Fame: Success

A. Work in pairs and try to complete this monologue taken from the movie "Fame". Try to fill in the blanks with what you think this sixteen-year-old student believes success is. You may use one word or sentences to fill in the blanks.

"Success is waking up in the morning, so excited about what you have to do to literally fly out the door. It’s getting to work with people you ___________.
Success is connecting with the world and making people _________.
It’s finding a way to bind together people who have nothing in common but a ______.
It’s falling asleep at night knowing you ____________.
Success is _____and ______and ________. And success is _______."

B. Now watch the movie segment and check your guesses.





answer key: love, feel, dream, did the best job you could, joy, freedom, friendship, love. C. Work in pairs:

1. What is your definition of success?

2. Are success and fame the same things?

3. You you have fame, are you successful?

4. Do you agree with the statement from the movie segment from the film "Fame"? Why (not)?

5. Check the items you agree with when you talk about success. Justify your answers.

( ) Success is the accomplishment of an objective

( ) Success is wealth, fame, position.

( ) You can have success even if you do not make money out of it.

( ) If one is not rich, he is not successful.

( ) To have fifteen minutes of fame is to be successful.

( ) Success is not important in our lives.

( ) Being famous means being successful.

( ) Never getting divorced is success.

( ) Being promoted is success.

D. Read these quotations about success. In groups decide what they actually mean and if you agree with them. These quotations were taken from the awesome sight Success Quotes. In the end, choose your favorite one and the one you disagree with most.

1. "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing". (Abraham Lincoln, politician)

2. "Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value". (Albert Einstein, physicist)

3. "To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded". (Bessie Stanley, writer)

4. "The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success". (Bruce Ferstein, screenwriter and humorist)

5. "Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed". (Corita Kent, painter)

6. "I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and a devotion to the things you want to see happen". (Frank Lloyd Wright, architect)

7. "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up". (Thomas Alva Edison, inventor)

8. "You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, 

or publicity". (Thomas Wolfe, journalist)

9. "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm". (Winston Curchil, politician)

10. "The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers". (William lloyd Garrison, abolitionist)

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - FAME