Mediocre vs. Successful

I’ll begin this post with a story –

A certain farmer had become old and ready to pass his farm down to one of his two sons. When he brought his sons together to speak about it, he told them: The farm will go to the younger son.

The older son was furious! “What are you talking about?!” he fumed.

The father sat patiently, thinking.

“Okay,” the father said, “I need you to do something for me. We need more stocks. Will you go to Bhuv’s farm and see if he has any cows for sale?”

The older son shortly returned and reported, “Father, Bhuv has 6 cows for sale.”

The father graciously thanked the older son for his work. He then turned to the younger son and said, “I need you to do something for me. We need more stocks. Will you go to Bhuv’s farm and see if he has any cows for sale?”

The younger son did as he was asked. A short while later, he returned and reported, “Father, Bhuv has 6 cows for sale. Each cow will cost 2,000 rupees. If we are thinking about buying more than 6 cows, Bhuv said he would be willing to reduce the price 100 rupees. Bhuv also said they are getting special jersey cows next week if we aren’t in a hurry, it may be good to wait. However, if we need the cows urgently, Bhuv said he could deliver the cows tomorrow.”

The father graciously thanked the younger son for his work. He then turned to the older son and said, “That’s why your younger brother is getting the farm.” 

Most people only do what they are asked, doing only the minimum requirement. They need specific instructions on most things they do.

Conversely, those who become successful and stand apart from the crowd are anxiously engaged in a good cause. They don’t need to be managed in all things. They don’t just do the job, they do it right and complete. They also influence the direction for how certain ideas and projects go.

Most importantly, those who become successful initiate. They reach out to people, ask questions, make recommendations, offer to help, and pitch their ideas.

Being successful requires being proactive and not waiting for life to come to you. It means you’re on offense, not defense. You’re active, not passive.

In every organization or institution, there are a select few people who would be difficult to replace. For the most part, most people are like the older son in the story. Most people could be easily replaced. Most people are passive and reactive. They require specific instructions. They need to be governed and managed in all things.

Initiation always involves some degree of risk. You’re putting yourself out there and there is a chance you could fail.

Alternatively, doing only what you’re told entails no risk and carries no responsibility. It’s playing safe.

But what’s worth it?

Are you an initiator? You absolutely can be.

But if not, one thing is for certain: Life isn’t going to wait for you. 

Now Is The Time To Move Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

Have, Believe, Move!

To become what we want, we need to at least HAVE five of these qualities to MOVE forward.

1. COURAGE and HARD-WORK

 Courage is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear and discouragement.

Courage doesn’t always roar, sometimes it is the little voice at the end of the day that says…”I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage! And of course, there’s no substitute for hard-work.

2. WILL – POWER and STRENGTH

Strength and will-power are closely linked. Because strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. And it’s not that some people have will-power and some do not. It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.

But it’s worth it. Right? 

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength!

3. DETERMINATION/PERSEVERANCE

The difference between the possible and the impossible lies in a person’s determination.

I didn’t mean that! 

Determination gives you the resolve to keep going inspite of the road-blocks that lay before you!

4. SELF-DISCIPLINE

Self discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don’t talk back!

Don’t we oftentimes do something like that?
or this?

But, we must know that self-discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment!

5. FAITH

My favourite lines on faith – “Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!”

We just need to BELIEVE in ourselves and remember –

🙂

 

‘Failure’ will pass away but don’t let ‘success’ defeat you!

 How beautiful and thoughtful is that! It kept me thinking for hours and I was trying to think of examples where ‘successful’ people faced defeat because of that very success. And believe me, there are more examples of people who faced defeat with success than those with failure!

           Well, obviously all of us know what success means but I felt like checking its dictionary meaning once. And here it is Success – The achievement of an aim or purpose. “That’s it?? And what happens after that? Do we just sing the melodies of our success to the world?” was my reaction! Really, we talk of success as if its the most difficult task in the world and that’s it! After all, dictionaries will remain dictionaries! And I realized that success does have a much more deeper meaning than that.

            True victory comes with excellence. If we do something extraordinarily well, we’ll definitely be successful. But how long will that success last? Well, the answer is simple but hard to follow. It lasts only till the time we “maintain” that right “attitude”. The very moment that attitude alters, one gets the feeling of getting ‘stung’ by the no. 99 snake in the game of ‘Snake and Ladder‘, except of course, the snake this time is real and the game of life provides very few ladders to rise up again!

Yes, there are real-life examples.
          ‘Macbeth’, the very famous and ambitious king of Scotland. He who was moralistic and raged with valiant fury, who was called the ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’, became the king of Scotland after killing the virtuous Duncan. Even after that success, people believed that his conscience will guide him to be what he had always been, but no,what happened after that was sleepless nights, constant fear and no peace! His sense of insecurity led to his downfall. He, who could never be defeated at the battlefield, died at that very place! It was his own success that defeated him.
‘Adolf Hitler’. We all know who he was. One of the greatest orators the world has ever produced, so influential that he could impact every single person who heard him. What a wondrous brain he had! I admire him for both these qualities. He eventually succeeded in becoming the dictator of Germany. But what happened after that? Riots, conflicts,  mass-killings, rebellion, torture and eventually The Second World War!! He was faced with so much opposition after this drastic change in his attitude that he died the death of a coward by committing suicide! Is that really true success?

And the examples are endless ranging from people like Hosni Mubarak to Lady Gaga and even the Congress, if I may say so!

Then there are instances of those who never got defeated by their repeated failures and achieved true success. No body remembers how many times they failed. All that really matters is what they attained in the end.
             ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ and ‘Nelson Mandela’ tried endlessly to free their countries, with futile efforts most of the times! But they didn’t give up and now they are credited for it more than anyone else!
Had ‘Albert Einstein’ and ‘Thomas Alva Edison‘ not tried again after failing over a hundred times, we would still be using candles and earthen lamps and the greatest discovery of the Theory of Relativity would never come into existence!
After all, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of determination.”
‘Michael Jackson’ who was once a slave, turned into a legendary pop-star! ‘Wilma Rudolf’ who suffered from polio came to be known as the fastest woman on earth! ‘Dhirubhai Ambani’ who was once a bus-conductor became the richest man in India! ‘The Beatles’ who were denied the publishing of their albums everywhere they went, are role-models for all the latest boy bands! ‘J.K Rowling’ whose Harry Potter series were trashed by all the publishing companies now runs the most successful sequel of the same series on world-cinema! ‘Oprah Winfrey’ who was constantly neglected by her family is now the most influential woman in the world! ‘Helen Keller‘ was blind but still served so many! And the list is endless…
Their victory over tragedy is success!

            Being successful doesn’t necessarily mean being famous. We, in our daily lives are victorious if we achieve what we aim for and never let that victory come in our way of even greater success keeping our attitude unchanged.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Thus, we all must have firm faith on ourselves and move ahead like a river stream, paving our own path, overcoming all obstacles that lie on the way and zestfully reaching the ocean!

            Let us all strive for righteous success with never-ending zeal, hard-work, will-power and dedication. And believe me, thereafter, nothing can stop us from achieving the impossible because sky is the limit after that!

Wishing you true success 🙂