It is a world of survival of the fittest. I know the fact that achievers shape this world and people like me get benefit of their hard work, devotion, sacrifices and abilities. They lead us and we follow them. But here the buck stops. We all are different. Those who follow are not necessarily absolutely devoid of the traits the successful people possesses. Many of the underachievers simply give up either half way or at that most crucial time when they were few steps to success. The difference of the winner and a loser in any race is hardly a few yards. An Upper Division Clerk and a District Magistrate had got a difference of a few marks when they both had appeared in the IAS competition. Keep aside the spin and hyperbole of beauty and brains and beneath the surface of the skin deep glittering is nothing but the body and face that God has gifted. They were lucky to have families which supported them to reach the palatial houses where the beauty pageants are organized. What Kamala could have done with her sallow complexion when her parents had sold her to a brothel keeper of Kamehti Pura in her childhood in the name of Deva Seva? There has always been a thin line between success and failure in life. The banyan tree is flouting its air-roots, shiny green leaves and offering its cozy shade today because no cow or goat extirpated its sapling and used it as fodder few decades or hundreds of years before. You can give credit of the strong growth to the grit of the mother seed also for the giant tree. But could you deny that no destructive hurricane came its way in its earlier development and it got the proper support of water and air when needed. While we must admire, respect and give credit to those who have shown earth shaking results we shouldn’t insult the brilliance of ordinary man. Given the right set of positive circumstances and many of us could have become an Einstein, Tagore or Dheeru Bhai. Most of us are always curious to know what kind of personalities these successful people have or how intelligent they are; what special talents they possess. I’ve been fortunate to know and learn closely many of the these successful men. We can’t ignore about our backyard where the more dishonest, the more cunning, depraved and unprincipled you are the more successful you are. One day I asked a successful baker how he reached the top of the ladder. “On the heads of broken eggs…” was his candid and honest answer. The truth was, as he stated, that when rest of the bakers were buying fresh eggs from poultries for making the cakes, he used to buy the reject, substandard and broken eggs. While other made a profit of 15 % he made 40 %. Now he has got HACCP and ISO’s certificates and all that you can afford after success. He is a man of honesty, integrity and principles now. Kapoors, Khans or Johars may be a story of two or three generations but we have our Gandhis, Jindals, pilots, Yadavs, Nidihis and Abdullahs who would be there in the vanguard of the nation in coming generations, for better or the worst, and would keep reminding us that accident of birth is the best trait. Rich people are too powerful and dangerous and I’m afraid of my life to talk about their antecedents. To be safe, let us learn about one - Mozart, a child prodigy who had began writing music at the age of 6. He was not after all that glorious in the nascent stage of his career. Michel Howe, the well know psychologist describes his achievements in his book “Genius Explained” as follows: “By the standard of mature composers, Mozart’s early works are not outstanding. The earliest pieces were all probably written down by his father, and perhaps improved in process. Many of the Wolfgang’s childhood compositions, such as the first seven of his concertos for piano and orchestra, are largely works of other composers. Of those concertos that only contain music original to Mozart, the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork (No. 9, K. 271) was not composed until he was 21: by that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years. “Who log jinhoon ney khoon dekar gulshan ko ye zeenat bakshi hai ; Do char se duniya waqif hai, gumnam na jane kine hain.” The garden’s beauty and color owe to the blood of several keepers . Only a few of them are exposed, rest are unknown. I’m a late bloomer and under-achiever in almost all walks of my life. I know I’m neither blessed with a super-intelligent brain nor I’ve the great talents to win friends and influence. However, with all my constrains, restrains, pitfalls and shortcomings God has gifted me with Self Respect and a resilience to accept the situations I can’t change. I set my goals and try my best to achieve them. There are times when I flop miserably and there are times when I make a lukewarm success. There are also moments - these are few when I come off with flying colors. One great attribute that helped me is that nothing throws me out of gear. As one Urdu poet has said: “Manzil miley, miley na miley, is ka gham naheen: Manzil ki justuju me mera caravan to hai. ” Achieving or losing doesn’t worry me. I’m satisfied that my struggle is on. Struggle is always more pleasant than reaching the destination. Once you reach at the top, there is nothing left to look up. You walk on flat plateau or you look down the valleys you have climbed up. But we can’t generalize this example. There are child prodigies and there are plenty who reach the top with hard, honest and sincere efforts. Success is also based on individual merit. These people are judged on their own performance and ability. Let us remember : “In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.” Mao Tse-Tung “Life has an incredible way of working out the details of our difficulties when we choose not to give up.” Josh Hinds “Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.” Samuel Johnson.
