Only people who earn a lot of money are successful...Do you agree? Or disagree

English as a Second Language Preparation for and help with the TOEFL® Test and
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Topic : Only people who earn a lot of money are successful…Do you agree? Or disagree

It is hard to define success. Definition of success depends on the way we perceive it. People may have devoid of opinions. While some of us think that success means earning a lot of money, others may think that their success lies in achieving their goal. I would prefer to measure the success of a person in terms of his achievements rather than of the money he has earned.

Bill Gates, Ex-President of Microsoft, told in an interview that ‘money never runs behind a person who runs behind it’. When he established Microsoft, he never intended to earn money. His intention is to succeed in his endeavour of making a computer to be easily operable by a common man. We all know what happened later. Microsoft has become a revelation in the computer industry and went on to garner profits of unimaginable proportions.

If Bill Gates simply wanted to earn money, then he would have easily joined in a company for a high salary. Instead of that, he started his own company and eventually became successful. His passion and goal have driven him away from joining a big company and propelled him to start his own company. Today most of us might rate his success based on those millions of dollars he had earned over the years. However, I see him as a visionary who revolutionized personal computing and as a great technocrat, who played an instrumental role in bringing computer to every household.

Mahatma Gandhi once told he doesn’t need any palatial house to live because he would like to stay in the hearts of millions of Indians. While he was relentless in his march against the mighty british, he never tried to earn money. Had he wanted to earn money, he would have stayed in South Africa and continued to practice his law. However, his goal was not to earn money for himself but to earn independence to those millions of Indians who were crushed in the clutches of British rulers.

With this goal in his mind, he came to back to India and started his fight against the british. Without him, the story of Indian independence movement would be incomplete. Although he didn’t earn lot of money, he had earned a place in the heart of every Indian.Can we trade the respect, he commands from all Indians, with money?

In our history there are many legendary personalities who ranked “achieving their goal” above “earning money”. While It is true that money is required for a happy living, it is not our lifeline. We must understand the fact that there is life without money. Hence I strongly denounce the notion of judging the success in terms of money earned.

TOEFL listening lectures: Why is Carlos Finlay significant?

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I am not a teacher, but I would be happy to comment on your essay. Another great essay - it seems like you will have no trouble with this part of the TOEFL, is there a certain score you wish to receive?

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Thanks for your comments. They are really helpful. I think I have to pay more attention towards tenses and usage of articles. I would like to get a rating of atleast 4 out of 5 in Toefl writing. When it comes to overall TOEFL score, I would not be happy if I get anything less than 100. Hence I am practicing a lot and trying my level best to get to that level.

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I have used the word “goal” twice in this essay. once in 1st paragraph and then in 3rd paragraph.

In the context of 1st paragraph, I echo with your opinion. I should have written ‘goals’ instead of ‘goal’. Here it is used in a generic way. People have different goals in their lives. Achieving those goals means success to them.

However in 3 rd paragraph, the word “goal” is pointing to a specific goal of Bill gates : His endeavour to make a computer easily operable by an ordinary person. I have explained his goal and his intentions in starting Microsoft in the previous paragraph.In this context , shouldn’t I be using “goal” rather than “goals”? Can you please clarify…

I would be glad if you can throw light on the usage of the article " the". I am little confused …

Thanks
Have a great day

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Hi,

I accept your reasoning for using goal. I guess it is just that you explained that goal in the previous paragraph, several sentences before. So by the time you used it again, I thought you were back to talking about general goals.

I agree that a and the are very hard to use perfectly. Here is a pretty thorough article I found

rensselaer.edu/dept/llc/writ … ii/esl.txt - it has a good quiz at the end.

This explains why you use The before definition:

  1. A modifying word, phrase, or clause FOLLOWS the noun and makes it
    clear which specific person or thing you are referring to. But not
    every noun that is modified in this way is definite; it depends largely
    on the situation and on what you can reasonably expect your listener/
    reader to know about.

    Do you remember THE girl who went camping with us? [Using “the”
    here implies that there was only one girl who went camping with you;
    otherwise the clause “who went camping with us” would not be sufficient
    to identify the particular girl that you are referring to. If there
    were two girls, then you would have to be more specific, saying perhaps
    “Do you remember THE girl from Iowa who went camping with us last May?”]

I think this is why you should use the before Indian independence movement - you are talking about a particular independence movement
3. The noun describes a unique person, place, or thing.

THE earth revolves around THE sun once every 365 days. [There is 
only one earth and only one sun--in our solar system, that is!]