The Pulitzer Prize is the ultimate honor for many writers. It takes years of hard work and experience to write a piece worth even being considered for a Pulitzer.

The Ames Daily Tribune Editor Michael Gartner is a perfect example of a person with great experiences who earned this ultimate honor.

Gartner won the Pulitzer for editorial writing earlier this week. His previous experiences at The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register and Tribune, The Louisville Courier-Journal and NBC are only a part of receiving this reward.

However, experience wasn’t the case for Frank McCourt. The writer who won this year’s Pulitzer for his biography, “Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir.” It was McCourt’s first big award of any kind, but it was also his first attempt at writing a book.

A pretty amazing accomplishment for a first book.

But was it luck or something else? Well, there is nothing scientific about why “unexpected winners” go home with the prize instead of someone else.

Gartner said his Pulitzer was a combination of having the right people and experiences in his life at the right time.

The same most likely holds true for McCourt.

In addition, there’s also always the desire to be noticed, regardless of how well-known we are among our colleagues.

Every now and then, we are reminded of surprise successes from events in the entertainment and sports industries.

However, such tales of unusual talent have been more newsworthy when they involved children.

Child prodigies fascinate us partly because we wonder what the rest of their lives will hold if they achieve an ultimate greatness at such a young age.

Anna Paquin was eight when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the 1993 movie The Piano. She had no previous acting experience and wasn’t even supposed to audition. Paquin tagged along with her older sister to the audition only to have the producers ask her to read the part. Out of thousands of young girls, she was chosen.

Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary was 14 when she won the gold medal for the 200-meter backstroke in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She had no previous Olympic experience and wasn’t an expected medal contender.

Tara Lipinski, 14, created an upset when she became this year’s world champion in women’s figure skating.

Country singer Leann Rimes was 13 when her first single “Blue” went No. 1 on the charts. She was 14 when she won a Grammy.

Other notable young people and adults alike have had similar success stories.

What is the secret to “fast” success like McCourt’s or Rimes’? Is there one?

Maybe there isn’t. However, the only real formula seems to be a lot of hard work, guts, a passion for your work and a little luck.

It has been said that it takes 15 years to become an overnight success. This is true for most of us in reality. For some though, this success may come in a few months, a few weeks, few days or a few hours.

But overnight success with one book, one song, one swim, one movie or anything else is rare. However, individuals who accomplish success by one anything include everything in the formula 100 percent.

They do this without boasting or having any previous expectations. The only expectation they do have is to do their best.

Some may think it unfair to be “beaten” by an unknown out of nowhere in a given situation. But it is no more unfair than being ousted by someone with more experience and/or talent than you.

Iowa State has also had its share of unexpected standouts, such as former GSB President Dan Mangan and soon-to-be GSB President Rob Wiese. Both of them were elected for president without having prior GSB experience.

Something like that is almost unheard of.

However, these “surprise winners” also happened to be at the right place at the right time. And they, too, were fortunate to have themselves recognized for their accomplishments in the public sphere. But most importantly, they had the formula intact to win and be successful. That’s something we are all capable of mixing together. We just have to use it at the right time.

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Shuva Rahim is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Davenport.