An essential characteristic a person needs to possess to be successful in life is responsibility. When someone is responsible you know you can trust them with anything.
On a daily basis as life progresses we are faced with more and more responsibilities. By being responsible you show that can be faced with any task and you will not let anyone down.
I am a very responsible person. However I was not always like I am now. There have been many times in my life where I needed to be responsible or I would have to face severe consequences. My parents were always very strict when I was growing up. So when I wanted to do to do something and my parents didn't want me to I had a decision to make. Usually my decision was to still do what I wanted. Most of the time I got in trouble for my actions. This was not really a responsible thing to do. One time I stayed out past the time that I was supposed to be in and my mom didn't know where I was. I did not have a cell phone at the time so my mom had no way of getting a hold of me. Since I did not call my mom she over reacted and just started driving around looking for me. She searched for around two hours and finally found me. She was quite upset. She lost trust in me for a long time after that. She did not think I was responsible enough to be trusted with even simple things.
There are many other examples where we need to be responsible. Just one example is in the work force. Your job counts on you to be there when ever you are supposed to be there. Even when you get sick you have to be responsible enough to call at least an hour or two before hand to let your boss know so they can get someone to cover for you. This is just one case where you need to be responsible or many other people will have to face consequences as well.