The reason why hard work is the key to success, is that it is the price you pay to get what you want. If success was free, everyone would have it. Hard work helps you build your own discipline, and it teaches you to value yourself. It gives you results. Working hard helps you overcome many other obstacles, and it boosts your brainpower.

With hard work, connections and opportunities will ‘fall from the sky’. Because in the end, it is the biggest characteristic of successful people.

There are no secrets to success—no shortcuts—it is about determination and learning from failure.

Edward Everett Hale, an American author and historian, said: "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”.

So, work hard for what you want to achieve and set goals. Many successful people started with nothing, they worked hard to get to where they are now.

Colombe is an aspiring writer from Lycée de Kigali

The "Aspiring Journalists” initiative is a partnership between UNICEF and The New Times, encouraging young writers to develop and demonstrate their skills while spotlighting topics which are important to young people across Rwanda.