As schools in highly industrialized America intensify their efforts to be competitive in the global economy, students are experiencing intensifying pressures on their time. This analysis looks at the words of four highly successful boys in New York City juxtaposed with national reports, web sites, magazine and newspaper articles to trouble the idea of the temporal discipline of the successful "adolescent." The author hopes to open up a space for alternative thought and action by problematizing the notion of the "successful" adolescent, by looking at how the temporal discipline which is seen as so desirable in "successful" adolescents, and the lack of which is found problematic in "unsuccessful" and "at-risk" adolescents, can be interpreted as an effect of power which narrows what the adolescent regards as possibilities in his/her life. (Contains 17 references.) (GCP)