College Students, Motivation, and Success

Abstract

Many people spend a large portion of their lives striving to be successful, chasing success. But what is success? Success means different things to different people. How do we get to be successful? Why do some young adults choose to go to college? Does graduating from college offer a better opportunity for being successful? What motivates college students to go to class day after day, to complete hours of assigned work? What motivates us to be successful? This article reviews the parameters of motivation and what motivation means to different honors-level college students. Additionally, students are asked to determine why they make the choices they do. These topics were the focus in the motivational speech “Think – Understand - Succeed” utilizing the #1 National Bestseller Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (2008) as a main reference point. Comparisons were made between real-life situations and those found in Outliers.   Keywords: College Students, Success, Motivation, Culture, Family