“A Man is a success if he gets up in the morning and does what he wants to do.” – Bob Dylan

Life is a complex organism, comprised of existence, of enjoyment, of pain, and most importantly, of failure. It is a prized possession that we all live through – but it is something that we live through only once. It is unfortunate that so many live a life not of their own choosing, but of the wishes and choices of others.

So often you hear of people discussing their livelihoods in a negative connotation. They hate their job. They hate their studies. They hate their life. Ultimately, these failures are the result of ones own inaction in realizing such failures, and the lack of acting upon these learned failures. Steve Jobs follows a great model, one that too many fail to realize. When he wakes up in the morning, if he can not come to terms with something he is to do, be it work, a project, a family event or outing – whatever it may be – if he can not come to find enjoyment in this activity for more than three days in a row, he makes a change. It is through failures that we learn – through dislikes and non-enjoyment that one learns what one likes and does not like.

But the problem is, most people do not do this. In today’s globalized world, corporations rule rather than the individual. Companies operate to please stockholders in world economies, and often operate on a basis of fear that dwindles down to lower-level staff and employees. All of this amounts to pressure that adds increased stress and dissatisfaction to today’s global citizens – including, increasingly, college students. The added pressure to obtain a career immediately after college has forced many to study something they are not passionate about.

The problem is that if you cannot truly say that you enjoy what you do, you are a failure. And in some ways, that is a good thing I think. Learn from these failures and figure out what you want to do with your life. Unfortunately, faced with increasing pressure from outside forces, students blindside themselves to these facts, these failures, and carry on throughout college taking the required courses to obtain their degree.

Through the year and a half that I have attended the University of California, Irvine so far, I have come to realize that many students cannot call themselves what Bob Dylan defines as a successful man. Many students are majoring in subjects determined by their parents or family units. Many students study day and night, sacrificing social elements of our valued life for the grades that they believe will jumpstart themselves into a career path immediately following college. And many students take easy “GPA boosters” to bump up their overall GPA. And consequently, the majority of students in the classes I have taken show up, do the minimum, and leave, without ever consciously being “there” in that class.

The result is an overwhelming surplus of students that just do not care. Students take classes to meet a requirement, a checkmark on a degree audit sheet. Rather than taking classes out of pure interest in the subject, they apply themselves only in the realm of what gets graded. Perhaps this is in part a failure on the education system in this country, perhaps in part a failure on the workplace throughout this world. Nonetheless, it is failing those who really want to learn for learning’s sake, unfortunately, this represents a decreasing population of students.

It wasn’t until Steve Jobs dropped out of college that he began to apply himself. After taking a semester of required courses to graduate, Jobs not only felt the college system inhibiting, but uninteresting. The courses he was passionate about were blocked by major-only restrictions, full, or would prevent his own graduation. So, Jobs made a change, a change many parents would look upon with disgust and disapproval. But, a change that launched Jobs into the success he has seen thus far.

One class Jobs discussed taking after dropping out was a stenography course. This class taught Jobs about the intricacies of stenography, and furthered his passion for the art – an art that eventually made it into the graphical user interface (GUI) of the early Macintosh operating systems, something that has continued to this very day in the Mac.

And so began a passion to develop, change, and think different – all defining elements that separate the Mac platform from its competition and began the personal computing industry. It was the actual interest in learning about subjects that peaked the curiosity and interest of an individual that brought about success for the Mac, for Steve Jobs, and for all of those that attend college to truly learn.

I have become increasingly frustrated, personally, with the mentality of my fellow UCI students (a college with an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 22,000 currently). The first day of class is usually structured around a class syllabus and course outline, describing workloads and examinations throughout the quarter. It is also a time where many students pepper professors and assistants with questions about the format of the midterm and final tests, the lengths, the structure and the material to be present on such tests.

Who cares? I ask myself this at the beginning of every class when a minimum of 10 minutes is devoted to responding to these questions. And usually, the professor does not know yet. I have had a handful of professors simply say just wait and find out. This peppering is ridiculous, and unfortunately representative of the attitudes of students. They are there for a grade, not for learning. They are there to attend class at the beginning of lectures when homework’s or assignments are due, and then they leave. They return to class on examination days, and cram the night before. They ask their friends for help on topics, and store all the information in short term memory, only to throw it out upon completion of the test. There is no true interest in subjects or courses anymore. There are only degree requirements and GPA boosters. This is the college thousands of students attend.

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” -Oscar Wilde

And as this quarter wraps itself up, I walk around campus to find students cramming. They are studying for that final grade. They are trying profusely to find out any information they can about the final exams to be given next week. And they are truly interested in nothing but their final grade. They skip a quarter’s final class when a professor decides to give a life speech, a speech of encouragement, morals, and success. Why? Because it won’t help them on their final.

I stay, for the second time, to hear my business management professor wish us well, to send us off on a journey of unknowns, failures, and hopefully, the individual success that Bob Dylan would have us attain. I have sat through this farewell speech in this professors other class last quarter, but found myself inspired the second time around just as much as I was the first time around. The quotes and morals presented in this 300-some seat lecture hall may have passed right over the heads of those sleeping and those on their Facebook pages over any number of other Internet websites and messaging programs in operation throughout the class, but for those that were listening for listening’s sake, learning for learning’s sake, I can only hope that it is this group of students, of citizens, that will take what they heard, and act upon their lives accordingly.

Try, fail, and stay hungry.

[photo by cheesus]

Popularity: 3%