Does Hard Work Always Pay Off?

Samuel Smiles was many things a physician, editor, secretary of two railroads, and an author. One of his most popular books was a book titled "Self-Help: Middle-Class Attitudes". The book became a hit in England. The book expressed many ideas of individualism and the idea that hard work will pay off in the long run. In the book Smiles says that institutions only harm people, that they make cause people to become dependent on them. He even goes as far to say, "Perhaps the best they can do is, to leave him free to develop himself and improve his individual condition...". I heavily disagree with this statement. Institutions can do lots to help people better their lives. Institutions can give underprivileged people the opportunity to achieve more. Colleges for instance give scholarships to allow people who wouldn't normally be able to pay to go to the college. Those individuals were helped by institutions are presented with opportunities to better lives. Charter schools also have a similar practice with having a free lottery for kids to come to their schools. The charter schools are an institution that also can help the individual. Another idea that is expressed in his book is the idea that hard work will always pay off. While this is a nice idea and works in theory it is just simply not true. It is a sad fact of life that sometimes you will fail and someone else who did no work will succeed. It might be on a test that you study hard for but don't do as well as you want and someone else in the class cheats. Or as someone in class mentioned you might work hard for a job and the job might just go to the bosses son. Samuel Smiles had the right intention in writing a book that tried to make people self-dependant but many of his ideas like criticizing institutions and saying that hard work will always pay off were just wrong.






Link about charter schools:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school