By Katherine Underhill
For those of you that have not seen this series of ‘The Apprentice’, you have been missing out on the usual bitchy, egotistical antics of the 16 new contestants. Every year, the contestants bombard the cringing audience with reasons why Lord Sugar should choose them as his next apprentice. I am amazed at how they all manage to list attributes that most morally aware people would consider vices, in a humiliating yet admirably proud manner. Shibby Robati, unsurprisingly one of the first contestants to be fired, proclaimed that his first word was not ‘mummy’, it was ‘money’.
However, one genuine admiration I do have for these people is that they have a very sure idea of what they want to achieve in their lives. I, on the other hand, have no idea what my life plan is. These contestants’ success paired with their determination to achieve extremely high goals made me ask the question: do I need to know what I want to do now to be successful?
This mentality is present at university as well as on a TV. A fresher was astounded at my undecidedness as to which Masters I was going to take in 2 years time. The thought of doing a Masters had not even crossed my mind. Yet 4 weeks into her first year, she not only knew her eventual specialism, but seemed to have her whole life mapped out in incredible detail. This girl is far from a one off – this attitude seems rife across the universities of Britain. We all know ‘that guy’ (or girl), extremely driven and intent on success.
All this talk of so called ‘success’ made me question what exactly it is to be successful. One Apprentice contestant bluntly declared that he would never be satisfied with earning £30-40k a year with a “nice wife and kids”. This description of failure seems to coincide with my idea of a successful life. I would much rather be happy and comfortable than in an extremely highly paid, highly stressful job. Many of you, I am sure, feel the same. The more I considered this idea of different conceptions of success, the clearer it became that a successful life for me is nothing like that of the people who I admired for having very clear aims in life. This being the case, is my worry that I do not currently have a life plan justified?
The short answer to my question is no. Many of the people with life plans have decided on them for the wrong reasons, such as pressure from parents, high achieving siblings and even their community – they do not want to disappoint. Even in this article, I have been discussing the underlying peer pressure of having life plans already, making us worry whether we can be successful without one. We need to ignore these pressures and false conceptions of being successful. The most important factor of your future wellbeing should not be having a very clear life plan, but just knowing what YOUR idea of a successful life is. In my opinion, being happy should be the foundations of what you consider to be successful – whether that means earning extortionate amounts of money in the city or having a loving family. Only if these things have made you happy can you call them achievements.
So, success is a personal consideration, which brings us back to the Apprentice. The wannabees’ obnoxious and unlikeable characteristics carry them through the competition towards being Sir Alan’s next apprentice. Let us hope that they are competing for what they truly believe to be success. I can only wish them well.