To control the outcome...

We often believe that life is what happens to us when we are busy planning our moves in life. We think we cannot control what happens to us in our lives. Many of us believe in Destiny and Luck. To be honest, even i do, but that is no excuse to not work your way through for what you want. I cringe when people say - "I had no other option left, i had to do it."

I strongly believe, there is always an option that one has not thought of earlier. There does not exist a problem in this world that does not have a solution. It's just the incognizance of the solution that forces us to believe that the problem is insolvable. Every door has a key; every business can be turned around; every question has an answer; every thought has a reason. It just needs to be invented or discovered.

If Alexander Graham Bell had not invented the way to talk to other person over a phone, we might not be as technologically advanced as we are today. If Sir Issac Newton did not have the urge to find the reason behind the apple falling on the ground, we would perhaps be still unknown to one of the biggest discovery in physics - Earth's Gravitational force.

I am a staunch believer of the famous theory - if one door closes another one opens. I opine that if we are surrounded by problems and if we are being pushed around by our boss, our peers, or our life, all we need to do is Rebel. If we allow any of them to continue pushing us around, we will persistently feel helpless. Instead of pitying ourselves, we need to think different. We need to ask ourselves - what can i do to control the outcome myself? Einstein defined insanity as 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result'. Sometimes, all it takes is a change of perspective to find answers to the biggest questions.

At the end of the day, the outcome of any situation depends on how one looks at/reacts towards it. No matter what happens, it's on YOU to control the outcome; it always has been.

Sachin Tendulkar - prodigy personified!

In India, the sport of cricket runs in every Indian’s blood. In a nation where people follow more than a dozen religions and yet stay in harmony, there is one abstract religion that binds all of them together - Cricket. Though the game was first showcased to the world by the British, we Indians take pride in being its largest followers. Indian cricket team has produced many masters of the game, but there is one name that defines this sport in India; that name is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar(SRT).

There are many cricket followers who believed that he would turn out to be a cricket prodigy even before he played cricket as a profession. In his school days he has broken records, made new records and he continues that trend till today at the age of 38. If a person tries compiling all the records he has made or broken till today, in a book, probably the book will run into pages equaling the entire Harry Potter collection. I am not his most ardent fan, perhaps I would not even be counted in the top 70% of his fans, but the respect I have for him is no lesser than any other Indian might have. And the reason is, if anybody truly deserves that respect as a sportsperson in India, it’s him.

Being from a middle class family, he always believed in his dreams and his perseverance got him where he is today. In the game of cricket, a batsman is judged by the centuries he/she makes. Harsha Bhogle once said - good batsmen make 10-12 centuries in their entire career, great batsmen score 20-30 centuries. Legends of the game make 40-50 centuries in their entire tenure as batsmen, but this “Little Master” (as he is renowned) has a whopping 100 centuries under his belt. A hundred hundreds! Any person having a decent knowledge of the game would be aware that he is an epitome of perfection in this game.

People who follow cricket as a religion in India consider him God. They truly believe it, without a speck of doubt. He is what Michael Jackson is for pop music or what Pele is for football. Bowlers all across the world feel privileged to have bowled to him and the ones who have taken his wicket in any international game consider it a feather in their cap. Even with such an extravagant track record, with fan following from every part of the world, and being the greatest pro the game has ever seen, he is as humble as a child. This virtue of humility and the urge to learn and enjoy the game even at the peak of his career is what led him to become the greatest maestro of this sport. I truly bow down to his dedication, his talent, his attitude towards the game, his incredible humility, and to himself. SRT, aap jaisa na koi tha, na koi hai, aur na hi koi hoga!(There wasn’t, isn’t and never will be any one like you!)

Are you lucky enough to be lucky?

Having a hard luck is one excuse that we all give when we fail to do something in life; whereas we just forget to appreciate our good luck when we succeed. Can luck really be good or bad? There have been numerous debates over the sheer existence of luck. I believe, there are two types of people when it comes to believing in luck - the ones who do, and the ones who don't.

Successful people deny its existence, as they believe you can create your own luck and guide your destiny. Whereas the not-so-fortunate say - luck is all what it takes to be successful. When a person wins a lottery or a jackpot at a casino in Las Vegas we say " She just got lucky!". But when another person wins the World Championship in boxing we say it's her talent that helped her win. Why does the boxer's luck not come in the focus then? Successful individuals are masters of seizing the opportunities but isn't it their luck that provides them these opportunities, to begin with?

Once Harsha Bhogle an adept Indian cricketer and an extraordinary cricket commentator described the difference between Talent Vs Attitude in his address to students of IIM-Ahmedabad. He spoke about an example which really amazed me - that of a footballer and her talent. He described a footballer who plays the role of a striker(a forward on a soccer team) in her team. She waits patiently for her co-players to pass the ball to her and has very little time to convert it into a goal(sometimes just a single kick has to do the magic!). She keeps adjusting her positions throughout the match so that she is present at the right place at the right time(I call it - @RP@RT). Now it's her talent that helps her to be in those positions and not her luck. Her luck does play a role, but not as significant as her talent.

We try to associate luck with various such synonyms as destiny or intuition or fate or chance. But luck is really none of these alone. It's probably the super-set of all of these. Luck is when you get a chance to follow your intuition and your destiny favors you. It's when you consciously leverage your skills to make yourself available @RP@RT. Nobody is bestowed with 100% luck. Likewise, nobody achieves success only with her talent. It's the combination of both that helps individuals succeed.

So what really is Luck? Can we rely on it? Can we be sure that luck will favor us if we work hard? Not always! But the key is - to not depend on luck and do what it takes to succeed, without bothering. There is a dramatic saying in Indian Bollywood films - "Agar aap kisi cheez ko sache dil se chaho to pooree kainat usko aap se milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai ", which means - If you genuinely want something from the bottom of your heart, the whole mankind buckles up to help you achieve it. We think it is true in case of the most successful people around us like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or the more recent one - Mark Zuckerberg. Was it their talent that helped them distinguish themselves or was it their luck? It's hard to tell. I would leave it upon you to decide for yourself because -

"You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path "
 - Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005

I love the way you Lie!

The most clichéd and well known proverb in English language is "Honesty is the best policy", yet none of the policies - neither corporate nor government, seem to embrace honesty. We expect governments of countries to be transparent or large Multi-National Corporations to be honest to us. We expect people surrounding us to be frank and open about their feelings. When we enter any organization we wish to read our bosses' minds or at least those of our colleagues so that we do not fall prey to organizational politics. We expect everyone to tell us the truth and not conceal their thoughts, thus making this world a better place.

But let me ask - how many of us are honest to even ourselves, keep aside the outside world? The answer would be a number far less than we wish to have. Then why are we so afraid to be honest? Why is it such a difficult affair to be honest? Why is honesty such an extinct virtue in today's world?

We come up with convincing excuses like - "it’s a highly competitive world", "why be honest when no-one surrounding us is", "being honest is passé and being street smart is the in-thing", or the most dishonest line - "who said I am not honest? I really am, swear to god!". But who are we kidding! If all of us were even truthful to ourselves half the problems we face in today's world wouldn't have existed. We are so afraid to be honest that we choose to live in a bubble: a bubble that becomes our comfort-zone, and within that zone, we lie to everyone around us(including ourselves) to appear happy and successful. Kids lie to their parents and parents are the ones who teach kids to do that in the first place. Employers lie to employees and vice versa, and being dishonest has become such a commonplace. 

If only we can all take the initiative to just be honest ourselves and not expect others to be. We might face problems and the urge of being otherwise would be too tempting, but if we overcome that phase and imbibe truthfulness in us and make it a way of life, imagine the impact! Social revolutions do not upsurge by massive preaching but by singular efforts of individuals who truly believe they can create an impact. Honesty defines the character not of the weak, but of the strong. Who we really are, is what we should preserve and should portray, not a wanna-be perfect person, don't you think?