How Jay Z Overcame Failure and Achieved Success

How Jay Z Overcame Failure and Achieved Success When we think about people who have clawed their way up to the greatest heights of success and fame from the very lowest places, we should probably put Jay Z on that list. Born Shawn Carter, in 1969, in the projects of Brooklyn, the man we now know as Jay Z was raised by a single mother with his three older siblings after being abandoned by their father. His neighborhood wasn’t the best. Crime was rampant. Jay Z himself dropped out of high school, despite showing a great deal of potential, to sell crack to make money. He even shot his brother in the shoulder once during an argument. Luckily, Jay Z was able to turn some of this depravity into art. An incredibly talented lyricist, he would compete and win freestyle competitions, making a reputation for himself. He’d even read the dictionary cover to cover on multiple occasions, scouring for better rhymes. He was able to start telling his story through his music.After being shot at on a few occasions, and tiring of the dru g life, Jay Z partnered with a fellow rapper on a single called â€Å"The Originators,† which earned him a feature on MTV. He kept working with DJs to try and get more tracks recorded, but had little to no success securing a record deal. Every major label in the country turned him down. It became clear that he would never make a living as a hip-hop performer.Rather than let that news get him down, and turn him back to his old life and all the crime, Jay Z tried it from another angle. He became a producer himself and started his own label- aspirationally titled Roc-A-Fella- with two friends. It was a rocky road. Almost all of their artists left the label before making an album. By 1997, only Jay Z had managed to release one. But they persisted. They worked with Notorious B.I.G., and when he died, Jay Z was asked to collaborate on the posthumous album Life After Death, allowing Roc-A-Fella to get a little press.The following year, in 1998, Jay Z released Vol. 2 and the song â⠂¬Å"Hard Knock Life† and, well, the rest is history. Roc-A-Fella shot up and became quite successful, and was later sold to Def Jam Records for millions of dollars. As for Jay Z, he became the President and CEO and took the whole merged label by storm. He is now worth roughly $520 million, and was ranked the 6th most powerful celebrity of 2014 by Forbes. He has sold over 75 million records, won 19 Grammies, owns a record company, designs clothes, owns or part-owns real estate, hotels, businesses, even an NBA team, among other claims to fame.In his book Decoded, he says this about his song â€Å"This Can’t Be Life† and about failure:â€Å"It was a verse about fear of failure, which is something that everyone goes through, but no one, particularly where I’m from, wants to really talk about. But it’s a song that a lot of people connect to: The thought that â€Å"this can’t be life† is one that all of us have felt at some point or another , when bad decisions and bad luck and bad situations feel like too much to bear, those times when we think that this, this, can’t be my story. But facing up that kind of feeling can be a powerful motivation to change. It was for me.†So the next time you start to feel down on yourself, thinking of all the ways in which the deck was stacked against you: bad parents, bad poverty, bad everything, just remember a man named Shawn Carter turned everything around for himself and became a household name. He even got to marry Beyoncà ©. How’s that for failure being a productive force for success?

Philosophy. Comapare Socrates and Thoreau's methods, beleifs. Show Essay

Philosophy. Comapare Socrates and Thoreau's methods, beleifs. Show where they are the same and where and why they differ - Essay Example Socrates was more specific about the commitments of a human towards the state (Socrates). He has argued that the state has the most importance than anything in the world. Socrates believed that the people should work for the government and their self interests are not much important when compared to the interests of the government or the state. Even the death was considered of least importance while fighting to protect the interest of the sates as per Socrates. On the other hand, Thoreau was not much adamant about the commitment of the people towards the government or the state (Richardson). He believed that the people have another life apart from the life for government. In his opinion, doing everything as the government directs may not be a wise act for the people. In his opinion, the governments are responsible for so many evil things in the society like slavery and wars and there is no point in sacrificing the life for the interests of the government. Thoreau believed that a person’s life has lot of dimensions and its commitment towards the state is only one among them. Socrates believed that the government is responsible for giving better living standards to the people whereas Thoreau believed that the government denying it. Both Socrates and Thoreau have some similarities also in their views. Both of them believed in morality. Thoreau said that people, if left to their own ends will act justly, and should be treated accordingly by the law (Richardson). Socrates also said the same thing that "no one wants to commit injustice" for its own sake, many people end up doing so anyway (Socrates). Socrates argued that the people have a moral responsibility to abide by the state laws in response to the protection provided to the people by the states. Socrates has given more importance to the consciousness of in individual while obeying the laws. He has pointed out that the people can avoid laws if they feel injustice in it. Thoreau also more or less

Assignment #7 PKG 381 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

#7 PKG 381 - Assignment Example st part of sustainability is based on reducing the wastes that a company produces to the environment and at the same time changing the company to become completely sustainable in the future. Industries that would have the most positive environmental impact when they are engaged into sustainable practices include oil and gas industries, fertilizer, paper, motor vehicle and other industries that uses chemicals and release chemical wastes to the environment. These industries would have the most positive impact to the environment in case they engage on sustainable practices since through such practices, they will reduce lot of pollution they cause to the environment. At the same time, such industries are known for releasing some of the most harmful gases as well as minerals to the atmosphere. Such gases like carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and others are very harmful when inhaled by humans. At the same time, they form part of the ozone gases that cause the greenhouse effect to our environment, leading to global warming. Heavy metal such as Lead are also released by industries such as fertilizer industries, to the nearby drainages that empty their waters to the water stream s used by humans. Such metals are harmful to human lie as they cause cancerous conditions in

There should be restrictions on SNAP (foodstamps) benefits Essay

There should be restrictions on SNAP (foodstamps) benefits - Essay Example This important aspect of development serves a large population of the United States, who are in dire need. However, while some people are in support of the program for its usefulness, I feel that the benefits should be limited. A number of people enrolling for the program do not need it, which surges the national expenditure. This creates a proportional surge in taxes to cater for the program, which is a burden to other taxpayers. To begin with, some people feel that the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program is not of great help to the low-income people. For example, traditionally, there are three basic needs in a human life. These include food, clothing, and shelter. Apparently, people consider education as a basic need for human living. Consequentially, the government only provides foodstuff in the SNAP program, whereas it should also be providing other basic needs like education. Therefore, the government should be considerate to the low-income families, since they do not have the sufficient resources for the stated basic needs. Owing to this, the government should initiate another approach, where the situation can be corrected in the shortest time possible. It is stated that the life expectancy rate and standards of life improve when people have access to quality education, high quality healthcare and a low cost of living. Apparently, giving the low-income families SNAP is not enhancing their entire life as it is only solving part of their problems. As such, many of the low-income families do not afford education for their children. This leads to low literacy rates in the low-income families, which in turn leads to a large disparity between the rich and the poor people in the society. Therefore, the program is not of much help to the low-income families, especially when looking at the other basic needs. On the contrary, Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program caters for

Semiotic interpretation of an image Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Semiotic interpretation of an image - Essay Example With the signs in photos open for interpretation, an observer can be able to appreciate the denotative and connotative signification. The caption that has been provided is a photo of the Olympic event. It captures the moment where the participants involved are awarded with medals after victory in the sports they had participated. When awarding the Olympic participant, the protocol is that the winner is awarded with a gold medal then the first runner up is awarded with silver followed by brass for the second runner up. After receiving the medals, the next stage involved playing of the national anthem in front of everyone. Only the person who takes the gold is awarded the chance of having his or her country’s national anthem played. From the background of the picture provided, there is a possibility of stating that the event is not a recent one and may have taken place somewhere in the middle 1900s. An aspect that brings out the background of the photo is the ‘black power’ salute that the two of the participants posed. During the 1960’s, there were many instances where the black Americans fought against what they believed to be racism from the original citizens in the country. From this, it is clear to deduce that the time the Olympic event in the picture is taking place might be the 1968 summer Olympics. This aspect then is possible to award the photo with both the denotative and connotative values (Bathes, 35). There is a connotative value that the ‘black power salute’ poses awards the photo. This value is in the unity of the black Americans. The two Olympic participants can be said to be sending a message to the other black people. The message here is not only directed to the black Americans but to all the black people all over the world since Olympics is an international event. The first African country to participate in the Olympics was South Africa in the year 1904; this was under the

Physical Journeys Based on Away by Michael Gow Essay

Physical Journeys Based on Away by Michael Gow - Essay Example According to the research findings, through the structure, language and theme Michael Gow shows through his play the impact of the physical journey on the characters (travelers in the play). The physical journey of going away on holidays involves both obstacles and as well as movement to new places. AWAY, The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost) and Shakespeare’s The Seven Ages of Man (As You Like It) all convey the same message to mankind on earth – choose the right path (Frost) on this stage of the world (Shakespeare) by going ‘away’(Gow). To go ‘away’ on a holiday to recoup (rediscover the self) according to Gow is what the human beings need to understand. Gow brings out the necessity for spiritual regeneration for a sense of belonging and harmony with each other and nature. ‘Away’ is a five-act play involving three Australian families which go ‘away’ on a holiday during the Christmas of 1968. Roy and Coral (the headmaster and his wife) are on the verge of a breakup; Coral is still grieving over their son who was killed in the Vietnam War. Tom migrated to Australia from England with his family. He suffers from the terminal disease, leukemia of which he is aware although his parents do not know that is aware of it. They are taking Tom for his last holiday together and they are determined to have a good time. Tom and Meg are together in the school’s play A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and they are fond of each other. Meg’s parents Gwen and Jim are taking Meg for a holiday so that she can have a break. Gwen believes that one has to sacrifice for anything good to happen to you. The themes of reconciliation and loss emerge as one family deals with the death of their son in the Vietnam War, another faces the prospect of losing their son through leukemia, and the other by their daughter simply growing up.

Organizational Influences on Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational Influences on Ethics - Essay Example The most outstanding and palpable form of counterculture (as a form of subculture) that I encountered is dressing. The subculture that was most difficult to deal with was collective ambivalence towards organizational mode and policies of operation. This is because, this form of leading subculture is mostly exhibited within the organization’s high echelons (managerial positions), yet these positions are to enjoy the value of self-management and independence. Because of this relative extension of the value of self-management and independence to organizational executives, it becomes impossible to forge a definitive and defined approach to decision making and organizational approaches. As a matter of fact, a resolute attempt to draw out a clear, monolithic and definitive organizational policy may set precedence to organizational dictatorship. Just as Owen (1990) posits, it is obvious that when dealing with these three groups or subcultures, leadership styles will inevitably vary. When dealing with the executive rank of the organization to eradicate collective ambivalence, democratic leadership style will greatly helps, since dialogue will be paramount. Likewise, to deal with the issue of inappropriate relaxative by the junior management, prescriptive and delegative type of leadership became needful. As for the problem of dressing among the junior-most staff, prescriptive type of leadership became useful, since, it is important that every organization chooses its dressing code and that these rules are adhered to. One of the examples of managerial malpractice is negligent supervision. Taking the nursing or healthcare providing institution, negligent supervision may occur when the manager or an officer in the management personnel fails in supervising the activities of both independent contractors and employees at the institution, and thereby causing the medical institution, a department or its facilities to fail in its objectives (Morrison,