What Makes People Successful?
This course is designed for students to investigate, study, and learn principles that have helped individuals, groups, and societies be successful throughout history. Many of the principles that will be discussed are not normally taught in college courses and some may not be learned even through normal life experiences and OJT (on-the-job-training). None of the success principles are secrets, and the younger a person is when they are learned the longer the principles can be applied to their education, work, family, - life. Principles will be drawn from ancient literature through current literature. Some principles will seem more important than others, depending on what a student relates to at the time, but what may not seem important now may be essential later in life.
This PACS 2 relates to the following PACS 1 topics: The Self and Self-Reflection and Interpersonal Relationships and Family. Throughout the seminar on Success Principles you will be relating what you have learned throughout your life that has helped you be as successful as you are today, and what you need to learn in order to be increasingly successful in your interpersonal relationships and future employment.
A few examples of success principles that will be discussed include: (1) People are responsible for the quality of their own lives. (2) Two criteria of success: (a) Do you think you are a success? (b) Do others think you are a success? (3) The constant factors of success: (a) having a purpose; (b) having a "batting average"; (c) being aware of the "price" of success; and (d) having satisfaction with your success. (4) Basic steps to being successful: (a) deciding what you want; (b) deciding what you are willing to give up to get what you want (e.g., time, money, energy); (c) deciding who you need to associate with in order to get what you want (e.g., professors, mentors, supervisors, employers); and (d) having a plan and working your plan. (5) Stumbling blocks to success: (a) blaming others; (b) assuming you are a failure because you have failed; (c) having no goals or low goals; (d) not recognizing you have chosen the wrong goals; (e) taking short cuts; (f) taking the long road that leads to nowhere; (g) neglecting little things; (h) quitting too soon; (i) wallowing in the past; and (j) going for the easy success.
The assignments that will be required of the students to meet the goals of the course are (1) interview a person of the student's choosing who the student feels is successful in life and share in a class discussion what the student learned about what philosophies, attitudes, ethics, and personal characteristics helped the person become successful; (2) read an autobiography or biography of a successful person of the students choosing and glean from the reading the philosophies, attitudes, ethics, and personal characteristics that helped the person become successful and make an oral presentation on the reading; (3) write a review of a character in a film that helped the character become successful; (4) a research paper that focuses on 4-5 principles that the student feels are most essential to the student's life at this time, citing relevant literature throughout the paper.
