Success

Success:

A person’s hard work and dedication in order to complete important goals set by that person

(Sprout.com)

Jim Embrescia’s Remarks About Success

(Nick Angelino)

I interviewed my grandfather, Jim Embrescia. Jim founded and works as the CEO of Media One Group, LLC, a company that owns 11 radio stations, such as Cougar 93.7, 98.3 The Bull, and 103.1 the Fox (Media 1 Group). These stations spread across Northeast Ohio, Northwest Pennsylvania, and Western New York, about the success he has had in his life, and some of the key factors it takes to attain success today.

1. What do you define as success?

“Happiness and Health in your Life and career.”

2. Do you consider yourself successful and why?

“Yes, I have a great family and grandchildren and have experiences some wonderful events together with all of them.”

3. What do you think helped you most reach this point in your career?

“To continue to work through any difficult challenges and be confident in your ideas.”

4. If you could describe yourself in one word, what would you say?

“Dependable; I can always be relied on to turn things in on time, be there for meetings, whatever you need, I am there to do it.”

5. Are you happy with your current job, and what do you think it takes to become successful today?

“YES, work hard and continue to believe in yourself!”

6. Name the hardest thing you have ever accomplished.

“Putting together my first company and learning from that experience.”

7. When you hit a roadblock in your work, what motivates you to keep going?

Thinking positive and continuing to believe in yourself.

8. Is there ever a time to give up or should you never stop trying?

“NO, even if you are backed in a corner, you can’t give up because that leads to failure and nobody wants to fail.”

9. Describe the most amount of effort you have ever put into a project, and how did it pay off?

“Buying my Erie Radio Stations. I had to fly to Washington DC to meet with lawyers who were representing the Bank who owned them. Then I returned to work with lawyers and after closing of the transaction, I went to Erie for a week to review and help with the Rebuilding of the stations. It was 1996, I sold them for a large Profit in 1999.“ 10. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

“Enjoying family and retirement and a long and healthy life..”

Although Jim and I have different definitions of success, we both agree that hard work and dedication lead to success. Without the hard work people who aspire to become successful put into their work, attaining success would become nearly impossible for those people. However, if people today learn about perseverance and hard work, then the world will become a much more successful place.

Advice Column Dear Oratory Orenthal, Yesterday at school, my friends and I discussed our grades at lunch, and all of my friends have better grades than me. I would like to have success in school like them, but I do not know how. Can you please help me? Finally, I would like to ask, in your own words, what factors most directly lead to success in our society today?

From, Anxious Aaron

Dear Anxious Aaron, First of all, the success of your friends should not matter to you, as you should only focus on yourself.

Now, in order for you to have success in school, you should use what I like to call the snail fork approach, because it has two prongs. The first step occurs when you set goals for yourself, whether for one week, a month, a semester, the whole year, or any time period you want. Your goals can vary from something as simple as turning in every homework assignment for a week, or something more lengthy, such as receiving 92% or higher in all of your classes for the semester. While you can set all of these goals easily, none of them will come true unless you follow step 2, where you actually go out and achieve your goals. Whether you go in after class for extra help on topics, or study for an extra hour every night, ensuring that you meet your goals will also ensure success in your schooling. In order to ensure success like you want, you must stay focused and on task at all times. Knowing teenagers, they get off task much easier than older people do. Even when you study alone trying to grind your homework on your computer, getting off task not only prevents your productivity, but inhibits your success in what you work on. To answer your final question, I believe that many factors lead to success in society today, however only one stands out to me. Hard work and dedication. Take two students for example, Zachary and Octavius. Zachary, although having a very high level of intelligence, does not put much effort into his schoolwork, thus not attaining the grades he desires to have in order to get into a good college.

Octavius, on the other hand, does not have the same intelligence level as Zachary, but Octavius puts in hours of studying every night. This leads to him attaining good grades in his school, which subsequently means that Octavius gets into his dream college, setting him up to attain more successful position than Zachary would have. To me, Octavius has more success than Zachary does because he had more dedication and could get in to the college of his dreams. If you put in hard work and dedication, that, Anxious Aaron, will ensure success in your future.

Best Regards, Oratory Orenthal

Review of Through My Eyes I read Tim Tebow’s 2011 book, ​Through My Eyes.​ In the book, Tebow, with author Nathan Whitaker, writes about his upbringing and how he became one of the most electrifying college football players. He starts by talking about his early life and overactive childhood, from playing every sport to participating in church plays.

He describes his high school football and baseball career, and how he put in mountains of extra work and effort to excel at football. He chose to play at the University of Florida. Then, Tebow discusses his college football career, highlighting moments like winning the 2 National Championships, the Heisman Trophy, and working hard to become a star. He decided to enter the NFL after graduating. Finally, Tebow highlights moments from his NFL career and ends the book by thanking God and acknowledging the hard work he put in. While Tebow’s story may not apply to the average Joe, as only .08 percent of high school senior football players get drafted into the NFL, his story still shows how hard work and determination lead to success (Ryan). Tebow put in lots of work and determination to excel at football, and it paid off, as the Denver Broncos drafted him. If everyone put in that same amount of work and effort, many more people would have success (Tebow).

(Amazon.com)

Review of Perfect Season I also read Tim Green’s 2013 book ​Perfect Season​. Troy, a young boy who has a special gift for football, can tell when a team will run or pass. After helping Atlanta Falcons, Troy and his mom, Tessa, move to Summit, New Jersey. However, their football program has a historic losing streak. To add on, Troy’s dad, who left Tessa, steals $2 million, leaving them with nothing. This makes Troy even more determined to improve his situation.

Troy calls Tessa’s boyfriend, Seth, who played linebacker for the Falcons, to come coach the team. Seth gets many good coaches to help improve the team. Meanwhile, Troy’s best friend, Tate, comes to live in summit because her father got in a terrible accident and her mom has to care for him 24/7. Then, Chuku, an amazing wide receiver, comes to play for Summit, giving them hope for a successful season. However, near the end of the season, a local company tries to ruin Summit’s season, claiming that Seth recruited. Seth successfully files for a temporary restraining order against the company, meaning Summit can finish their season. To everyone’s surprise, Summit finishes with a perfect season, breaking their historic losing streak. Troy’s hard work and determination to succeed at football exemplifies how hard work and dedication always leads to success (Green).

(harpercollins.com) I like Tim Tebow’s book better because I liked Tebow when he played at Florida, and his story and upbringing drew me in more than Tim Green’s book.

Swimming into the Spotlight When people think of swimming, two big names come to mind: Mark Spitz and Caeleb Dressel. People know Spitz for his record-breaking 7 gold medal performance at the 1972 Olympics, and Dressel broke onto the swimming scene in 2012, when he became the first swimmer under 16 to break 20 seconds in the 50 free (Caeleb Dressel Bio). And while Spitz may not swim now, he still gets involved with swimming and the Olympics, as he has endorsed Istanbul’s bid to host the 2020 summer Olympics. As for Dressel, he still continues to destroy the competition today, as last month he swam a world record 17.63 seconds in the 50 free. Mark Spitz has always dedicated much time to swimming from a young age. At two years old, Spitz and his family moved to Honolulu, and Spitz swam at Waikiki beach every single day. His mom even stated that it looked as if he “was trying to commit suicide” (Brody). Clearly, Spitz’s drive to always practice swimming to constantly improve his ability demonstrates that his intense work ethic and dedication led to him becoming an Olympic legend. Similar to Spitz, Caeleb Dressel has always had the desire to become the best. This occurred once at the 2013 World Championship Trials. Dressel swam fantastically, breaking his own 100 free record ​3​ times in the same meet and tying the 15-16 50 free record, he somehow did not make the cut. Nevertheless, Dressel put the pedal to the medal and relentlessly trained for three years at Clay High School and the University of Florida. The hard work showed. At the 2016 SEC Championships, Dressel went off, breaking 5 ​ ​ SEC, NCAA, American, and US Open records ​in the same race.​ , breaking a variety of SEC, American, NCAA, and U.S. Open records in the same race. This just goes to show how Dressel’s hard work and determination led to him becoming considered today by many as Swimming Jesus. For swimmers who highly doubt their abilities to improve, Mark’s story emphasizes how that level of commitment to something must result in success. And for swimmers who botched during their career, Caeleb’s comeback story demonstrates how people can come back from that botch and convert that into success. Take it from me. Sophomore year of high school, I could not find a groove in my swimming and ended up adding time from freshman year. However, I developed a dream: to make states the next year. That dream had me sitting in the workout room for hours a week after practice trying to get in shape and get faster. Ultimately, we swam well enough to make states and my dreams became reality. To conclude, If anyone could learn from Mark and Caeleb, they would figure out the two main keys to becoming successful: hard work and dedication.

Not Fitting in, but Standing Out Nowadays, people contain much interest in becoming physically fit. For example, when my friend, who wants to become a personal trainer, started running, people thought of him as out of shape. But once he started working hard this fall, he not only got more fit but much improved his running level. Also, ever since Jack LaLanne started to motivate people in the 1900s, personal training has had popularity (Gauthier). That continues today, as 42% of personal trainers today feel secure with their job (Chan). My friend, who wants to become a personal trainer, provides a textbook example of how hard work leads to success. This fall, he became unhappy with his current level of running, so he started working hard. He still works hard today, but the work he has put in so far has paid off. Now, his level of strength has increased, and he has become one of the top 5 runners on the cross country team. His hard work has definitely paid off, and that will be helpful for when he becomes a personal trainer. Personal trainers motivate people to work hard in order to complete goals they set for themselves and become successful. One great example of this occured from 2004 to 2016, a show called the biggest loser. On the show, all people have a personal trainer who motivates them with the ultimate goal of losing weight. Michael Ventrella, former winner of the show, perfectly demonstrates how the motivation from personal trainers leads to success. Ventrella, before entering the show, weighed 526 pounds. In order to win the show and $250,000, Ventrella’s goal became to almost cut his original weight in half, down to 269 pounds. At the end of it all, Ventrella weighed 262 pounds, losing an astonishing 264 pounds. This shows just how much hard work means in the field of success. However, Ventrella now struggles due to his prize money’s depletion, the fact that he basically has no money and lives with his parents, displaying how some people cannot sustain success like others (Chandler). For parents who do not know if they want their kids having personal trainers, Michael’s story should explain to them that a personal trainer not only motivates them to become fit, but also teaches them the life lesson that hard work and dedication leads to success. Also, for the teenagers who have interest in either becoming a personal trainer or trying to become more physically fit, this demonstrates that personal trainers will not only motivate you to become more successful, but teach you that your hard work will always lead to success. To conclude, personal trainers present great examples of how hard work leads to success because they constantly motivate you to work your hardest, and the hard work always pays off in the end.

Works Cited Angelino, Nick. Personal Interview. 18 April 2018.

Angelino, Nick. ​Urban Meyer. ​2015.

Brody, Seymour. “Mark Spitz.” ​Mark Spitz​, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 1996, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mark-spitz.

“Caeleb Dressel Bio.” ​SwimSwam​, Swim Swam Partners, LLC, 2018, swimswam.com/bio/caeleb-dressel/.

Chan, edwina. “Personal Trainer Facts and Stats.” ​Visual.ly​, Visually, Inc., 9 May 2013, visual.ly/community/infographic/health/personal-trainer-facts-and-stats.

Chandler, Susan. “'Biggest Loser' Winner Michael Ventrella Struggles with Life after the Show.”

Chicago Magazine​, Chicago Magazine, 24 Nov. 2010, www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2010/Biggest-Loser-Michael-Ventr el la-Struggles-in-Life-after-the-Show/.

Gauthier, Michael. “Personal Trainer History.” ​LIVESTRONG.COM​, Leaf Group, 11 Sept. 2017, www.livestrong.com/article/412711-personal-trainer-history/.

Green, Tim. ​Perfect Season​. Harper, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.

Green, Tim. ​Perfect Season​. 1 Oct. 2013. ​HarperCollinsPublishers​, HarperCollins Publishers, 1 Oct. 2013, www.harpercollins.com/9780062208699/ perfect-season. Accessed 20 Apr. 2018.

Klein, Rory. ​Tesoro Nacional.​ 2017.

“Media 1 Group.” ​Media One Group, LLC​, www.mediaone-group.com/main.php.

Ryan, Chris. “What Are the Odds of a High School Football Player Reaching the NFL?” ​NJ.com​, New Jersey On-Line LLC, 8 Sept. 2015, highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-1769497769554898414/what-are-the-odds-of-a-hi gh-school-football-player-reaching-the-nfl/.

"Success." 15 Apr. 2014. ​Sprout​, MediaGroep, 15 Apr. 2014, www.sprout.nl/artikel/ innovatie/10-businessmodellen-om-nu-de-markt-mee-te-verslaan. Accessed 19 Apr. 2018.

Tebow, Tim. ​Through My Eyes​. Harpercollins, 2012.

Through My Eyes​. 23 Feb. 2013. ​Amazon​, 23 Feb. 2013, www.amazon.com/ Through-My-Eyes-Quarterbacks-Journey/dp/0310732913. Accessed 20 Apr. 2018.

(Rory Klein)

About The Author I attend Chagrin Falls High School, in 11th grade. I have lived in Chagrin Falls all my life. I have played high school soccer for two years, swam for three years, and played three years of tennis. I have swam competitively since 9 years old and have always loved water. I have always had success in swimming since joining the Chagrin Valley Country Club swim team in the summer of ‘07. My first and second summers, I had little success because I still learning the strokes, but in the summer of ‘09 I broke out as a young star. In A champs, I captured the 9-10 25 backstroke title, which would be my first of many trophies collected in the summer swimming years. 4 years, 4 titles, and countless trophies later, I joined Lake Erie Silver Dolphins to continue my career. While I stood out over the summer, the talent on the LESD roster could not compare, and I needed to work to get to the top. The Monday, Wednesday and Friday grind paid off because I swam all personal bests during the meets, and even won swimmer of the week and used the holy silver kickboard. After graduating from LESD, I moved on to the most important chapter in my swimming career-High School. I entered the season with shaky confidence, even after coming off a strong summer season, because I did not know what practice I would end up in (A, B, C, or D). Luckily, all of my hard work paid off, because I would end up in A practice and I would lead a lane of mostly upperclassmen who arguably had more skill than me. At the beginning of the year, I had no place on the team, like many other freshmen. But after swimming the 500 for the first time, I found a place. By the end of the year, I the only boy freshman to make districts and had secured a strong future for the rest of high school. Sophomore year I hit a slump. The effort did not exist and at the end of the year, I had added 16 seconds from last year. After that, I needed to improve. First, I quit soccer and attended Great Lakes Sailfish Swimming everyday from 3-5. Then when swim season rolled around, the hype became real. After a full season of ab workouts and chlorine burns, postseason came, and I swam well at sectionals, giving the team hope. At this point in the season, I had one chance to make it- the 400 Free Relay.

At districts, everybody swam well and I finally secured my dream and made states. I will never forget that moment and all the hard work that led up to me finally attaining the ultimate success in high school swimming and completing my goal.