Maxie – K1270095

09/08/2013

KINGSTON PSE

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF ‘SUCCESS’ BY

COMPARING AND EVALUATING TWO LEGENDS,

RENÉ DESCARTES AND WALT DISNEY

Tutors: Joanna & Rachel

Words count: 999

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

ESSAY PLAN

ESSAY TITLE

Original: Define the term ‘success’ and compare, contrast and evaluate the contribution of two successful people in society or your subject area

Paraphrased: Explain the meaning of ‘success’ by comparing and evaluating two legends, René Descartes

and Walt Disney

Using thesis statement: Illustrates and interprets the difference understandings of success meanings from two legends’ stories, René Descartes and Walt Disney

TOPIC FOCUS ACTION

SUCCESS René Descartes and Walt Disney ANALYZE/ COMPARE/ EVALUATE/ DEFINE

INTRODUCTION

1. Topic sentence about the important of success nowadays

2. Mention that success is a word which is not easy to determine or define as well (Jordan, G.M, 2013) [1]

3. Point out two successful legends of the world history, based on their inspiring quotes:

“Cogito ergo sum” Descartes and “If you can dream it, you can do it” – Disney (Brainy Quote, 2013)

4. Essay Structure: firstly do a research on those legends, then put them in contrast and evaluation to illustrate

and interprets the difference meaning and connotation of success in human life

5. Thesis statement: clearly expressed views in favor of the success of Disney

BODY

BLOCK STRUCTURE

Paragraph 1: Discuss about René Descartes’s famous philosophical Latin quote and point out a definition of success

based on his dedication to humanity

Remind Descartes quote in the introduction and explain its meaning in short detail (Watson, R.A., 2007)

“Cogito ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am (Cogito, Ergo Sum, 2002 and Desmond, M.C., 2006)

Analyze the influences of that inspiring phrase what make it possible to call Descartes successful (SEP, 2008)

- Presented humanity with a theory of improving and developing their critical thinking as the way of doubting

themselves to comprehend the cognition and perception of human’s nature to be successful in life (sound is

difficult to understand as philosophy itself)

-> Give a definition of success from researching on Descartes’s view

* Signposting words to link to next paragraph of Disney, a successful story of a dreamer

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Paragraph 2: A research on Walt Disney to illustrate his purpose and target in life as known as his dreams and the

way he made them come true; subsequently, give another view of the meaning of success

Indicate Walt Disney’s biography which his legacies are relevant to this essay topic (Barrier, M., 2005)

- An American business magnate, animator, film producer, director, screenwriter, and actor

- Academy Awards, the creation of "Mickey Mouse" (Mickey’s origin; Fritz, S., 2008), “Disney Animations”

empire, “Disneyland” kingdom (Princeton University, 2013; Randy, B., 1987; Disney Dreamer, 2007)

Analyze the businessman aspect of Disney himself (Magic Strategy, 2005) [2]

The effects and impacts of Walt Disney’s success to the world by his inspiring quote mentioned in the essay’s

introduction (Goodreads, 2013)

- Influenced people to recognize the dreams’ concept and also motivated them to follow and make those

dreams come true

-> Success definition: Success is how people would realize their dream and find motivation to reach it; far

beyond the Descartes' theory, success here is not only how the way people would look at their intrinsicalness

(inside), but also how they could force themselves towards to make their desire become reality as an

extrinsic tangible (outside)

- It is a conclusion as wellCONCLUSION

Last Paragraph: Compare and evaluate the success of Descartes and Disney to illustrate and interpret how those

properties have changed the world as how they legated the legacies to human to define success

Repeat the whole entire focus of the article

Put the success of Descartes and Disney in contrast to give different definitions about it and from some

evaluations, show the clearly expressed views in favor of the Disney’s success

Point out success always starts with failure (Rapp, S., 2013 and Business, 2013)

Emphasize an idea that being success is following the phrase ‘Never-Give-Up’ from two sayings:

“The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times” (The Alchemist, 1988)

“Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed” (Kiyosaki, R., 2005)

A short definition of success from the essay writer’s view

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

ESSAY

Success is a combination of letters which has been repeated in everyday life nowadays. However, one of the biggest

problems might be faced by humankind is to understand precisely the concept of success (Jordan, G.M., 2013).

Unfortunately, success is literally a word which cannot be described in words. Defining success effectively, people

may keep their eyes on some successful stories of the great people. This essay will do a research on two legends’

success, René Descartes and Walt Disney, followed by cited their famous quotes: “Cogito ergo sum” and “If you can

dream it, you can do it” (Brainy Quote, 2013). After comparing and evaluating their successful stories, it illustrates the

difference aspects of the meaning of success in life; one opinion of having succeeded is to identify someone’s own

intrinsic figure; whereas another perspective is far beyond. Being successful could be based on the realization of their

dream and motivation to make it become reality; success is seemed to be able to see as an extrinsic tangible object

by the result of reaching human’s dream.

Richard A. Watson (1931), an American philosopher who had a special interest in Descartes, seemly enlightens the

meaning of Descartes’ famous saying: “Cogito ergo sum” in his memorable book (Cogito, Ergo Sum, 2002). Descartes

(1596-1650) has been known as one glorious monument in philosophy history (Desmond, M.C., 2006) and “Cogito

ergo sum”, his philosophical Latin quote, was the abridged form of Descartes’s full statement: “Dubito ergo cogito

ergo sum” (English meaning: “I doubt, therefore I think I am”) which had brought the Western philosophy toward a

new step of development. As Watson explained, the basic understanding of this quote is that if somebody has a

skeptical thought about his existence, he also has evidence to affirm and attest that he is a real physical essence as a

factual tangible object in life. This may related to the success of philosophy in particular and humanity in general; it is

to comprehend and own the concept of one’s self-awareness. Because following the hidden idea and theory of

“Cogito ergo sum”, Descartes successfully not only changed the philosophy basis in his era but also made an

influential impact on contemporary philosophy until nowadays (SEP, 2008). His concept of self-awareness has

become a first principle in settling and deciphering the universal doubt, a premise and prerequisite for human

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

intrinsic thoughts. Meanwhile, after centuries, Disney is another typical instance of a successful story of a dreamer

who changes the world by making his dreams come true.

When it comes to the word “dreams”, it cannot be denied that most people commonly think of an inspirational

person; his name is Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966; Barrier, M., 2008). In 1928, Mickey Mouse was born from a

sketches idea of Disney and completed by Ub Iwerks and Charles Solomon, a L.A. Times critic, once stated: "Ub

designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul" (Fritz, S., 2008). Mickey is still the Walt Disney

Company’s sacred symbol nowadays (Princeton University, 2013). On 17th July 1955, Disney had successfully built an

empire where every dream can become reality, the first Disneyland Park in California (Randy, B., 1987). Before giving

up his life for an unkind lung cancer, Disney had achieved the records for more than twenty Academy Award

nominations as a large amount number of Oscar prizes (Disney Dreamer, 2007). Back to his past, since the first day in

school, Disney already had an outstanding business penchant for selling the sketches to his primary classmates. At

the same time, Disney realized that all those scribble doodles hided a great business idea behind. It is true that Walt

Disney was a business man himself (Magic Strategy, 2005). Disney knew, in painting, he was not as good as other

artists in his studios; notwithstanding, Disney was an ideas and imaginations factory and he seemed to see his

dreams and his successes become reality in the future. As mentioned in most Disney’s movies, he always sent a same

message over and over again to the audiences as to the world, “If you can dream it, you can do it” (Goodreads, 2013).

Success in Disney’s view might be an extrinsic tangible object that everyone can see, sense, feel and touch it.

Both Descartes and Disney had left this world for a long time, but the values they legated for humanity still been a

precious heritage which will exist forever by time. They were legendary pioneers for changing the face of this world

and their own successful stories both started from something called the idea. Descartes philosophy passed to

humanity a meaningful lesson based on the theory of self-awareness and self-assessment; success in Descartes’s

perspective might be to understand and appreciate human’s existence; while Disney’s dedication could be more

extensive because he successfully transferred the human’s dreams from inside their mind to express them into real

world. It may be hard to define the true meaning of success; nevertheless, if people look at a practical and more

humanity aspect, the successful way of a dreamer is easier to perceive than a philosopher in some unspecified way.

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

Moreover, Disney was also an encouraging reflection and a living proof for never give up to pursue the purpose in

life. It is undeniable that Disney had failed thousand times before the day he succeeded but “The secret of life is to

fall seven times and to get up eight times” (The Alchemist, 1988). It is the most important lesson for anyone who is

chasing success because as a common and essential sense, success always starts and comes with failure (Rapp, S.,

2013 and Business, 2013). As Kiyosaki advised in his famous “Rich Dad” collection, “Loser quit when they fail; while

the Winner fails until they succeed” (Kiyosaki, R., 2005); success might be just a happy feeling of gaining human’s

desire in life. As an additional for the last words, the Walt Disney Company has annual revenues of over U.S. $40

billion in recent years (The Walt Disney Company, 2012).

REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

DESCARTES:

Desmond, M.C. (2006) Descartes: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

SEP (2008) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: René Descartes [Online] 3rd Dec, 2008. Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Watson, R.A (2002) Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes. Massachusettse. [E-book] Available at:

http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PP6&lpg=PP6&dq=Richard+A.+Watson+%281931%29+%28Cogito,+Ergo+Sum,+2002%29&source=bl&ots=sdKsNGl3Il&sig=RGFK2wjccV76zdQJODvqXW5cPwA&hl=vi&sa=X&ei=CpUEUsPAMuWc0QXn4IDgCw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Richard%20A.%20Watson%20%281931%29%20%28Cogito%2C%20Ergo%20Sum%2C%202002%29&f=false, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

DISNEY:

Barrier, M. (2008) Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Disney Dreamer (2007) Academy Awards [Online] Available at: http://www.disneydreamer.com/WDAW.htm, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Fritz, S. (2008) Animated Shorts: Mickey Mouse Turns 80 [Online] 18th

Nov 2008. Available at:

http://www.newsarama.com/1563-animated-shorts-mickey-mouse-turns-80.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Goodreads (2013) Quotable Quote: Walt Disney [Online] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/24673-if-you-can-dream-it-you-can-do-it-always, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Magic Strategy (2005) Walt Disney’s Success Story: Success begins with a Dream [Online] Available at: http://magicstrategy.com/articles/walt-disneys-success-story/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

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Princeton University (2013) The Walt Disney Company. [Online] Available at: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/The_Walt_Disney_Company.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Randy, B. (1987) Disneyland: Inside Story. Harry N Abrams.

OTHERS:

Brainy Quote (2013) Rene Descartes and Walt Disney quotes [Online] Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rene_descartes.html and http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/walt_disney.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Jordan, G.M., (2013) How do you define Succes? [Online] 14th May, 2013. Available at: http://ytaentrepreneursuccess.com/2013/05/14/how-do-you-define-success/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

Kiyosaki, R.T., (2005) Rich Dad: Before you quit your job (Book). New York: Warner Business Book.

[Material adapted from: The Alchemist (1988)] Paulo, C. (1988). The Alchemist: Introduction. p.vii. London: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Rapp, S., (2013) Why Success Always Starts with Failure (Book) [Online]. Available at: http://99u.com/articles/7072/why-success-always-starts-with-failure, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

The Walt Disney Company (2012) Annual Reports: 2012 Annual Report [Online] Available at: http://cdn.media.ir.thewaltdisneycompany.com/2012/annual/10kwrap-2012.pdf, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES

[1] Your Talent Advantage – Entrepreneur Success (2013) How do you define Succes? [Online] Available at:

http://ytaentrepreneursuccess.com/2013/05/14/how-do-you-define-success/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

This article defines the understanding of success from a business conference attended by the author.

As mentioned from its first sentences, this article comes out with a survey of people’ bad feeling to do

what they are not interested and also poses a question about the evaluation for a successful person

(e.g rich or having peace of mind); and at last, it implies that being successful is not about gaining

reputation but reaching the people’s reflection. This article cites some people’s relevant and essential

sayings for the definition of success; however, the author had not included the biography reference

about those quote-speakers and identified them carefully. After all, it is easy to understand the

author’s message. This article supports my affirmation on the meaning of success. In other words, this

article becomes an effective bibliography for my writing essay’s resources.

SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL

[2] Magic Strategy (2005) Walt Disney’s Success Story: Success begins with a Dream [Online] Available at:

http://magicstrategy.com/articles/walt-disneys-success-story/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

This article discusses Walt Disney’s success story and explains the way he made his dreams become

reality. Firstly, the article cites a sentence from a song in Disney’s Pinocchio that became the main

theme for all Disney movies or TV shows (When you wish upon a star). It is argued here that Disney

had many unbelievable wishes and dreams of generating a great invention and mentioned he was

perfectly not a film-maker; in other words, Disney was a skilful business man. By interpreting the

cause for the beginning of Disney’s dreams, this article focuses on his biography and his story life to

illustrate Disney’s success figure; it also recounts his decision on creating “Disneyland” step by step.

The structure of this article indicates all the aspects of his life in a specific way and gives substantial

background information for his motivation of following his dreams and the influence of Disney’s

success to the world. Nevertheless, this article still contains some weak points such as lack of the

definition of success based on his achievements in details. Overall, this article will be useful for my

research in terms of understanding Disney’s dreams and his legacy to human life; furthermore, it

helps me on the way of executing and accomplishing my essay this week.