Last night a friend pinged me on WhatsApp. A very humble and cultured fellow, a story of success and inspiration for our younger generation. Nowadays he is a public figure and his post trends heavily on social media. We discussed numerous thing of past and present. I won't go into the details of our conversation keeping in the mind its sanctity and private nature. But as soon as I hung up the call, a powerful thought struck me. So I thought of writing on the same.
So without being too academic or preachy as some of my posts turn out to be, let me list the four milestones of success. Without these, the success will be ephemeral, uninspiring, shallow and devoid of substantial wisdom. These are not merely milestones of success but these are also milestones of happiness and self-actualizations. Most importantly, these are applicable in almost every walk of life. Be it the making of an IAS or an entrepreneur or a visionary charismatic leader. Rather than milestones, I must say these are phases which one must pass through to reach the pinnacle of true success.
First is confusion. The phase of confusion is very much necessary in the making of success. Confusion prompts a person to evaluate his options and available choices. It helps us in identifying about our passion, our love and also our dislikes. It helps people in figuring out what they wish to do with their life. For example, Steve Jobs was utterly confused with this life and in that fit, he decided to travel to India. After 8 months of random voyages, he crystallized his mind on what he wish to do with his life. The one thing which sails you through this phase is your conviction. Your conviction in yourself. Your conviction in your belief. For example, Sachin had a conviction of making it a good cricketer and represent our country. So in the age of technology and science, he chose cricket as his career.
Second is madness or passion. Once a person is through with confusion, he should enter this phase of madness. Madness in following his conviction. Madness in pursuing his goals. Passion helps in discovering and uncovering your innermost strength. It helps in building your confidence and strengthen the "can do" attitude. This attitude is utmost essential for successful people. This passion is reflected in person's work. For example, work of Snapdeal cofounders struggled for many years to figure out what problem they wish to solve. But once they knew what exactly they are trying to solve, they madly pursued their targets and entered the 1000 crore club in no time.
Initial two phases were very common day knowledge and every so-called successful person goes through this once in their lifetime. However, what makes you more humane and more resilient is the third point. It is Failure. Failure is the best teacher. It triggers you to introspect and analyze the causes beneath your failure. It injects much-needed resilience in our attitude. It helps us in understanding the laws of nature that nothing is permanent so be grounded. High and lows are part of life. And a true leader is one who remain bound to his conviction despite repeated failures. Someone has correctly remarked, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. It makes us understand that "Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue which counts." Failure makes you more empathic and humane. It helps you grow emotionally and mentally. It brings out the minutest flaw in your scheme of thing. And those who stick to their path of success, eventually reach their goals after learning from each of these setbacks. And eventually, they reached the pinnacle.
But, wait a minute.I was not writing this blog to talk about above three points. I was writing the blog for that fourth point. Because that was my nodal point of conversation with my friend. He has reached the pinnacle and with his humility, character, and magnetic personality, he is bound to remain there for long. But not before he crosses over this final hurdle.
It is criticism. Ability to take criticism, filter it as per your own conscience, stuck to your belief, do the relevant correction, accept your mistakes and ignore the noise. No one has ever achieved greatness without facing criticism. In fact being criticized is an indication that you are riding the path of success. Criticism is a test of one's conviction.
It is combined test of first three learnings. Criticism tries to confuse you by distorting your conception of self. so from the first milestone, one should know how to deal with this. To defeat your criticism, one should work extra hard. That's where one has the attitudinal learning of the second milestone. she or he should work extra hard to prove their detractors wrong. And thirdly, one may fail in the process. In the competitive world, not everything is in one's control so here the learning of phase three comes into play. Stand up again and keep walking towards goal.
There is all sort of people in this world. Your well-wisher, fanatics, sadists, haters, ill-wishers blah blah. The phase of criticism helps us in identifying people and filtering the desired piece of information that strengthen our conviction and is in sync with our conscience.
I know, this post has completely turned into some preachy stuff but can't help it. There is nothing right or wrong in this world. "Anekantavada" teaches us so. It is person's courage to carry his belief and put it on his sleeves which lead to the pursuit of happiness and satisfaction which is the ultimate success in life.
Enough for the day.
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