Who is one of your mentors?

This is a case study in success.  What is success?  How do you define it? Who has been successful, from your perspective.  I want you to define success for yourself and find an example of this success in the people around you.  The person can be famous or family.  Success is everywhere.  I want you to find it and examine it.  What made this person successful?  Through this examining success in others it helps us pursue it, too.  I want you to practice being successful in all areas of your life.  So, engage in this case study and find and fill in the information listed below.  I used Bill Gates as an example.

Include in your blog entry:

1. Place a picture of the person in the post and cite the source of the picture
   
2. Write person’s name
   • EXAMPLE: Bill Gates

   

3. Listthe person’s birth place and date
   • EXAMPLE: October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington
     
4. State how do youdefine success?
   • EXAMPLE: I define success as someone who creates amazing art or material for the world and who gives back to people around them.
5. State why are they successful, with your definition?
   • EXAMPLE: Bill Gates has created a successful business.  He helped bring about powerful, useful computer applications.  He has also helped improve the living conditions for millions of people through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
6. Describewhat skills did they need to master to become successful?
   • List and explain at least 3. . .
   • EXAMPLE: Bill Gates is a 1) computer programmer, 2) smart businessman and 3) poker player.  Bill was interested in computers from an early age and learned to write small computer programs.  He was also very smart, “Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT^[18] and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973.^[19] Prior to the mid-1990s, an SAT score of 1590 corresponded roughly to an IQ of 170. . . ” – Wikipedia.  Bill quit Harvard to start a computer programming company which wrote programs for one of the first hobbyist computers, the MITS Altair 8800. He was also an avid poker player.
     

     

7. Explain how did they used these skills to achieve success?
   • Please explain . . .
   • EXAMPLE: He and Paul Allen used their abilities as programmers to build some of the first programs for hobbyist computers.  This brought them business prospects which they capitalized upon.  Being a poker player helped him with business negotiations.  He was clever and very persuasive. Bill made shrewd business decision that led to computer software licensing as we know it and helped him build financial success.
     
8. Describe what challenges they had to overcome to be successful?
   • Describe at least one . . .
   • EXAMPLE: Bill Gates had to overcome the stress of starting a small business and the doubt of the people who didn’t see a successful future for Microsoft.  There were hard times for Microsoft in the beginning.  Lean times of low cash flow where success was in doubt.  He persevered through to see his company grow.  He also had a vision of what his company could become.
     
9. Include three resources in your entry, unless it is someone you know, then you can be the information source
   • EXAMPLE:
     • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
     • http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
     • http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520
10. Cite at least one of these sources within the text of your writing

GRADING RUBRIC

• 1 point for each numbered element being answered completely, except for number 6, 7 and 9 are worth 3 points each.
• Project is worth 15 points total.