are not perfect and so help them to be humble.
For helping them to develop enthusiasm, parents and teachers can expose their children or students to different aspects of interest. If parents can afford the cost, it is suggested that they ask their children to take part in different interest classes, ranging from music to sports, arts to science. A variety of TV programmes enables youngsters to discover their interest. Parents and teachers can choose a wide range of harmless TV shows for children. If youngsters do not even have a hobby, they cannot develop enthusiasm of any area. If they are not exposed to different skills or hobbies, they may not be able to pick up a hobby and develop the passion for it. Hence, helping children to find the field they are interested in is the prerequisite for them to be enthusiastic.
Intellectual development may help children to become successful individuals but other personal qualities play a much more important role. Therefore, adults please do not forget their qualities other than intelligence. Do try their best to help our future pillars of society to succeed!