One important example I can remember is that when I was young, in elementary and middle school, my parents used a combination of negative and positive reinforcement to get me to my homework. They wouldn't let me watch television until I finished my homework, and I couldn't visit my friends if I performed poorly on a test. By taking away those privileges I tried to do better. If I did well on my report card, I was rewarded by going out to dinner wherever I wanted, which I rarely got to do otherwise. This instilled in me a work ethic for school work. While I didn't like the downside of not doing homework, I liked being rewarded not only with dinner, but also with doing well in school. Now that I'm on my own I can see how beneficial this has been for my future. This led to me in high school no longer needing to be told to do my homework, I had learned that if I wanted to get good grades I would have to work hard in school, study and do my homework. Working hard in high school allowed me to participate in the honors program at Toledo, as well as earn a scholarship. If all of this had failed and I hadn't continued to work hard in school, I wouldn't be where I am today and I would have even done poorly in college because I wouldn't know how to get my homework done on time