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Insight: Mar 25

This week Insight explores how we define success and failure.

2014-03-24_1626This week Insight explores how we define success and failure.

Host Jenny Brockie speaks to high-achievers from school, business and sports, as well as those who haven’t reached their goals, about the price and payoff of a ‘winning at all costs’ approach.

The guests also discuss the risks of creating a culture of underachievers by rewarding some people just for “trying”.

Navjot Singh expects her teenage daughter Avleen to spend most of her time at school, in tutoring or doing homework. She lets Avleen see her friends occasionally – but only if they are also high achievers.

Navjot hopes her daughter will one day complete at least a double degree in engineering and earn a good salary. Anything less is not an option.

Twenty nine-year-old Nicole Lee says her parents gave her only three career choices – doctor, dentist or lawyer. She dropped out of med school after a few years to pursue acting and her dad still calls her a failure.

Guests include:

Navjot & Avleen Singh
Navjot Singh believes it’s very important that her 15 year-old daughter, Avleen, succeeds academically, as this is the key to a good career. Avleen has had Maths and English tutoring since primary school, and does three hours of homework every day with her mother at her side. Avleen stopped doing sport so she could focus on her studies, and is only allowed to have friends who are also doing well at school. Navjot hopes that her daughter will be able to do a triple degree in engineering.

Leisel Jones
Australian swimming legend Leisel Jones sacrificed a lot for Olympic gold. She says that you have to give up almost everything in your life to win, and it’s a lonely journey to the top. Anything less than gold wasn’t good enough for her – coming in fourth place was devastating, especially when she had invested so much self-worth in the outcome.

Gabriella Da Silva-Fick & her father Anthony Fick
Gabriella Da Silva-Fick, 13, is a rising tennis player who was scouted by Tennis Australia and won the Under 12 National Tennis Tournament last year. She trains twice daily, before and after school. Her father, Anthony, admits he pushes her. Gabriella accepts she has to make sacrifices to get to the top – her idol, Federer, would have done the same.

Nicole Lee
Nicole Lee says that from a young age, her parents told her she had three career choices – doctor, dentist or lawyer. She got into med school, but after four years dropped out to pursue a career in acting and writing. Nicole says her parents were devastated and, five years on, her dad still calls her a failure. She says she’s still not sure what being “successful” means.

Wenee Yap
When Wenee was seven years old and had a poor report card from school, her mother asked her “do you want to be mediocre or do you want to be great”. Wenee has never forgotten that moment. She says she’s glad her mother pushed her because children don’t have their own drive and determination.

Rebekka Tuqiri
Rebekka Tuqiri is a psychologist who holds stress management seminars for students completing Year 12. She says pressure is good when it’s motivating, but too much is damaging and the brain won’t perform well. She says students often approach her quite teary after her seminars and many are feeling a lot of anxiety.

Tuesday 25 March, 8.30pm on SBS ONE

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