Describe a success your friend has had that you are proud of.
You should say:
- what type of success it was
- how he/she achieved it
- how easy or difficult it was for your friend
and explain why you are proud of it.
[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]
Model Answer 1:
People say that nothing succeeds like success. So, we like to talk about it, whether it is ours or achieved by others, whenever an opportunity is presented. Today, I would like to talk about such success which surely would make anybody proud. This success belonged to one of my friends.
My friend, Travers, was an aspiring entrepreneur, and he wanted to establish himself as a successful entrepreneur since his early days as an adult. So, he decided to enter into the business of making garments products such as shirts and pants for the adults. But, the problem was that he neither had any prior working experience in that particular business sector, nor he received any formal training in the trade. So, it wasn’t exactly easy for my friend to get the entrepreneurial start that he expected.
But, he was a very determined lad, and he was not exactly ready to give up so easily. So, he decided to take a job at one of the garments factories with a very minimal wage in order to make him familiar with some of the tricks of running a garments business. It wasn’t an easy job to do since it involved long hours of manual works from unloading shipments to cuttings and sizing of hundreds of fabric pieces. He continued his back-breaking works there for almost a year, learning the nitty-gritty details of the business. Finally, he was ready- he was ready to set up his own business.
A few sewing machines and a few skilled technicians were all he needed to start his business. In the beginning, it was only a few orders from here and there with nothing consistent just to keep him going in his works with a very minimal profit. But, as time progressed, my friend would get out for collecting work orders from different businesses, all over the country, in order to make customized dresses for them. I guess it was during this crucial period of time, my friend sensed that something good was going. My friend finally got what he wanted after working tirelessly for almost two years.
I am really proud of my friend for what he achieved and how he achieved it. It was because of his hard works and sheer determination that he managed to become a successful entrepreneur at such an early age. In fact, there was tremendous pressure from his family to get a good job (since he graduated from university with good grades) instead of starting a business, but he didn’t succumb to the pressure and chose to carry on with his entrepreneurial pursuit even if it meant working for 16 hours a day and 30 days a month. I am also very proud of my friend because he was working for a greater purpose which was to create better working opportunities for the unemployed young adults, and I must say that he succeeded in achieving his goal to a large extent.
Model Answer 2:
People say that “the secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well”. But seldom people understand that it takes a lot of time and effort to succeed in life and it is even truer when a woman raises her “flag of success” in this world because, after all, it is not that easy for a woman to be successful whether it is academically or professionally in our country.
But, my friend, Rebecca, made “success” look ridiculously easy as she was only one of two female students ever who managed to receive “Presidential Award” from our university. But, did that success come that easily? The answer is “no” because she had to struggle during her university years. For example, she fell sick with Para-typhoid for more than three weeks when she seldom attended any classes. To make it worse, soon after, her father, the only earning member in her family, lost his job. As a result, Rebecca had to work two shifts (12 hours) to support her family. Besides, she had to travel at least 3 hours a day in order to commute back and forth from her residence to university every day. Now, achieving such a great academic result after weathering so many difficulties was truly remarkable.
I am truly proud of my friend “Rebecca” as a friend and as a woman myself. I am not too sure that I could ever achieve such a feat even under the best of the circumstances. Besides, she managed to perform so extraordinarily well in a subject (“Chemical Engineering” that is) which was not an easy subject and required extensive lab works and study time.