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The
funny thing about life is that you realize the value
of something only when it begins to leave you. As
my hair turned from black, to salt and pepper to finally
salt without pepper, I have begun to
realize the importance of youth. At the same time, I have
begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons
I have learnt along the way. I hope you will find them useful
when you plan your career
and life.
The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin
with our strengths. From the
earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what
is wrong with us. There is an imaginary
story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school.
Like all rabbits, it
could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the
year, the rabbit got high marks
in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned.
They said, "Forget about hopping, you are good at it
anyway. Concentrate on swimming". They
sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what
happened? The rabbit forgot
how to hop. As or swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit
swim? While it is important for us to
know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what
is good in us.
That is because; it is only our strengths that can give
us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
The second lesson I have learnt is that a Rupee earned is
of far more value than FIVE
found. My friend was sharing with me the story of his eight
year old niece, she would always complain about
breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child
remained unhappy. Finally my friend
took the child to a supermarket and bought one of those
ready-to-cook packets.
The child had to cut the packet and pour the water in the
dish. After that, it took two minutes in
the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be
absolutely delicious. The
difference was that she had cooked it! In my own life, I
have found that nothing gives as much
satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted
or inherited follows the old
rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we know the value of
what we have if we have to struggle to
earn it.
The third lesson I have learned is that no one bats a hundred
every time. Life has many
challenges. You win some and lose some. You must enjoy winning.
But do not let it go to the
head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to
failure. And if you encounter
failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon.
Don't beat yourself for it
or anyone for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share
of the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose do not lose the
lesson. The fourth lesson I have learnt
is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so
much in life, you really start wondering
whether you really deserve all of it! This brings me to
the value of gratitude. We
have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers
and our seniors have done so much for
us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the
shortcomings, because obviously,
no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge
what we have received. Nothing
in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather
than becoming bitter,we
must learn to savor the memory of the good things while
they lasted.
The fifth lesson is that we must always strive for excellence.
One way of achieving excellence
is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning
what they do differently. Emulate
it. But excellence cannot be imposed from outside. We must
also feel the need from within. It must become an
obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our
heart and soul.
Excellence
is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines
of a poem, which says
that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven
on earth. Ultimately, your only
competition is yourself. The sixth lesson I have learnt
is never give up in adversity. It
comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb
to self-pity, wring your hands
in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage
and dignity. Always keep in mind that
it is only the test of fire that makes us find steel. A
friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year-old daughter was struggling away at a
jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for
hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her
bedtime. My friend told her, "Look, why
don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete
it tonight. Look at it another day."
The
daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But,
Dad, why should I give up? All the pieces
are there! I have just got to put them together!" If
we persevere long enough, we can put
any problem in perspective.
The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must
be open to change, do not
compromise
on your values. Mahatma Gandhi often said that you must
open the windows of your mind, but
you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must
define what your core values are
and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult
to define. Values like honesty,
integrity, consideration and sensitivity have survived for
generations. Values are not
in the words used to describe them, as much as in simple
acts. A wise man once said,
"You do not have to change the world to make a difference.
If on the way to your house, you
can bring a smile on the face of a crying child, you have
done your bit". At the end of the day,
it is values that define a person more than the achievements.
Because it is the means
of achievement that decide how long the achievements will
sustain. Do not be tempted by short
cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up
becoming the longest way
to the destination.
And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith
in our own ideas even if everyone
tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor
who had a rude customer. Every
morning, the customer would walk by, refusing to return
the greeting, grab the paper off
the self and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would
pick up the money, smile
politely and say "Thank you, Sir." One day the
Vendor's assistant asked him,
"Why are you always polite with him when he is so rude
to you? Why don't you throw the
newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow?" The
Vendor smiled and replied, "he can't help
being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let
his rude behavior dictate
my politeness?" So it is, my young friends, with all
of us. In my youth,
I thought of myself as a rebel and was any times, a rebel
without a cause. Today, I
realize
that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defied
our elders to fall in line with
our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead
of reacting. When we respond, we
evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate.
We are in control of our actions.
When we react, we are still doing what the other person
wants us to do. I wish you all the
best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success
in whatever way you define it and what
gives you the maximum in life. Remember those who win are
those who believe they can.
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