by Oliver Nasatir (7th)
The evolution of excellence. This is the way we view excellence throughout time. Although I would love to keep this simple, the truth is throughout generations, we all still view the way of achieving and success differently. Not all people think of success the same.
But the main question is how do/did we achieve it throughout time? To consider all of this, we must take a clear step in creating an accurate definition of excellence. As stated before, all people have a different way of understanding excellence, but they all share one idea in common, that being successful means making a lasting contribution to the world. When people think of excellence, they may think of wealthy people, but what makes people think they are successful is their lasting impact on the world.
This in modern times is present more than ever, we as people are making these lasting impacts on the world every second and living from the impacts of others. This perfectly leads me to the point of this speech, understanding the different examples of success throughout time.
As explained previously, success has been in the world since the beginning of time- the Paleolithic age. First came inquiring about the world. Although that seems simple, without simply inquiring about the way the world works, no discoveries would occur throughout our history. This contribution fuels our world today with motivation.
Also in this time, language came about. Instead of communicating with old fashioned grunts and hands, people would be able to talk in a way that was a lot more productive. Then also came the start of combat, with spears and arrows. This has all had an amazing effect on the world, therefore, by our definition, they are successful. But the problem is deciding whether the success was good or bad makes success subjective, so it is up to us to decide if they are really successful.
Next in history came the Neolithic era. This is the biggest leap we will find when looking back at ancient times. The idea of agriculture came about in this time period. In this time, humanity had advanced from just hunter-gatherers, just hunting with spears, to creating organized ways of living with the addition of farming.
The idea of advanced humanity was closer than ever, and with this great big building block, we were able to become the people we are today. Later in history came civilizations to discover more successful things, such as bronze, and various alloys. The idea of engineering came after - makes sense with more advanced resources through discovery. But then came the age where humanity changed and accelerated its inventions and success in ways like no other.
The cold war in the 1970s led to one of the founding prospects of last century - the internet. A way of technology never seen before. This exploded our world as then humanity accelerate over the next 50 years inventing new crazy things day by day - almost anything the mind can think of. But the thing is, us living in this age now prompts a new question - who will carry this on? Who will be our innovators for our lifes?
Although I may not have the answers to this, I know for certain that the natural drive for success mixed with the intellect of our people will no doubt lead to some of the greatest things humanity has to offer in the next decade, or even tomorrow for all I know.
As we enter and continue great ages of success, the question is, are you ready for your turn in this history?