SAT 作文2008-3-1

Are organizations or groups most successful when their members pursue individual wishes and goals?

Modern world has reached a complex level that individual person gathers into groups or organizations to achieve social advancement at large. A successful organization is most likely the kind which suppresses individual wishes and goals so as to achieve overall aim.

Individual wishes are divergent and may conflict with each other, when these wishes mingle in one team, it is the task for the team leader to recognize, analyze, and balance them. I my father’s company, in which he acts as the GM, managers at different levels disagree with each other in most cases. Interestingly, my father’s main job is not to present his own ideas but to co-ordinate the ideas of the managers and, in some cases, of some staff. This includes comparing the ideas and deciding which one or ones to be selected, and also persuading those who disagree with them.

Once the final goal is decided, no matter agree, or disagree, each member should respect it at work as hard as possible toward that goal with no condition and reservation. This is a, possibly the most, important feature of a successful team, otherwise, this team would be going with many uncertain and maybe conflict goals, just like a blind-fold cat running to a mouse with no sight. His failure is doomed, his success is depending on his luck.

All in all, individual wishes and goals deserve to be respected, but under some limitation.

236 words

SAT 作文2008-5-2

Do people place too much emphasis on winning?

It seems nature that we born to win and live to win. However, we simply value winning too high, sometimes high enough to hurt our life quality.

Being a winner means a lot, fame, fortune and sense of achievement, you name it. These temptations, or somebody calls it motivations, “seduce” us to labor our lives to acquire them. Do we really be in need of winning?

Winning is so good that in order to win, any means is justifiable. This is the motto of most “winning-hunger” people, who may spare no effort, good or bad, moral or immoral, to achieve their goals. No wonder why TV show candidates bribe the judges with money or even sex; why milk companies add toxic additive to maximize profits.

As a final result, winning is too good to shade the beauty of the process we experienced on the way pursuing this goal. Despite the goal is not reached, if we merely focus on the destination, we could not see the good views alone the way, which, sometimes is actually the most appreciatable scenery. This explains why we may feel disappointed when we reach a tour destination, because we expect too high, but sleep during the trip.

American idol forged dozens of “super stars”, but in my mind, hundreds of “citizen heroes”, who failed on that small stage, but succeed on the big stage of their own lives, because they have tried. Though failed, they enjoyed the process of pursuing winning.

Winning is surely not everything!

251 words