FAILURE IS SPRING BOARD TO SUCCESS

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” ― Abraham Lincoln

Success is a journey and not a destination. In fact, there is no straight jacket formula for success. Though somebody may inspire you, but to succeed you must tread your own path.

Abraham Lincoln is a bundle of failures before he ascended the presidency of the United States :

- Lost job, 1832
- Defeated for legislature, 1832
- Failed in business, 1833
- Sweetheart (Ann Rutledge) died, 1835
- Had nervous breakdown, 1836
- Defeated for Speaker, 1838
- Defeated for nomination for Congress, 1843
- Lost re-nomination, 1848
- Rejected for Land Officer, 1849
- Defeated for Senate, 1854
- Defeated for nomination for Vice-President, 1856
- Again defeated for Senate, 1858
- Elected President, 1860

To embrace success, there is no requirement of formal education or you need not born with a silver spoon in mouth. What you need is a burning zeal to excel in your area of interest. In fact those who learn from their experience are on a much better footing.

Tony Robbins, America's most admired Personality Development guru says that "Success is truly the result of good judgment; good judgement is the result of experience; and experience is often the result of bad judgement. "

Most people wrongly connote success with wealth or material possessions. But in the course of journey, money could be one of the byproducts, but not the end product. Andrew Carnegie, the 19th Century American Steel magnate says that "The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else which he is entitled. " He further adds that " The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world will take off its hat to those who put in more than 50 % of their capacity and the world will stand on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

In fact, success can be attained in any branch of labour. Andrew Carnegie started his life as a factory worker but rose to the pinnacle of success. He says that "your thoughts are your capital".

Success means aim for the highest. Late Steve Jobs, the iconic Apple Inc. CEO is a college dropout, but reached to the top of the ladder of success by creating the world's most valued company.

Jobs whose iPhone and iPad created flutters says that "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. "

Napoleon Hill who wrote "The Law of Success” in 1928 revolutionized the concepts of creating wealth, self-improvement and achieving goals. He spent 20 years by interviewing over 100 most successful people in America and found the following 15 characteristic traits for Success:-

1. Golden Rule : Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

2. Tolerance.

3. Profiting by failure.

4. Cooperation

5. Concentration

6. Accurate thinking

7. Pleasing personality

8. Habit of doing more than Paid For

9. Self Control

10. Enthusiasm

11. Imagination

12. Initiative & Leadership

13. Habit of saving

14. Self Confidence

15. Definite Chief Aim

So the subtle lesson is: Material goals are not the end of the road, beyond which there is something richer which Abraham Maslow termed as "Self Actualization". So everybody must strive to reach to that arena and be closer to Reality.

DEATH IS THE END OF MELODRAMA OF LIFE !!

 

The trauma of my aunt’s tragic death  is still hunting me.  It is beyond words to narrate how she fell into a valley while she was going on a horse to reach  the famous Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhund, India. The manner of death really shocked me and threw me out of gear for some weeks.   The incident had taken me to a new level of wisdom about uncertainty of life.  

Deepak Chopra says that the Prince of Death is just behind you all the time and the only difference is method of execution and length of reprieve.

We see many people who are perturbed to amass wealth in the name of security. To grab the world of possessions they stop enjoying life of present moment and hanker for accumulating wealth.

One great person sagely advises  that " live the life everyday as if it is your last day". In such a living,  you reap the benefits of distilled wisdom of enlightened masters. You need not frighten much about death when it is an inescapable event of life.   Sky is the only limit for human endeavour.  All great personalities who lived on this planet have taught this great lesson.

Steve Jobs, the iconic CEO of Apple Computers who died due to pancreatic cancer is so pragmatic in his ideology. “In his famous 2005 Stanford University speech, he says that :

 

“ When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

On death, jobs says that “ remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. “

He further says that “no one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. “

About life, Jobs says that “your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”  

So don’t fear death which you can't escape and do to unleash your potential !

DO MORE THAN WHAT YOU ARE BEING PAID FOR

 

The whole paradigm of HRD revolves around one concept : How to improve the productivity of an employee ?

The company delegates this responsibility to Human Resources Department (HRD) whose job is to strive to improve the work atmosphere and mindset of employees through a host of measures to increase their productivity. Before anything worthwhile is injected into their veins, the first thing they have to do is, change their value system.

Employees have to be motivated in such a way that their performance matters not only to their professional lives but bring a perceptible change in their personal lives as well. They have to be convinced that beyond money, there are some invaluable things which the money can't buy. So it is a soul-stirring exercise for which a firm ground work needs to be laid.

Normally the employee thinks that he or she should work to the extent of being paid for. Whenever, anything requires beyond his/ her normal competence and effort, he/ she simply throws the ball in the court of their seniors. Due to this, the poor soul lags behind in terms of promotions and other incentives/ avenues.

Here comes the world of difference. He is wise who plunges into action before anybody pushes him. The person who is in cocoon never realizes the credence of this lesson.

America's acclaimed author Napoleon Hill in his famous book " How to sell your way through life" says that one should have the habit of doing more than one is paid for his job. In a chapter exclusively devoted for this concept, Hill dwelt at length on how Henry Ford though is a poor and less educated, but by following this unorthodox principle, became a giant automobile maker of America.

So you can ignore this advice at your own peril.

CHANGE THE JOB TO SATISFY THE INNER 'YOU'

It is a virtual hell to continue in a job when your heart is craving for some other dream profession.

Doing a job is of course for those needy bucks. But, settling with less than what you ought to be should not be accepted as a fate.

Most people think that they should have high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to score high in life. But, what is needed more than IQ is, RQ i.e. Risk Quotient. It is the ability to endure the risk and explore the uncharted territories. You can otherwise call it the amount of guts required to take a bold decision to tread a path for success.

But in the most of Indians, this RQ is abysmally low, because they are the poor souls to satisfy with what they have in their hand, than a desire to climb up in life. In this respect, our Western counterparts are on a much better footing.

A study reveals that any American adults changes his or her job on an average 7 times in their life time. By doing so, they make a wise choice and settle with the best they deserve.

There are countless people who leave their glittering careers only to settle in their dream professions. Chetan Bhagat, India’s legend novelist left his plum job as an investment banker to transmute his passion into a writing career.

So the home point is, drive your passion into a viable venture and monetize your abilities and the first pre-requisite is to increase the risk appetite or R.Q !