Lords of Dopetown, Essay Example

Many individuals that are considered successful in the modern world have had everything handed to them on a silver plate. An excellent example of this is Donald Trump. Even though he attempts to market himself as a self-made man, his parents were wealthy and they used this wealth to ensure that Trump had all of the resources he needed to succeed. He always had a meal to eat, was able to perform the activities he wanted to while in school, and was sent to an excellent college. Therefore, one cannot say that Trump was responsible for his own success. While he took over these advantages in a major way that was due to his own resourcefulness, one would argue that he would have never been able to accomplish his fame and fortune if his family had difficulty feeding him as a child. He needed their support to thrive, like many before him. This privileged life was not the case for Sean Diddy Combs. He started from nothing and grew to fame and fortune on his own, without help from anyone (Jacobson, 2007). He had no support from his family, no encouragement from his friends, and yet, has become one of the greatest musicians that the world has ever known. I look to him for inspiration because his story is similar to mine.

The life of a rapper is certainly luxurious, and it is a just reward for Sean Diddy Combs, who put in significant effort to ensure that he would rise to the top. While Combs is best known for music, he has also become an entrepreneur and an actor, which has helped him build his enterprise. As of 2012, Forbes estimated that Combs’ net worth was approximately $550 million, which is arguably $550 million more than he started out with (O’Malley, 2015). He is admirable because even though he suffered through hard times, he believed in himself and his talents even though no one else would. He persevered and told himself that he would be able to accomplish anything. As a consequence, Combs’ career is well known in many artistic fields. I dream that I will one day become as successful and multi-talented as Combs. He is a success story and I hope that I could one day become one as well.

Despite Combs’ accomplishments, he has also encountered many different failures. One of the most significant of these failures was a television show he created called “Making the Band”. Like many of the popular competition shows like “The Voice”, Combs aimed to create an entertaining program featuring young talent that wished to become famous. While it was likely entertaining, it did not stand out as significantly as other shows of its type, and quickly failed. However, it is important to emphasize that despite this failure, Combs learned from his mistake. Rather than giving up on his production career, he moved on to create new ideas. He is fortunate that he is able to fund his own creations and move on from this point to ensure his next success. Like Combs, I will never give up so I can achieve my dreams.

A second failure that Combs experienced is his attempt to enter the retail business by creating the ‘Sean John’ brand (Marks, 2001). While the brand was widely popular when it began, it failed by the year 2012. Despite the crash of his stores, Combs was successful because he was able to create a fad for much of the 90s. There was one point in time that almost every adolescent, teenager, and adult wore Sean Jean clothing because it was recognized as cool. Some other brands were worn as well, but none had quite the same popularity as Sean John. Even though the clothing brand is no longer considered popular, Combs can feel happy that for a short time, his clothing was a great success. Furthermore, this lesson taught Combs that anything is within his reach if he tries. Very few people on this planet can boast that they were responsible for creating a major fad in the 90s, but Combs certainly can. Because Combs refused to ever give up, he demonstrated that even a hip hop artist could become a successful clothing designer.

I relate closely to Combs because I am returning to school so I could not only gain more knowledge, but gain more experiences that will help me excel in life. Since Combs refused to give up despite his repeated failures, I will refuse to give up as well. He has showed me that I could combine my love for music and challenging new adventures with learning because even though he hasn’t been a student in the traditional sense, he has allowed the world to be his teacher. His experiences have taught him what is right for him and what is wrong, and I hope to learn this for myself as a returning student.

Overall, it is evident that education will allow me to get a head start on a pathway that will allow me to achieve my personal goals and build my self-esteem. I am hoping to improve myself as a person by returning to school and improve my financial system as well, which I expect will contribute to my self-confidence. I know that if I continue to look at Sean Diddy Combs as a role model I will continue to succeed.

References

Jacobson M. (2007). Lords of Dopetown. NY Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/guides/money/2007/39948/

Marks P. (2001). Fashion Week Becomes Fashion Telethon. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/18/style/fashion-week-becomes-fashion-telethon.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

O’Malley Z. (2015). The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2015. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2015/05/05/the-forbes-five-hip-fsehops-wealthiest-artists-2015/

Reflection

When I started my participation in the English composition class, I believed that I would be working on spelling grammar. However, after completing several assignments, I recognize that it is also important for me to work on my essay organization skills and my need to stick to the topics that I am assigned. When I read an essay prompt, many thoughts come to my mind. I need to stay more focused and use these thoughts to back up my main ideas instead of taking the essay in a different direction.

At the beginning of this class, I thought that my reading and writing skills were decent, but there is certainly room for me to improve. My grammar is never perfect all of the time. In addition, it is important to understand how to write academically. I now have a better understanding of the writing process because I understand that it involves a mixture of grammar and mechanics, style and formatting, organization, development, and focus.

The first version of my paper wasn’t well-focused because I spoke more about my role model than myself. I changed this by linking my role model’s experiences to my own in each paragraph. I also think this helped the organization of the paper. Overall, my ability to recognize the need for these changes shows that my skills have improved.

I think that I’ve done a good job meeting the requirements for this class. I’ve submitted all assignments and put a lot of work into the one’s I’ve completed. My perseverance helped me succeed as well because even though starting an essay is challenging, I forced myself to work hard and make sure that I was happy with all of the assignments I was submitting. Overall, I expect that this will help me meet the writing requirements in my other classes. Since writing is also important for jobs in many fields, I think the knowledge I gained in this class will help me communicate more clearly at work as well.