GMAT考试写作指导：Issue写作范文十一

　　11. Perhaps in some instances the personal failings of great achievers are unimportant

　　relative to the achievements. In many cases, however, the relative significance of

　　personal failings can be very great, depending on two factors: the extent to which the

　　failing is part of the achievement process itself, and the societal impact of the

　　achievers failing apart from his or her own success.

　　Personal failings and achievement are often symbiotically related. The former test

　　the would-be achievers mettle; they pose challenges―necessary resistance that drives

　　one to achieve despite the shortcoming. Personal failings may also compel one to focus

　　on ones strengths, thereby spawning achievement. For example, poor academic or job

　　performance may propel a gifted entrepreneur to start his or her own business. In the

　　arts, a personal failing may be a necessary ingredient or integral part of the process of

　　achieving. Artists and musicians often produce their most creative works during periods

　　of depression, addiction, or other distress. In business, insensitivity to the human

　　costs of success has bred grand achievements, as with the questionable labor practices

　　of the great philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

　　A second type of personal failing is one that is unrelated to the achievement.

　　Modern politics is replete with examples: the marital indiscretions of the great leader

　　John F. Kennedy and the paranoia of the great statesman Richard Nixon, to name just

　　two. Were the personal failings of these two presidents less important than their

　　achievements? In the former example, probably so. in the latter example, probably not

　　since it resulted in the Watergate scandal―a watershed event in American politics. In

　　cases such as these, therefore, the societal impact of shortcoming and achievement must

　　be weighed on a case-by-case basis.

　　In sum, history informs us that personal failings are often part-and-parcel of great

　　achievements; even where they are not, personal shortcomings of great achievers often

　　make an important societal impact of their own.