Grades vs Ambition

The average student has been taught to always “aim for the A” in school. This belief will essentially give the mentality that to be the best, one must get a top grade. As a result, students  look at those that get the A as if they are they are better than their peers. However this belief is completely false because, Ambition is the key factor in defining a person’s position on the social pyramid.

There are many examples of individuals whose ambition mattered more than their formal education. According to Forbes, Li Ka-Shing is the richest man in China with a net worth of $31.9 billion. Mr. Shing is also one of the most influential/powerful people on the Earth, but the most amazing fact is that Mr. Shing is a high school dropout. At the tender age of 12 Mr. Shing left school to work in a watch strap factory, by 14 he worked in a plastic trading company. At 22 Mr. Shing had opened his first factory. Mr. Shing has become one of the most powerful people on the earth yet he holds no degree or even a highschool diploma. If Li Ka-Shing was placed in front of a trigonometric equation he would most likely not understand it, yet in the business world he is a rich and successful man. Even though Li does not have the ability to solve a quadratic equation, the one thing that Li has is Ambition. Li’s ambition has pushed him to the very top and allowed him to obtain both a high net worth and self worth, even though he has never graduated high school.

With ambition you can go much farther than what your grades predict. “I studied everything but never topped...but today the toppers of the best universities are my employes.” This quote is from the richest and most successful man on earth Bill Gates. Bill Gates has a net worth of $81.7 billion, and is one of the founders of Microsoft the world’s largest  PC software company. When discussing people that are at the top of the social pyramid, Bill Gates is a name that will be said at least twice. However, when discussing the highest grade point averages his name will not alway come up. Mr. Gates has never released his actual grades, but he has been quoted on numerous occasions saying how his grades were never the best. Society teaches that getting the best grades results in one being at the top of the social pyramid. But Mr. Gates proves that teaching incorrect. He himself has admitted to not getting the best grades, yet the majority of people in America know who he is. Since Bill Gates never got the best grades, his standing on the social pyramid should not be at number 1. But somehow it is. The reason for this is simple; Mr. Gates did not let his imperfect grades limit him, instead he used his ambition to succeed to fuel his trip to the top of the social pyramid.

If we all stopped to think about it we would realize that success is not a matter of grades but ambition. Society has implanted the idea that grades represent a person’s self worth and value. But this is nowhere near the case. It is possible for a student to have a C average and still become a multimillionaire. It is possible for a child to have little to no education, and become one of the most powerful people on the face of this planet. The true factor that defines a person’s self worth and value is their ambition. Ambition is what pushes a person to become great. Ambition is the key factor in defining a person’s position on the social pyramid. Those that dream big will be able to reach the top when their grades are not that great. Likewise it is also possible for a person to not dream big and have a lower position on the social pyramid because of the little ambition they have.