Can individuals succeed in academia solely through determination and hard work?

[anazergal]

I don't know if anyone has posted this before, so I apologise if my question is a duplicate. I was wondering: Can individuals succeed in academia solely through determination and hard work (without other factors like intelligence or aptitude)? I haven't really thought about it at great length (my knee-jerk response would be no), so I'm interested in hearing your opinion!

[Edward Elric]

I believe there is a degree of intelligence involved when  pursuing academic  activities but not as much as hard work and determination. A couple years ago at my school(true story told by our VCE coordinator), there were two students, lets say a and b. Student a, was not the brightest crayon in the box, doing very poorly in his sacs but was determined to work at his subjects, asking teachers questions after questions so he could understand what was going on along with studying, for hours on end. Then there was student b, who despite his naturally gifted inclination towards his subject matter(averaging As and A+), he did not work as hard as student a, and slacked off during classes(not listening) and did minimal study at home as he seemingly understood the materials being presented during the class. Everyone believed that student b, was easily going to dux the year, however as it turned out student a got that award with an Atar of 99.6 and student b got a lot lower than student a as well as many of his other peers, I believe it was a 88.6. This shows that with a little hard work and determination anything is possible, even outclassing the gifted students at times. However if a student possesses both natural ability and hard work, then it will be a lot harder to match, but not impossible hope that helped.

[TrueTears]

Academia is a very very very competitive career. Things are really rough in the years before you get tenure, but once you do get that tenure, academia is one of the best careers out there. Sure, the pay isn't the highest, but the lifestyle is really good.

Publications means everything for an academic, aiming for those A* journals to rack up top publications is the way to climb up to professor (and tenure). Hardwork and determination certainly does play a role, however, since everyone in academia has those traits (you wouldn't be in the field otherwise!), I would say more comes from luck and a bit of politics. Publication in A* journals is almost like a gamble, and having connections such as knowing inside editors/referees in your area play a big role in getting those publications.

So no, certainly not, hardwork and determination are necessary conditions for success in academia, but certainly not sufficient.

[Jono_CP]

Not sure if this is arrogant or anything (I really don't want to be), but I do work very hard and am determined to do as well as I possibly can.

Alas, I self-admittedly place myself at the lower end of the bell-curve as far as natural talent in academia is concerned.

I agree that talent + hard work is what achieves those 95+ ATAR scores.

However, talent by itself is such a waste of time if you do not use it properly. Sure it helps, may give you the above average marks. I have my friend who is so intelligent in the humanities and even mathematics when he applied himself, and now he's looking at ATAR courses in the 60-70 range. The guy is a genius, just doesn't do anything or really care for that matter.

[Frozone]

Academia is a very very very competitive career. Things are really rough in the years before you get tenure, but once you do get that tenure, academia is one of the best careers out there. Sure, the pay isn't the highest, but the lifestyle is really good.

Publications means everything for an academic, aiming for those A* journals to rack up top publications is the way to climb up to professor (and tenure). Hardwork and determination certainly does play a role, however, since everyone in academia has those traits (you wouldn't be in the field otherwise!), I would say more comes from luck and a bit of politics. Publication in A* journals is almost like a gamble, and having connections such as knowing inside editors/referees in your area play a big role in getting those publications.

So no, certainly not, hardwork and determination are necessary conditions for success in academia, but certainly not sufficient.

I think you may have misinterpreted the ops question. I think the op is talking about vce when they mean "academia". Someone please correct me.

[Rishi97]

I think you may have misinterpreted the ops question. I think the op is talking about vce when they mean "academia". Someone please correct me.

I think you are right Frozone. I was wondering the same thing 

[TrueTears]

Then the title should be changed to: "Can individuals succeed in VCE solely through determination and hard work?"

[anazergal]

Thanks for all your answers! It's been interesting reading them so far, and the stories about perseverance have been really heart-warming.

I did not intend to restrict my question to VCE. I also meant higher education or even a career as a professor, although I suppose that might not have come across very clearly.

Personally, I do agree with Frozone that diligence is a necessary but not sufficient condition of academic excellence. (As for an academic career, I suppose people wouldn't even enter the field if they felt they lacked the aptitude?)

[TrueTears]

I should also add that finding starting positions as a lecturer/senior lecturer (aka assistant professor in the US) is very erratic. For example, currently in Australia, there are no finance positions available at ANY university, whereas mid 2009, finance academics were in heavy demand, almost anyone suitable that applied was guaranteed to get the position. Point is, you will be moving around quite a bit before tenured as a professor. This goes for most other disciplines as well.

But hey, academics pursue academia for the sake of knowledge and its own self fulfillment in that regard, the 'easy' life that comes with it is only a bonus

[thaaanyan]

I should also add that finding starting positions as a lecturer/senior lecturer (aka assistant professor in the US) is very erratic. For example, currently in Australia, there are no finance positions available at ANY university, whereas mid 2009, finance academics were in heavy demand, almost anyone suitable that applied was guaranteed to get the position. Point is, you will be moving around quite a bit before tenured as a professor. This goes for most other disciplines as well.

But hey, academics pursue academia for the sake of knowledge and its own self fulfillment in that regard, the 'easy' life that comes with it is only a bonus

Hey sorry to butt in here, but just to clarify, so you move all around australia to work in different unis? what if you like go all the way to sydney for a job interview at a uni then they tell you that you haven't got the position? what do you do? that must be really really difficult!!

[excal]

Don't downplay the importance of politics.

[TrueTears]

Hey sorry to butt in here, but just to clarify, so you move all around australia to work in different unis? what if you like go all the way to sydney for a job interview at a uni then they tell you that you haven't got the position? what do you do? that must be really really difficult!!

Let alone Australia, you move around the globe in search for positions, it is very very erratic in an academic's junior years.

Don't downplay the importance of politics.

This.

[meganrobyn]

Let alone Australia, you move around the globe in search for positions, it is very very erratic in an academic's junior years.
This.

Amen to everything TT has said.

[slothpomba]

I think people overrate intelligence to a degree. I also think people talk about intelligence without ever really defining the word or even understanding what they mean.

What does intelligence mean to you? High IQ score? Arguably an IQ test only measures how well you do on an IQ test. Ability to pick up things fast? This might just be down to learning style. It's a big conundrum.

Hard work and determination win every day. There are people who are "smart" and "lazy/dont apply themselves", perhaps you know people like that or you view yourself like that. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't produce results. If you're highly intelligent but don't do any of your assignments all semester, pleading with the professor "But, oh, professor, i'm ever so smart!" won't get you anything. Regarding the workplace, if you just sit around telling people how smart you are but never do any work, you will get fired.

So, if you lack hard work, regardless of how smart you are, you will not succeed. Being "smart" (again, massive definition problem) probably allows you to learn and understand more, with better techniques and resources, at the same work level of someone with a much lower "intelligence". It's kind of a moot point though, to get into uni in the first place, you probably need to have above average intelligence.

TL;DR Yes, determination and hard work alone will serve you just fine.

[Inside Out]

if you want to be above average, all you really need is hard work. if you want to be the top 1 percent, then yes you do need intelligence.