We spend our lives working for and chasing after our own ideas of success. Be it being landing a well paying job, making a career out of your passion, being on the Dean’s Honor’s list as you graduate, passing that exam that you’ve been working so hard for, or even just wanting stable personal life. We all have our own ideas of success and we spend our lives aiming for it.
Even so, when the going gets tough and the task up ahead gets too different, the goal seems unreachable and we maybe even convince ourselves that it is. That success comes to the special few, the privileged or the lucky ones. That maybe it is an entitlement for those who earn it, nothing more, and nothing less. Even if we consider the smaller goals like how many students wish to be straight A’s students, but when they score poorly on a test or face any disappointment they think that maybe they aren’t capable of that apteral, that those who are able to do it were entitled to it since birth. The idea not only belittling their own capabilities but also the efforts of those who succeeded.
Arguably World’s biggest boyband BTS is taking the world by storm. Stories of their fame and success leaving even their haters in awe. Yet the success that they’ve reached was as unfathomable for them as it is for anyone else. The 7 member group was signed by Big Hit entertainment, a small company against other music industry giants. Despite knowing well of their lack of finances personally and then start up company’s presence, they worked hard and let their passion for music drive them. They spent years training to dance, sing, learn different languages and even hone their appearances. Not only would they have to spend unsustainable number of hours practicing rigorous dance routines and sing their throats raw till they could get the tone desirable by the music industry, but they also had to follow very low calorie diets and tiresome workout routines. The odds were against them but they pushed through and made their debut in 2013. Yet, they struggled in the world run by giant corporate. It wasn’t until 2015 that they got their breakthrough in the kpop industry. Not only that but their music and lyrics then reached out to the rest of the world as kpop gained popularity and by 2017 they had spread waves throughout the US and were performing at American award shows, giving motivational speeches at the UN, and even getting invited and nominated for the Grammys! The group continues their legacy as they break through unthinkable boundaries and take the world by storm.
They are just another proof of how success is not an entitlement, it is hard earned requiring hours and effort and more than anything else, the will.
So, the next time you think of something as unreachable, know that there is nothing is the world that can decide what is and is not within your reach if not for yourself.
“Stay innocent, be naïve. But still dream big. Dream big to the point that it is beyond your ability and endeavor to achieve it. So dream big and don’t lose your innocence.” – Suga (BTS)