As they say, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. So very true. But what makes one successful? What is the key to success? And what is it that makes one super-successful? It doesn’t matter what the field is, what’s important is whether one is successful in the field he has chosen. The choice of field is crucial to the making of success, and as examples galore, it’s this choice, based on one’s innate potential and inclination, which determines the nature of success. Just think if Sachin Tendulkar’s parents had disapproved of his cricket inclination and if they had forced him to concentrate on studies rather! Would we have known him as we do today?
But what are the main attributes of success? In his international bestseller You Can Win: A Step-by-step Tool for Top Achievers, author, educator, internationally sought-after speaker, and a very successful entrepreneur Shiv Khera says, “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently.” There’s a remarkable difference between doing different things and doing things differently. It’s the latter that helps one leave behind a whole legacy.
The best example in politics, arguably, is Mahatma Gandhi. What was his mission? It was to free India from the colonial British clutch. The First War of Independence of 1857, Sepoy Mutiny as we know it popularly, was already a huge inspiration, but that was a violent uprising and the British could not be thrown out. What Gandhi, instead, did was ahimsa – total non-violence. That was his unique political trademark, a blend of politics and spirituality. And what a stupendous success he was when the British had no option but to leave India eventually despite them being the top imperial force in the world at that time! And what a legacy he has left behind, inspiring the likes of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela!
So what was Gandhi doing essentially? He was doing the same thing – revolt against an unjust, cruel and exploitative occupation force – as others of his generation were doing, but he was doing it differently. Well, that’s something that sets him so very apart from all other crusaders against injustice.
Ponder then: Isn’t it also that Prime Minister Narendra Modi too is trying to do things differently, given, among other things, his new NARA (National Ambition, Regional Aspiration) slogan? No wonder, his has been such a commendable innings, right from his chaiwaala days to where he stands today, taller than before, far more confident than ever, and far more acceptable too.