Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson points out that the best way to achieve success is the concept of self-reliance. This is setting goals that we want to achieve, and exploring new opportunities as they arise in our lives. It is the whole notion of living the way we want to live, and not letting others influence our decisions. In reality, some struggle with this more than others.

At the end of the article Emerson stated, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” That principle is self-reliance. Emerson discussed that everyone in a perfect world would be able to achieve all of the same benefits from the same amount of effort exerted. However, this is not the case in our world today. We have read articles about how minorities and different social classes cannot always reap the same benefits. That’s why we can’t rely on others to give us the accomplishment of success. This is where we got into the discussion of politics and should my hard earned money go to those who haven’t achieved the same level of success?

I agree with Emerson, however, his notion of self-reliance is very hard to accomplish. In my opinion, everyone no matter what social class or minority you are born into; it’s what you do with your life that makes you successful. Complete self-reliance maybe hard to achieve, but attempting to become self-reliant is what makes one successful so that we don’t have to rely on others to give us our success.