2014年10月11日亚洲地区
Is uncertainty a sign of weakness or is it essential to personal growth?
2014年SAT亚洲考区写作参考范文
Instead of being essential to personal growth, uncertainty is a sign of weakness, for the reason that there is a large group of people who committed suicide after being not certain about their future. And also, it is not rare to see a person who is complete confident about his own conviction bring significant change to the society.
There were always those were nearly perfect in their work but not genetically gifted in every way, especially those great artists or writers who finish their life in the face of toils, only to left the world with great works and regrets. This group people, though endowed with talents, are not real life models for their uncertainty and weakness. Among those people, John Kennedy Toole was a representative figure. The book, The Neon Bible brought Toole into public attention when Toole was young. With an intention to present the world with great literary works and rise in prominence, Toole soon wrote another book, A Confederacy of Dunces, which he was quite satisfied about. Toole soon submitted the book to an influential publisher at that time, Robert Gottlieb, who thought Toole talented but his comic masterpiece pointless. Despite several revisions, Gottlie still reject the book. After another rejection by another editor, Toole felt depressed：he was not sure about his own work, nor his future life. Dwelled on uncertainty, Toole suicide at the age of 31. Ironically, his book became a hit ten years after he died because of his mother’s endless efforts. Therefore, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. There is no doubt that Toole is a great writer; we appreciate his books and gifts, but not his character. A little stuck and a little uncertainty about himself tempted Tooled to give up his precious life, and the chance to witness his great works recognized by the public. In other words, instead of judging a person by his works, how a man cope with a fall, should be the true measurement of his character.
Unlike Toole, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, has revolutionized the conventional management of his company with absolute certain about his foresight and decision-making capability. When he took office, GE was on a downhill trend with a rigid 9-level hierarchy, which seriously delayed the decision-making process; besides, there were lots of redundant workers. Both factors contributed to inefficiency and decline of GE. In order to rescue the century old cooperation, Jack Welch decided to implement a series of policies: he reduced the 9-level hierarchy into 4 and laid off loads of redundant workers. His policies were harsh because he would fire the bottom 10 percent of his managers each year, irrespective of their absolute performance. Undoubtedly, Jack welch was criticized by his collages and other companies when IBM was adopting lifelong tenure to guarantee a sense of belongs to employees; Commentators thought Jack Welch brutal and profit-driven. However, Jack Welch knew that his reform was the most effective way to radically change the fate of General Electric, so his just followed his own conviction without any doubt or uncertainty. As a result, GE had gone from a market value of 14 billion to more than 410 billion at the end of 2004, making it the most valuable company in the world, and Jack Welch’s strategy was later adopted by other CEOs who used to doubt him. It was not difficult to imagine that if jack welch was uncertain about his policy, at any point during his revolution, he would have never gained such great business success, nor have GE become such an influential company in the world. Unlike uncertainty, which weakens the mind, certainty marks Jack Welch a strong and wise leader.
It is easily seen from the two examples that uncertainty is a sign of weakness, as no one, from writers to policy makers, can really benefit form constantly doubting about the meaning of their handwork; only certainty about one’s conviction and dedication guarantees success and breakthrough.
想要获得最权威的SAT考试课程，请点击【