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Seal Di

Ms. Mei

English Honor 1101

17 December 2023

Efficiency Determines Success

What makes some people more successful than others? Is it luck, talent, or hard work?

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, the top 10% of productive workers who

get success are not those who work longer hours, but those who work more efficiently.

Success means achieving the desired vision and planned goals, and efficiency is the soul of

success, which enables you to achieve your goals with the least amount of time and

resources.

The growth mindset is the belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be developed

through learning and practice. It fosters a love of learning and a resilience to overcome

setbacks. Students with a growth mindset tend to see the challenge as an opportunity or a way

to improve efficiency. Moreover, the growth mindset can help people accumulate experience

for future learning and work, forming a virtuous cycle. Dweck explains, “The kids learned to

keep trying when the problems got tough. They also solved many more problems even in the

face of difficulty” (Dweck 32-34). This virtuous cycle will improve efficiency, as people can

learn faster and better from their mistakes and successes.

Also, without effort, efficiency and success are impossible. A good example of how

efforts can improve efficiency is the case of Marita, a 12-year-old girl from a poor family. In

his essay “Marita’s Bargain”, Malcolm Gladwell describes how Marita spends much more

time learning than their peers. “Our kids are spending fifty to sixty percent more time

learning than traditional public-school student” (Gladwell 232-234). Efforts can help people

discover and master the patterns of work and learning, thereby achieving the goal of
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improving efficiency. By setting clear and realistic goals, the students can monitor their

progress and adjust their strategies accordingly.

In addition, Efficiency depends on self-regulation, which is the ability to control one’s

emotions and behaviors to achieve one’s goals. One way is by motivating oneself to pursue

one’s goals and overcome obstacles. Dweck stated that “The focus on learning strategies,

effort, and persistence paid off for these students” (Dweck 90). Thus, it can be seen that

students with persistence are more likely to view challenges as opportunities, rather than

threats. The second aspect is adapting oneself to changing situations. If encountering difficult

events or emergencies, emotions can easily influence people's thoughts. Controlling emotions

to maintain a rational attitude will greatly improve the efficiency of problem-solving.

In short, efficiency determines success, and all efforts that do not focus on efficiency

will eventually face failure. Growth mindset, effort, and self-regulation, all three complement

each other and are indispensable. Therefore, efficiency is the way that must be passed to

success. As Shengtao Ye, a famous Chinese educator, said, “The cultivation of ability must

continue unceasingly, and it is also necessary to improve the learning method and the

efficiency of learning at any time to be successful.”

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Works Cited

1. Dweck, Carol. “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.” SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, 1 Jan.

2015, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/. 17 Dec.

2023.

2. Gladwell, Malcolm. “Marita’s Bargain.” Weebly,

mskellyenglish12.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/7/9/30792489/maritas_bargain.pdf. 17 Dec.

2023.