Revised Essay
What is the best way to give advice to other people? The arguer claims that
the best way is to find out what other people want and then advise them how
to attain it. While I admit that many people do give advice by catering to
other people’s desires, I maintain that this method oversimplifies the
issue and often proves both harmful and ineffective.
In the first place, people very often have no clear idea of what they
really want. My personal experience is a case in point. When I was in
Senior Middle School, I was an excellent student. Moreover, all my teachers
believed that I would enter a first-class university and would have a
splendid future. Unfortunately, just before the Entrance Examination, I had
an accident and had to lie in bed for several months. As a result, I was
admitted only by a second-class university, which pushed me to the brink of
despair. At this decisive moment of my life, my mother came to my rescue.
By recommending to me instructive books on life, by talking with me heart
to heart, by taking me on a trip to the beach, mother convinced me that the
goal of my life was to live a successful and happy life rather than to go
to a famous university, and that the ways to success are various. In this
way my mother saved me out of the crisis of my life not simply by finding
out what I wanted and then advising me how to attain it, but by patiently
enlightening me on the essential meaning and purpose of life, making me
realize that what I took for granted as my aim of life was not what I
really needed.