Qualities of Greatness by Jasmine

Qualities of Greatness by Jasmine - December 2018 Scholarship Essay

A Nobel Prize is one of the highest honors anyone in the medical, science, or literature fields can receive. Among past winners are great minds such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jean-Paul Sartre. These influential people posses a few similar qualities; passion, persistence even in the midst of failure and doubt, creativity, and humility. More could be listed, but these are traits that I find the most striking not only in previous winners, but in great people every day who inspire others and lead by example.

Passion is, first and foremost, the leading trait of a winner. Without it, the others simply wouldn't follow. Passion is the forefront of innovation and is what leads people to spend a lifetime tirelessly working on or researching a subject. It's what drives us to get through each and every day, and it gives life meaning. I would argue that it goes hand in hand with creativity; without the two, there would be no breakthroughs to make science and the arts what they are today. Creativity is not a common trait, but those who have it use it to think outside the box and make new solutions to old problems. Ernest Rutherford, for example, was a physicist who developed the gold foil experiment, in which he discovered the proportions of an atom by shooting alpha particle beams onto a sheet of gold. This simple but extraordinary experiment changed chemistry and gave us a new perspective on how the atomic world functions. However he was not alone in the process; Rutherford was actually building off of a previous idea coined by another physicist named J.J Thompson - and proved his theory wrong! It takes humility to not only accept your mistakes, but to learn from them and grow. This applies to any field; those who don't want to admit their wrongs will never move forward.

Finally, is the quality of persistence. All scientific breakthroughs went through a long period of trial and error before finally being proved right. If Einstein had given up on his theory of relativity, we wouldn't have GPS, electricity, or television. The road to success can be long and sometimes even disheartening, but the important thing is that if you believe in your work, and persist despite failure, the worst that can happen is that you discover something doesn't work.

If I were to choose a winner for a Nobel Peace Prize, I would look for these traits in the applicant. You would want someone well-rounded and driven to represent the future of discovery, and anyone possessing these 4 qualities is bound to achieve something great.