The Community of Success

The Community of Success

Being part of the community of success means to have a mindset of “Mind over matter” where one can achieve success by putting forth the right effort. It also involves encouraging and contributing to the success of other members, that is, group effort, or in other words engaging in purposeful action to bring about our destiny. The first unit that we had this semester, “The Keys to Success” teach us that, to be successful it is important to put constant effort, overcome hurdles in life, never give up and love what you do. Also, our second unit “‘Jam ON!’ an Evaluation” teach us that it requires a group of people to reach the pinnacle of success. The underlying message from both these units is that, opportunity for growth and expansion lies in ones’ ability to step outside of their comfort zone which will help them and other members of the community to attain success.

In dictionary.com success is defined as “the accomplishment of one’s goals.” But, from the sources that were used in essay I and II of our English class, it can be observed that everyone has their own definition of success. One of the sources that were used in the previous essays was Richard Feloni’s Business Insider article “Mark Cuban shares his top 5 tips for 20-somethings”. Feloni’s article is based on the writings of Mark Cuban, a well-known self-made billionaire investor who is on the show Shark Tank. In Feloni’s piece he quotes Mark Cuban, “Once you've found your calling, whatever it is, you should have only one goal, Cuban says: ‘to be the best in the world at it.’” This statement reveals Cuban’s definition of success. Success does not have to be monumental. Being persistent and dedicated to whatever you do is what that matters in the long run. In addition, the second essay, “‘Jam ON!’ an Evaluation” written for our English class was primarily focused on the famous alternative rock band Pearl Jam that gained worldwide fame in the early nineties. More than 32,000,000 Pearl Jam albums have been sold in the United States. The worldwide sales total is more than 60 million (“Pearl Jam by the numbers”). These numbers scream out Pearl Jam’s success and it shows Pearl Jam’s view of success was to play music and to enjoy the process of it. From both these sources, it can be perceived that success is subjective. But, Cuban and the members of Pearl Jam are both successful because they applied the objective “Keys to Success” and they had a “mind over matter” mindset.

Most successful people reached where they are because they followed the “Keys to Success”. They act upon what they want, put constant efforts, hard work, and they never quit what they started. For example, in Feloni’s article he mentions that,

Cuban didn't have much of a technology background but landed a job selling PC software. He performed well, but his boss fired him for disobeying an order. Left with no savings but a strong clientele and an interest in the business, Cuban founded his own software distribution company, MicroSolutions. He and his business partner faced some difficulty along the way — including when a receptionist embezzled and ran away with $83,000 — but they outperformed the competition.

It can be noticed that Cuban had to overcome setbacks in life before he succeeded. Even when his receptionist embezzled money and ran away, he did not tremble, instead he worked harder and surpassed his rivals.

In 1990, when Cuban was 31, he sold MicroSolutions to H&R Block for $6 million and made about $2 million for himself after taxes. It was the first big win of his career, which would eventually see him become a billionaire investor, entrepreneur, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

From these statements in Feloni’s article it is understood that the author gives a brief description about Mark Cuban’s life before he became successful and the obstacles that he had to go through before he landed his successful career, as well as his accomplishment in other ventures. He was fired from his initial job, yet he did not give up. If he had done so, Cuban would not have been as accomplished in life as he is currently. Cuban was able to gain success due to his state of mind to persevere despite the hardships.

Similar to what Mark Cuban faced, the members of the extremely successful band Pearl Jam overcame hurdles throughout their music career prior to being where they are today. The documentary Pearl Jam Twenty directed by the rock journalist and personal friend of the band Cameron Crowe, which was released on September 9, 2011 for the bands’ twentieth anniversary depicts the career path, and the battles that the members of the band faced throughout their music career, from the demise of the band Mother Love Bone due to lead singer Andy Woods’ death, the battle against Ticketmaster, tragedy at Roskilde festival in 2000, and so on. By examining Part 3: 1992: Pearl Jam, the perils of fame, and the trouble with avoiding it of the article “Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation” written by the author Steven Hyden for the A.V club, it can be observed that, before the formation of Pearl Jam, there was a Seattle band called Mother Love Bone (MLB). However, the singer Andrew Wood of MLB passed away from drug usage. Thus, MLB was no more. After the band broke off, the guitarist Stone Gossard and the bassist Jeff Ament of MLB were playing for the band Green River for some time. Green River included the band Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner as well. After a while, Gossard started writing songs with Mike McCready who was a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan. Gossard, McCready, Ament and several drummers (who were all temporary) recorded five tracks in the studio labeled Stone Gossard Demos ’91. In search of a permanent drummer, they approached Jack Iron, the drummer from the band Red Hot Chili Peppers with their recorded song tape, but Irons passed the tape to his friend Eddie Vedder. Vedder listened to the tape, wrote some lyrics and recorded vocals over instrumental tracks. These demos eventually became Pearl Jam’s early hit songs ‘Alive’ and ‘Once’. Vedder auditioned to be the singer for the band Mookie Blaylock (the band’s original name) in 1990. Eventually, Gossard, Ament, McCready and Vedder formed Mookie Blaylock which was named after the American professional basketball player. But, they had to change their band name afterwards. Therefore, they finally renamed their band as Pearl Jam and it was formed in 1990. From the story of how Pearl Jam was formed it is understood that the members had to endure struggles till they formed their band. Their struggles did not end there, yet they persisted and overcame all the hardships which is one of the main qualities that