Failure as I understand it: the most
important ingredient in the recipe to success. The lower you fall, the higher
you leap.
There was once a businessman
travelling to another city in his car with his driver. On their way, suddenly
the weather got bad and there was a storm. The driver suggested to stop the car
and take shelter nearby. But the master said “Keep Going”. As they advanced
further, the intensity of the storm increased, it was getting difficult to
drive. Once again upon asking to stop the master suggested, “Keep Going”. Further
ahead the conditions worsened and they found lots of vehicles lined up against
the trees nearby taking shelter, but the master still suggested, “Keep Going”. The
driver followed his orders. Soon they crossed the storm and saw beautiful sunlight
and clear path. Now the master suggested to stop and get out of the car. The driver
got amazed to hear that. He asked the reason to stop as they had already
cleared the storm. No point in stopping now. The master then said, “It makes
perfect sense to stop now as we can see
those people who stopped and lined up near the tree are still stuck in the
storm and we are out of it because we KEPT GOING.”
The master was none other than Mr
Dhirubhai Ambani. The incident is simple, but it teaches a very important
lesson. A bad weather, a bad phase or failures are never final. They too shall
pass just like the good days and success but it is very important to KEEP GOING
and I would say KEEP GOING STRONG.
Also if we are taking our
struggles head on, their intensity would reduce. Things, people or situations
affect you only till the time you let them affect you. Once you move on they
cease to follow. Having read a lot of biographies I can say that all the great
legends are legends because of their failures. Mr Bachhan was once considered
not fit for Bollywood as he was not good looking. Had he thought that to be
true, he would be still working in Kolkata. Instead, he kept going strong and
the rest is the history.
There are two kinds of failures. One
is, when we actually fail in our goal and the other is, when we are declared as
a failure by other people. It is when our critics think we have not performed
as per their expectation.
I have realized that we at times
feel defeated because of certain criticism about us. After a lot of pondering, I
have deduced that more than the criticism, pay attention to the critic. If the
critic is worthwhile, take the feedback seriously, if not, do not let it hamper our self-esteem. People would criticize us for two major reasons, either they
cannot be what we are or they want what we have. In either of the case, if we take them seriously the loss is ours. By saying this I do not mean that we
should think high of ourselves, but I have certainly learnt that not everyone
has to be taken seriously. It is an age old maxim: when an elephant walks, the
dogs would bark. The elephant can’t stop walking. He keeps going strong.
In the end, I would say, nothing
lasts forever, not even our failures and bad phases. Just KEEP GOING and soon
we would be at the other side of the storm, enjoying the beautiful sun.
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