Because I fail so often, I am successful!
Narendra Goidani
Dearest Darling friends,
If Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was alive today and giving a speech ending with, "You give me blood, I will give you freedom!, what freedom would he be talking about?
Freedom from the clutches of the politicians? Freedom from greedy industrialists? Freedom from a few gnawing relationships? Or is it the freedom to freely admit something within us is collapsing.
My hurdles are inside. My dearest darling readers, my biggest concern today is our lack of COURAGE. No one will build it for us. We will have to build it for ourselves.
While ego, greed and lack of education remain the most fundamental of the visible obstacles to human development, so is lack of COURAGE. No one will build this courage inside us. We will have to build it for ourselves.
Moral, strategic and economic prosperity, family bindings, peace of mind and a sense of meaning are all benefits of COURAGE. We will have to build it for ourselves.
A long standing dilemma of whom to blame will squarely be resolved in the presence of COURAGE. Assuming COURAGE will get built by itself is a nice dream that will never happen. We will have to build it for ourselves.
The biggest issue for each one of us is, 'COURAGE' is waning. Due to relationship complexities, due to social norms and hierghrarchies, due to the fear of an amazing disaster hitting us, we miss out on wonderful opportunities to strike it big/rich.
We feel outraged when our mistakes are pointed out. We feel outraged when injustice (our understanding) happens to us. We demand to know from 'HIM' how could he allow this to happen to us? We pretend there is existential conspiracy against us, a confirmation of our limitations. I would see it as a confirmation of our potentials that we can do better. COURAGE can make us think like this. We have to built it for ourselves.
I know life is less of Cadbury's Dairy Milk that says 'Kuch Mitha Ho jaye !", (Let's have something sweet). I know life is more of those tasteless and so many times awkward tasting vegetable juices that are certainly healthy for us. It takes courage to say no to the candy and yes to 'good health'. We will have to build this COURAGE for ourselves.
The leading economies of the world were never afraid to experiment. They did research and found development. Research for results take long time, patience and persistence. This is COURAGE. We will have to build it for ourselves too.
Nothing would make greater contribution in your life than COURAGE. Wanting to ensure no mistakes are made, even the necessary mistakes are avoided. Without falling how will a child learn to walk? Without spilling food how will someone learn how to eat? Without a few punches on the body and the face, how does a boxer become a world champion? Without losing a few races how does an athlete develop a hunger to improve and goes on to succeed? To go through all these needs common sense and COURAGE. We need to build it within us.
Do not carry this fantasy in your head that you should never fail. Build a fantasy that makes you believe you will learn majestically from your failures and 'then forget the failures'!. You do not need good karma. You need overwhelming courage to fail till you succeed. Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player the world has ever seen, says, "Because I fail so often, I am successful." We will have to build this within us too.
Lets stay away from the dangerous desire to succeed in everything that we do. When you have worthwhile goals, you will fail once in a way. Search for lessons from the crisis of your life without searching for the bad guys or the bad alignment of planets.
Expect YOURSELF to shape your life. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and experiment. After all, we have only ONE CHANCE to live life. Lets live it well. Lets live it BIG.
Let people say about us, "Here lies a person who lived royally, enthusiastically experimenting his/her potentials. Here lies a person who lived COURAGEOUSLY."
Collect COURAGE and let go of everything that is stopping you from being courageous.
Courageously yours....
naren
As I live...I learn
na...@lifeschool.co.in
The Wild Dance
I was reminded of my childhood days when we had a neighbour named Bullu Da (Da in Bangla language means elder brother). Whenever he would come back from office, he would climb up the stairs singing his favourite Kishore Kumar songs at full volume. I was a student studying in class 7 those days. The ladies of the building used to call him 'Pagoal' (crack pot). He knew about it. Yet, it made no difference to him at all. He was almost oblivious to criticisms about his singing and the volume.
Every time I heard him singing, I used to feel embarrassed and scandalized. My ears would go red with thoughts like "Oh my god, what all others say about him ? !!!". I used to wonder how can someone be so shameless?" Though I must admit, he used to look so happy whenever he was singing. 'Sign of madness', my friend Kishore's mother used to say. 'He will never get a girl', Mrs Venkat would say. Comments and wisecracks on similar lines would flow. Bullu Da never reduced the volume nor the intensity of his singing. He was the singular singing fun loving guy I have ever met in my life.
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My friend: 92 - 122
My life changed after meeting my young friend who has been living for 92 years on this planet.
I had been to the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai last month as the keynote speaker for the Asia Pacific conference of IRSHA. Having completed a very fulfilling session I went to my host Pankaj's room to change. I have a habit of taking the stairs everywhere possible. The stairs were not easy to be found. My determination paid off. I did find them very well disguised behind closed doors.