The Secret of Success Lies in Self

The Secret of Success Lies in Self

Journey of success takes full circle – it starts from Self and ends in Self

By Mukesh Sharma

 

“What is the secret of success Sir”, asked one of the disciples of the great teacher and philosopher Socrates. ‘Come tomorrow’, answered Socrates. “I will let you know the secret of success.” The next day, the disciple presented himself again. Socrates took him to a river nearby. Both stepped into the river water and started wading through the water towards the middle. When both were in neck-deep water, Socrates halted and put his hand on the head of the disciple and pushed it inside the water. After holding it for two minutes inside the water, Socrates released the head. Gasping for breath, the disciple popped up his head and was panting heavily. “Are you okay” asked Socrates. “How did you feel inside the water”. “I” the disciple stuttered. “I was dying for breath sir”. “So” said Socrates with a smile. “Here is the answer to your question”. “If one dies for success in the same way as you were for breath inside the water, one must get success.”

The Secret of Success Lies in Self

It’s a fact when success becomes the sole purpose of life, it doesn’t keep away from its aspirant longer. Sooner or later, it embraces him/her.

Mind you, there is no ‘road’ to success. Each success-seeker has to make his/her own road. There are no set rules to win success. Each candidate has to make own rules and observe it. There is no teacher to teach success. One has to be one’s own teacher.

The size, shape and form of success are different for different people. To a young love-sick man, his love-lady may be a success; to a woman, being an independent career woman may be a success; to lesser souls, a secured government service may be a success; to enterprising people, own flourishing business may be a success; to likes of Amitabh Bachchan acting may be a success; to likes of Sachin Tendulkar, being a top cricketer may be a success; to a neta, CM/PM chair may be a success, and the story of success goes on differently for different people.

Like hunger and sex, success is also insatiable. Success succeeds success -  fulfillment of one success creates  hunger for the another.

The road to success may be long or even endless depending upon the form of success and the success- seeker. Nevertheless, all types of success, inevitably, begin from Self and essentially through Society and ones Country, reach the World. Out of millions, a few like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking reach at the threshold of universe. And in ages, a few blessed like Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and Nank Jump all the barriers and reach the depth of the universe and become one with the universe – the inexplicable and incomprehensible regime of God.

Since journey of success starts from Self only, it is imperative to know thyself  -  all the aspects of self:

1.      Know your material

A potter knows his stuff very well and gives it different shapes and size accordingly. If one inherently feels that one is IAS/IPS material, go for it without hesitation. At an early age,Virat Kholi knew he was cricket material, and today he is a skipper of Indian team. Jeff Bozos knew he was business material, and today he is the richest man in the world. None can guide better than natural instincts and traits. A rat knows it can make hole in the mountain. Listen to inner voice. Follow it passionately. One succeeds like success in the field of one’s choice. Tragedy with the unsuccessful people is the most of them are misplaced.

 

2.      Know your weakness and strength

Make weakness your strength and your strength an asset. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he made his good physics an asset – succeeded as Mr. Universe, shot to fame with many successful movies and later joined politics too, and ended up as an Hon’ble Governor of California (US).

 

3.      Set your goal dream

With an eye on your stuff and your strength and weakness, capabilities and abilities, set a goal of your dream. Caution: don’t be a day-dreamer who dreams during day time to have fulfilled his dream with no effort. Such people are a failure. Don’t be a night-dreamer either who forgets the dream at the break of the day. Be a goal dreamer who stays up wide awake day and night. And at last realizes the success of his dream.

 

4.      Construct Success

Castle of success is not built in air. It needs a layout plan. It needs skilled hands to do foundation work, erect walls brick by brick and further lock walls with a roof. Construction of castle of success is a team work of Self, Strategic planning, Hard work, Patience and Perseverance.

  

5.      Don’t listen to ‘nay’ sayers

On the way to success, one is likely to come across scores of people who would discourage one. Don’t heed on their mischievous advice. Commenting on such people, Mark Twain says:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great.

 

6.      Don’t be afraid of failures

Fear of failures deters success-seeker the most. No one is born  learned or perfect. Before learning to ride bicycle, a learner falls many times. But after each falls, he stands up again with a strong will to ride. This will power teaches him to ride bicycle. Don’t be scared of failures. Look at the causes of failures. Nothing happens without a cause. Commenting on failures, Winston Churchill says:

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm

Yet another writer Clement Stone says:

Failure is a lesson, a learning experience – a rung on the ladder

 

7.      Trust Yourself

All successful people trust themselves like anything. They know well before doing something that they can do it. Nothing can stop you except you. Tom Broadley rightly says:

The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dream is you

 

8.      Don’t wait for ‘auspicious’ time

You can reach nowhere without walking. The time when you feel like starting something is the most auspicious time. Arthur Ashe puts it rightly:

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can

Martin Luther King Jr, elucidates further:

You don’t have to see the whole stair case, just take the first step

 

9.      Don’t entertain negative thoughts

Weeds do grow with crops. Unsteady mind keeps hoping between negativity and positivity. Problem starts when it gets stuck in negativity and starts creating negative scenes/thoughts – one imaginary bad situation leads to worse and further to the worst. Best way to tackle negativity is to counter it with positivity. If plan A fails, there is plan B. If B fails, there is plan C. Don’t let the mind wander in the failure of plan A. The stubborn are often found ‘third time lucky’.

The celebrated writer Christopher Reeve rightly says:

So many of our dream at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable and then when we summon the will they soon become inevitable.

 

10.  Discover winner in you

There is always a hidden winner in every one. It often comes to front in the ‘game’ of its choice where the winner is supported by strong Will, intense Desire that unleash the potential of par excellence needed to win the game. Discover the winner. James Dean puts this in his touching words:

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach . . . there are the keys that unlock the door to personal excellence.

 

11.  Don’t imitate

Successful people don’t copy, don’t use the hackneyed path. They make their own path to success. Kapil Sharma, the renowned stand-up comedian has created his own style of comedy. While interviewing celebs, he uses witty remarks and  petty jokes.  He is a roaring success. All successful people have unique and unparallel identity in their field. Ralph Waldo Emerson comments:

Don’t follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

 

However high building, there is always room at the top. This world is your oyster, your El-dorado. Success signifies achieving the impossibilities. Stage is yours. Act on the stage in such a way that people can take notice of you, can recognize your talent, can count you as successful. Enforce and expand your success through social skills, and extend it through society, country to the world. All successful people follow this strategy. The journey of success is full circle – it begins from Self and ends in Self.

 

Curiosity Moves the World

It is the curiosity that guides love birds to know about each other physically, psychologically and emotionally; it further leads to intense and intimate desire to see, feel and experience each other’s body. When a young man looks at a young woman with prying eyes, he doesn’t look at her simply but desires her; his lusty eyes run over her contour and curves; in a quick succession of thoughts he tries to feel and experience her coveted body with nothing on

By Mukesh Sharma

Curiosity is an inner urge of a human mind to know about unknown, to see unseen and to hear unheard. What is within four walls ? What is behind the curtain? What is what? Who is who? When will it occur? How will it happen? These questions often occur to everyone’s mind. In fact the curiosity is a wishful desire to go beyond 5Ws and I H. It’s an inquisitiveness to look beyond present and to peep into future and far off. All the discoveries and inventions made by the man so far are the result of continued curiosity only. Curiosity rolls the wheel of progress. 

Of course, curiosity changes with age and circumstances. A baby gets attracted to different colors, movements of an object or any sound, for, it bubbles with curiosity for anything around.

To a child, a balloon might sound the most enticing thing in the world. In fact, a child grows up with curiosity; it learns about things around through curiosity only. As a first teacher, curiosity teaches a child to use the pronouns like ‘I’, ‘My’ ‘Me’, ‘We’, ‘Our’ ‘Us’ ‘He’, ‘His’ ‘Him’ ‘She’, ‘Her’,  ‘Her’, ‘They’, ‘their’,  ‘Them’, ‘It’, ‘Its’ and ‘It’. A child learns to identify itself with these syllables. And thus the small world of a child begins to broaden, lengthen and deepen. A child is a baby of curiosity.

 

If the sun stirs the world, curiosity moves the world

What is more, a young man and woman learn their first lesson of love through curiosity only. What the people call love-at-first-sight is too born of curiosity only. The celebrated writer G.B.Shaw says:

My first love is a little foolishness but a lot of curiosity

Evidently enough, it is the curiosity that guides love birds to know about each other physically, psychologically and emotionally; it further leads to intense and intimate desire to see, feel and experience each other’s body. When a young man looks at a young woman with prying eyes, he doesn’t look at her simply but desires her; his lusty eyes run over her contour and curves; in a quick succession of thoughts he tries to feel and experience her coveted body with nothing on. John Donne, a metaphysical poet in his poem “To his Mistress going to bed “ says:

 O my America! My new found-land

Yet another English writer ironically says:

Men are attracted to women navel because of curiosity of thoughts that ‘Heaven’ is not far off. 

Feared by the society, law of land and social ignominy, a man pretends to be a gentleman in the absence of opportunity  -  opportunity gives rise to thoughts, and thoughts give rise to desires and desires give rise to action. Opportunity can make a saint a devil. The possibility of an Aasharam cannot be ruled out hidden in  Baba’s clothing. Here curiosity is the main culprit.

All the successful writers/film makers know how to create and sustain curiosity through the story line till the end; it is sheer curiosity that makes a reader to read a book to the last page for the final revelation; it is the curiosity that makes the audience to stick to their respective seats in cinema hall to know the end of the story. Curiosity nurtures creativity which is essentially a baby of curiosity.

Even scientists are goaded by their curiosity to know, discover, experiment and invent on an unknown terrain and territory. NASA named its lander on Mars as ‘CURIOSITY’ that signifies the role of curiosity in the world of science too. Albert Einstein philosophically says:

Never lose your holy curiosity

Endorsing the significance of curiosity, Zora Neale says:

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with purpose.

In other words, it won’t be wrong to say: Curiosity is the mother of all the discoveries and inventions.

In a democratic dispensation, wily netas use this powerful element of curiosity to get elected and rule over the unsuspecting masses. False promises are made to create curiosity in the populace that makes the public to think that this neta might emerge as a ‘savior’ and that remains a possibility all through years. Democracy is the game of curiosity.

Never let anyone or anything crush your curiosity. What Bill Gates is today because he never allowed anyone or any circumstances to suppress his curiosity for the computers. What Sachin is today because he sustained his curiosity for cricket right from his younger days. So is the success story of almost all the big names in the world. Who are you? What are you? What can you do? How can you do it? These pertinent questions that nag the head of each man and woman, can’t be answered by any guru or any book. Only your live curiosity can answer these questions.

This blogger maintains that even almighty God must have created this universe out of curiosity only. That is why each and every thing in the nature arouses nothing but curiosity.

Undying curiosity for success can take anyone to dizzy heights. A man can learn only as an ideal student of curiosity. A man without curiosity is a dead man. If the sun stirs the world, curiosity moves the world.

Sexy Success

Sexy Success

Her warm hugs can infuse life even in a dead body; she is a perfect seductress; nothing on earth is more sexy than success; no woman can match the beauty of sexy Success

By Mukesh Sharma

She is as fair as snow. Her contour and curves defy the art of Michelangelo. Her well proportioned countenance, sharp mien and auburn hair make her look like the proverbial goddess of Rome. The bulge of her bolstering breast can soothe the surge of a sea. Her arresting eyes can befriend even a foe. The swing of her carefree gait can turn even an old foggy on. She is seducing Rambha of the Court of Lord Indra. She is beautiful Juliet of Romeo. She is killer Laila of Majnu. She is stunner Mumtaj of Shah jahan. She is lovely Anushka of Virat Kohli. She is par excellent Deepika Padukon of Ranvir. Her warm hugs can infuse life even in a dead body. She is a perfect seductress. Nothing on earth is more sexy than Success. No woman can match the beauty of sexy Success.

Sexy Success

Be it man or material, all things in this universe are made of five elements –  water, fire, earth, space and air. But Success is not composed of these ordinary elements. It is like an infinite dark matter enveloping the indescribable and inexplicable divine world of God. Without this dark matter, even God could have not succeeded in creating all the celestial bodies. Success is not attracted by any black hole; she is the calmness of space; she is the brightness of the sun; she is the twinkle of the stars; she is the gravity of the planets; she is the superb movements of this boundless universe.

In this material and mortal world, Failure is the father of Success and Patience is her mother. In other words, Success comes after the succession of failures. Undauntness in failures and unwavering patience beget Success. All the intellectuals admit that the Success can be achieved after repeated failures only. In his poetic vent, Try and Try Again, William Edward Hickson says:

      ‘Tis a lesson you should

       Try, try again,

       If at first you don’t succeed,

      Try and try again

As luck would have it, a few blessed are born in the house of success –  they are born with silver spoon in their mouth. But it doesn’t mean that Success would remain with them life-long. In fact, Success can’t be enslaved; she has to be won. One of the netas of main opposition parties in India who comes from a family which has given three PMs to country, is not able to carve out a niche for himself in politics. Some rise by gravity, some fall by levity. Slow and steady can’t win the race in this jet-set society. On the other hand, the incumbent PM of India who has humble origin, is riding the crest of success.

All humans long for success in all ages and time. It is the hope for success that rolls the wheel of life. People continue to stalk success through the life. A good physique may fail to attract success. Money and manners don’t interest success much; she likes the warrior of work; she has warm feelings for the people who are not perturbed by failures or fiascos; she loves people who don’t let their enthusiasm die, who don’t let their desire for success dwindle. Those who pass out the test of success, they meet success. In his letter, Oscar Wilde rightly says:

       Success is a science;

       If you have the conditions,

       You get result

Tens of thousands UPSC/SSC etc. aspirants throng  Delhi with heavy baggage of dream and hope for success. In competitive exams, success anoints one who proves that one is first among equals. Contrary to common perception, the exam is not about a course or curriculum; it is the test of all around awareness of a candidate about his/her surroundings that comes from attentive Hearing, voracious Reading, prolific Writing and vocal Speaking. One must have knowledge related to different aspects of life. It is the test of intellectual understanding not a rote-learning; it is an exam to assay whether one has intellectual independence or dependent on opinions and thoughts of others. As a result, ‘followers’ fail and a few ‘leaders’ get through. Says Lord Tennyson Alfred in his The Day Dream

       This proverb flashes throu

       His head,

       The many fails, the

       One succeed.

None can teach anyone how to maintain the balance while riding the bicycle. One learns to balance after many falls. The balancing act comes from within. One is the best teacher of oneself. Arjun can’t match the might of self-taught Ekalavya. Know thyself –  your actual abilities and capabilities; set your goal accordingly; with himalyan determination work doggedly in pursuit of your goal. Where there is will, there is way.

If you have real crush on Success, you can woo her, you can befriend her, you can have romance with her. Once you win her heart, take it from this author, she will be ready to ‘marry’ you. She always marries Mr. Right. Carry the torch. Don’t let it be snuffed. Hope never dies, possibilities never end. There is always time for failure. But do you have time for success?