Success is a combination of letters which has been repeated in everyday life nowadays. However, one of the biggest problems might be faced by humankind is to understand precisely the concept of success (Jordan, G.M., 2013). Unfortunately, success is literally a word which cannot be described in words. Defining success effectively, people may keep their eyes on some successful stories of the great people. This essay will do a research on two legends’ success, René Descartes and Walt Disney, followed by cited their famous quotes: “Cogito ergo sum” and “If you can dream it, you can do it” (Brainy Quote, 2013). After comparing and evaluating their successful stories, it illustrates the difference aspects of the meaning of success in life; one opinion of having succeeded is to identify someone’s own intrinsic figure; whereas another perspective is far beyond. Being successful could be based on the realization of their dream and motivation to make it become reality; success is seemed to be able to see as an extrinsic tangible object by the result of reaching human’s dream.

1. Maxie – K1270095
09/08/2013
SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF ‘SUCCESS’ BY
COMPARING AND EVALUATING TWO LEGENDS,
RENÉ DESCARTES AND WALT DISNEY
Tutors: Joanna & Rachel
Words count: 999
KINGSTON PSE

2. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
ESSAY PLAN
ESSAY TITLE
Original: Define the term ‘success’ and compare, contrast and evaluate the contribution of two successful people in
society or your subject area
Paraphrased: Explain the meaning of ‘success’ by comparing and evaluating two legends, René Descartes
and Walt Disney
Using thesis statement: Illustrates and interprets the difference understandings of success meanings from two
legends’ stories, René Descartes and Walt Disney
TOPIC
SUCCESS
FOCUS
René Descartes and Walt Disney
ACTION
ANALYZE/ COMPARE/ EVALUATE/ DEFINE
INTRODUCTION
1. Topic sentence about the important of success nowadays
2. Mention that success is a word which is not easy to determine or define as well (Jordan, G.M, 2013) [1]
3. Point out two successful legends of the world history, based on their inspiring quotes:
“Cogito ergo sum” Descartes and “If you can dream it, you can do it” – Disney (Brainy Quote, 2013)
4. Essay Structure: firstly do a research on those legends, then put them in contrast and evaluation to illustrate
and interprets the difference meaning and connotation of success in human life
5. Thesis statement: clearly expressed views in favor of the success of Disney
BODY
BLOCK STRUCTURE
Paragraph 1: Discuss about René Descartes’s famous philosophical Latin quote and point out a definition of success
based on his dedication to humanity

Remind Descartes quote in the introduction and explain its meaning in short detail (Watson, R.A., 2007)
“Cogito ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am (Cogito, Ergo Sum, 2002 and Desmond, M.C., 2006)

Analyze the influences of that inspiring phrase what make it possible to call Descartes successful (SEP, 2008)
- Presented humanity with a theory of improving and developing their critical thinking as the way of doubting
themselves to comprehend the cognition and perception of human’s nature to be successful in life (sound is
difficult to understand as philosophy itself)
-> Give a definition of success from researching on Descartes’s view
* Signposting words to link to next paragraph of Disney, a successful story of a dreamer

3. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Paragraph 2: A research on Walt Disney to illustrate his purpose and target in life as known as his dreams and the
way he made them come true; subsequently, give another view of the meaning of success

Indicate Walt Disney’s biography which his legacies are relevant to this essay topic (Barrier, M., 2005)
- An American business magnate, animator, film producer, director, screenwriter, and actor
- Academy Awards, the creation of "Mickey Mouse" (Mickey’s origin; Fritz, S., 2008), “Disney Animations”
empire, “Disneyland” kingdom (Princeton University, 2013; Randy, B., 1987; Disney Dreamer, 2007)

Analyze the businessman aspect of Disney himself (Magic Strategy, 2005) [2]

The effects and impacts of Walt Disney’s success to the world by his inspiring quote mentioned in the essay’s
introduction (Goodreads, 2013)
- Influenced people to recognize the dreams’ concept and also motivated them to follow and make those
dreams come true
-> Success definition: Success is how people would realize their dream and find motivation to reach it; far
beyond the Descartes' theory, success here is not only how the way people would look at their intrinsicalness
(inside), but also how they could force themselves towards to make their desire become reality as an
extrinsic tangible (outside)
CONCLUSION
- It is a conclusion as well
Last Paragraph: Compare and evaluate the success of Descartes and Disney to illustrate and interpret how those
properties have changed the world as how they legated the legacies to human to define success

Repeat the whole entire focus of the article

Put the success of Descartes and Disney in contrast to give different definitions about it and from some
evaluations, show the clearly expressed views in favor of the Disney’s success

Point out success always starts with failure (Rapp, S., 2013 and Business, 2013)

Emphasize an idea that being success is following the phrase ‘Never-Give-Up’ from two sayings:
“The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times” (The Alchemist, 1988)
“Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed” (Kiyosaki, R., 2005)
 A short definition of success from the essay writer’s view

4. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
ESSAY
Success is a combination of letters which has been repeated in everyday life nowadays. However, one of the biggest
problems might be faced by humankind is to understand precisely the concept of success (Jordan, G.M., 2013).
Unfortunately, success is literally a word which cannot be described in words. Defining success effectively, people
may keep their eyes on some successful stories of the great people. This essay will do a research on two legends’
success, René Descartes and Walt Disney, followed by cited their famous quotes: “Cogito ergo sum” and “If you can
dream it, you can do it” (Brainy Quote, 2013). After comparing and evaluating their successful stories, it illustrates the
difference aspects of the meaning of success in life; one opinion of having succeeded is to identify someone’s own
intrinsic figure; whereas another perspective is far beyond. Being successful could be based on the realization of their
dream and motivation to make it become reality; success is seemed to be able to see as an extrinsic tangible object
by the result of reaching human’s dream.
Richard A. Watson (1931), an American philosopher who had a special interest in Descartes, seemly enlightens the
meaning of Descartes’ famous saying: “Cogito ergo sum” in his memorable book (Cogito, Ergo Sum, 2002). Descartes
(1596-1650) has been known as one glorious monument in philosophy history (Desmond, M.C., 2006) and “Cogito
ergo sum”, his philosophical Latin quote, was the abridged form of Descartes’s full statement: “Dubito ergo cogito
ergo sum” (English meaning: “I doubt, therefore I think I am”) which had brought the Western philosophy toward a
new step of development. As Watson explained, the basic understanding of this quote is that if somebody has a
skeptical thought about his existence, he also has evidence to affirm and attest that he is a real physical essence as a
factual tangible object in life. This may related to the success of philosophy in particular and humanity in general; it is
to comprehend and own the concept of one’s self-awareness. Because following the hidden idea and theory of
“Cogito ergo sum”, Descartes successfully not only changed the philosophy basis in his era but also made an
influential impact on contemporary philosophy until nowadays (SEP, 2008). His concept of self-awareness has
become a first principle in settling and deciphering the universal doubt, a premise and prerequisite for human

5. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
intrinsic thoughts. Meanwhile, after centuries, Disney is another typical instance of a successful story of a dreamer
who changes the world by making his dreams come true.
When it comes to the word “dreams”, it cannot be denied that most people commonly think of an inspirational
person; his name is Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966; Barrier, M., 2008). In 1928, Mickey Mouse was born from a
sketches idea of Disney and completed by Ub Iwerks and Charles Solomon, a L.A. Times critic, once stated: "Ub
designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul" (Fritz, S., 2008). Mickey is still the Walt Disney
Company’s sacred symbol nowadays (Princeton University, 2013). On 17th July 1955, Disney had successfully built an
empire where every dream can become reality, the first Disneyland Park in California (Randy, B., 1987). Before giving
up his life for an unkind lung cancer, Disney had achieved the records for more than twenty Academy Award
nominations as a large amount number of Oscar prizes (Disney Dreamer, 2007). Back to his past, since the first day in
school, Disney already had an outstanding business penchant for selling the sketches to his primary classmates. At
the same time, Disney realized that all those scribble doodles hided a great business idea behind. It is true that Walt
Disney was a business man himself (Magic Strategy, 2005). Disney knew, in painting, he was not as good as other
artists in his studios; notwithstanding, Disney was an ideas and imaginations factory and he seemed to see his
dreams and his successes become reality in the future. As mentioned in most Disney’s movies, he always sent a same
message over and over again to the audiences as to the world, “If you can dream it, you can do it” (Goodreads, 2013).
Success in Disney’s view might be an extrinsic tangible object that everyone can see, sense, feel and touch it.
Both Descartes and Disney had left this world for a long time, but the values they legated for humanity still been a
precious heritage which will exist forever by time. They were legendary pioneers for changing the face of this world
and their own successful stories both started from something called the idea. Descartes philosophy passed to
humanity a meaningful lesson based on the theory of self-awareness and self-assessment; success in Descartes’s
perspective might be to understand and appreciate human’s existence; while Disney’s dedication could be more
extensive because he successfully transferred the human’s dreams from inside their mind to express them into real
world. It may be hard to define the true meaning of success; nevertheless, if people look at a practical and more
humanity aspect, the successful way of a dreamer is easier to perceive than a philosopher in some unspecified way.

6. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Moreover, Disney was also an encouraging reflection and a living proof for never give up to pursue the purpose in
life. It is undeniable that Disney had failed thousand times before the day he succeeded but “The secret of life is to
fall seven times and to get up eight times” (The Alchemist, 1988). It is the most important lesson for anyone who is
chasing success because as a common and essential sense, success always starts and comes with failure (Rapp, S.,
2013 and Business, 2013). As Kiyosaki advised in his famous “Rich Dad” collection, “Loser quit when they fail; while
the Winner fails until they succeed” (Kiyosaki, R., 2005); success might be just a happy feeling of gaining human’s
desire in life. As an additional for the last words, the Walt Disney Company has annual revenues of over U.S. $40
billion in recent years (The Walt Disney Company, 2012).
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
DESCARTES:
Desmond, M.C. (2006) Descartes: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SEP (2008) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: René Descartes [Online] 3rd Dec, 2008. Available at:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
Watson, R.A (2002) Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes. Massachusettse. [E-book] Available at:
http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=IRvIQkLFD60C&pg=PP6&lpg=PP6&dq=Richard+A.+Watson+%281931%29+%28
Cogito,+Ergo+Sum,+2002%29&source=bl&ots=sdKsNGl3Il&sig=RGFK2wjccV76zdQJODvqXW5cPwA&hl=vi&sa=X&ei=C
pUEUsPAMuWc0QXn4IDgCw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Richard%20A.%20Watson%20%281931%29%20%
28Cogito%2C%20Ergo%20Sum%2C%202002%29&f=false, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
DISNEY:
Barrier, M. (2008) Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Disney Dreamer (2007) Academy Awards [Online] Available at: http://www.disneydreamer.com/WDAW.htm,
(Accessed: 08/08/13)
Fritz, S. (2008) Animated Shorts: Mickey Mouse Turns 80 [Online] 18th Nov 2008. Available at:
http://www.newsarama.com/1563-animated-shorts-mickey-mouse-turns-80.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
Goodreads
(2013)
Quotable
Quote:
Walt
Disney
[Online]
Available
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/24673-if-you-can-dream-it-you-can-do-it-always, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
at:
Magic Strategy (2005) Walt Disney’s Success Story: Success begins with a Dream [Online] Available at:
http://magicstrategy.com/articles/walt-disneys-success-story/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)

7. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Princeton
University
(2013)
The
Walt
Disney
Company.
[Online]
Available
at:
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/The_Walt_Disney_Company.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
Randy, B. (1987) Disneyland: Inside Story. Harry N Abrams.
OTHERS:
Brainy Quote (2013) Rene Descartes and Walt Disney quotes [Online] Available at:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rene_descartes.html and
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/walt_disney.html, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
Jordan, G.M., (2013) How do you define Succes? [Online] 14th May, 2013. Available at:
http://ytaentrepreneursuccess.com/2013/05/14/how-do-you-define-success/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
Kiyosaki, R.T., (2005) Rich Dad: Before you quit your job (Book). New York: Warner Business Book.
[Material adapted from: The Alchemist (1988)] Paulo, C. (1988). The Alchemist: Introduction. p.vii. London:
HarperCollinsPublishers.
Rapp, S., (2013) Why Success Always Starts with Failure (Book) [Online]. Available at:
http://99u.com/articles/7072/why-success-always-starts-with-failure, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
The Walt Disney Company (2012) Annual Reports: 2012 Annual Report [Online] Available at:
http://cdn.media.ir.thewaltdisneycompany.com/2012/annual/10kwrap-2012.pdf, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
[1]
Your Talent Advantage – Entrepreneur Success (2013) How do you define Succes? [Online] Available at:
http://ytaentrepreneursuccess.com/2013/05/14/how-do-you-define-success/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
This article defines the understanding of success from a business conference attended by the author.
As mentioned from its first sentences, this article comes out with a survey of people’ bad feeling to do
what they are not interested and also poses a question about the evaluation for a successful person
(e.g rich or having peace of mind); and at last, it implies that being successful is not about gaining
reputation but reaching the people’s reflection. This article cites some people’s relevant and essential
sayings for the definition of success; however, the author had not included the biography reference
about those quote-speakers and identified them carefully. After all, it is easy to understand the
author’s message. This article supports my affirmation on the meaning of success. In other words, this
article becomes an effective bibliography for my writing essay’s resources.

8. SUCCEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
[2]
Magic Strategy (2005) Walt Disney’s Success Story: Success begins with a Dream [Online] Available at:
http://magicstrategy.com/articles/walt-disneys-success-story/, (Accessed: 08/08/13)
This article discusses Walt Disney’s success story and explains the way he made his dreams become
reality. Firstly, the article cites a sentence from a song in Disney’s Pinocchio that became the main
theme for all Disney movies or TV shows (When you wish upon a star). It is argued here that Disney
had many unbelievable wishes and dreams of generating a great invention and mentioned he was
perfectly not a film-maker; in other words, Disney was a skilful business man. By interpreting the
cause for the beginning of Disney’s dreams, this article focuses on his biography and his story life to
illustrate Disney’s success figure; it also recounts his decision on creating “Disneyland” step by step.
The structure of this article indicates all the aspects of his life in a specific way and gives substantial
background information for his motivation of following his dreams and the influence of Disney’s
success to the world. Nevertheless, this article still contains some weak points such as lack of the
definition of success based on his achievements in details. Overall, this article will be useful for my
research in terms of understanding Disney’s dreams and his legacy to human life; furthermore, it
helps me on the way of executing and accomplishing my essay this week.