The Cost Of Success In The Overachievers By Alexandra Robbins

1. Success, most of the people think is the way they have to live their lives. While some succeed, others fail. But what does it take to succeed, and more importantly, is success worth its costs? After climbing the ladder of success, more and more people come to realize that this is not actually what they were looking for and that money and fame can’t buy real happiness. Therefore, I came to realize that there are two different types of success: extrinsic and intrinsic. However, most people get confused and look towards extrinsic success, which is money, fame, and recognition from others, even though they should look towards intrinsic success, such as true happiness and passions. But in order to switch from external to internal goals one has

AP Frank is a freshman at Harvard University, and one of the case study materials of Alexandra Robbins in her bestseller, “The Overachievers” (2007). Robbins describes him as a typical overachiever who is highly revered by his peers for his academic success, specifically because he had managed seventeen AP courses and got into a prestigious university. Despite his intellectual achievements, AP Frank remains to be extrinsically motivated by his mother. His mother, Mrs. AP Frank, coming from Korea, is obsessed with education of her son. Therefore, she enrolled her son to Winthrop, a highly-ranked and competitive public high school, and placed relentless pressure and expectations on him. She chose the most demanding classes for AP Frank in order to send him to a prestigious university where he would pursue a popular major to satisfy her desire of seeing him becoming “successful.” Her emphasis on her son’s education would seem reasonable as long as she does not take it to an

Proven that he has a growth mindset, AP Frank nonetheless demonstrates to be a competent student as well; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to achieve what he had achieved. During high school, he learned what it takes to work hard, and he developed his competence with exhaustive study programs. On another occasion, when he spent an entire night on his expos paper, he managed an A minus even though he thought he had turned in his worst paper and was completely dissatisfied (Robbins, 2007). His grades are an another example of competence. Moreover, cognitive evaluation theory (CET) argues that social- contextual events that conduce toward feelings of competence can enhance intrinsic motivation. CET further specifies that feelings of competence will not enhance intrinsic motivation unless accompanied by a sense of autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p.70). In other words, in order to succeed AP Frank needs competence that is the ability to learn and improve, however it should be supported by another of three needs –