Analise Philip Adams

“It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever. “

- Philip Adams

In this quote Mr. Adams is saying that people would be able to do extraordinary things if they took more risks instead of sitting and watching life that goes by. I think that he is right but it’s not only about taking risks and confidence, but also about never giving up and be ready for the failure. Extraordinary things in life come to those who take risks, try and fail, and with the failure, they build confidence. With this confidence, they reach success.

Each one of us has the ability to do extraordinary things in life. Nobody is an exception to that. The man is the most powerful living being in the world and he has the power to either create or destroy things. Since the Roman Empire, we had philosophers like Orazio for example that said “carpe diem” (enjoy the moment). Every day we see on TV, magazines, e-mails, friends, family telling us that life is short so we have to enjoy every moment and take every opportunity. Truth is, most of people don’t take risks, they waste opportunities and as the author says in the quote, they sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever. One could say those people don’t realize that life’s short or that they have their priorities messed up putting futilities in front of opportunities. But the real answer for Philip Adams quote is just that people’s fear of failure is bigger than the thirst for success. And most important, the people that try once or twice and fail just give up. They have to understand that success and reaching the extraordinary it’s not just completing one task in one day in a month, it’s a journey that could last years of failure. But then, at the end of failure, is success.

In the quote the author talks about confidence like is something that we were born with. Wrong. Most of the confident people achieved their confidence in a certain task after years of training. A NFL Quarterback it’s supposed to throw a perfect pass to its receiver in every play at every game of an entire season. The confidence to calculate the angulation, speed, strength of how he’s supposed to throw a ball he got it practicing a lot and every day since he was a little kid. That’s the journey of success that I was talking about before. Years of practicing, effort put in, and work ethic are now rewarded with maybe, a Super Bowl championship. We can apply that not only to football but also to our work. If one goes to college and he wants to be a doctor, he will use every resource he has, study a lot and at the end of his journey he will have the confidence to become a doctor. It’s not only about confidence but knowing what one wants. And that’s the part where we have to take risks; the author says that in his quote.

Concluding I agree in parts with what Philip Adam says but I think he could have included this aspect “failure” or “giving up” to its quote. Saying that one can do great things with confidence and taking risks sounds right but also sounds a little bit vague and superficial.