Follow Your Passion, Success as Perceived by Others Shall Follow You

The biographies and autobiographies of successful persons are always the bestsellers. They sell because others want to know the so called "Secret “of successful persons. Everybody strives to know the secret behind successful persons so that one becomes successful like his or her "ideal" successful person. Similarly self help books such as "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" are always the bestsellers. there is one common character trait of all successful persons. They are successful not because they tried hard to become successful. They are successful not because they were strongly determined to be successful. They are successful not because they did things differently. They are successful they followed their passion. They strived hard to excel in their endeavours.

The character played by Amir Khan in the movie "3Idiots" was successful because he followed his passion of designing machines. The character himself says in the movie, "Strive for excellence, success will follow you". 

Sachin Tendulkar, the "God of Cricket", got his name because he is still trying to get the perfection in all shots on cricket ground. He started following his passion from his childhood, when children try to decide what to do when they grow up.

"Sur Samragyi", Lata Mangeshkar could not have obtained this name had she stopped practicing for attaining "Perfection" in her songs.

Due to his passion for beautiful devices, which can ease user's experience, Steve Jobs transformed Apple Inc into world's most valuable firm.

Numerous examples of "Successful Persons" exist and this space is not sufficient to describe even a handful of such persons. But if each of the successful persons is asked if they have achieved success in his or her endeavour each of them will say, "No". The successful persons are still striving for excellence. They are still following their passion. They are successful in our eyes. They have to do mush more than what they have done. Success is the byproduct of the process of "Following One's Passion" just as "Money" is the byproduct of "Economic Activity". Hence, to be successful, one must follow his passion. This is easier said than done. Recognizing one's passion is like self realization which takes years of introspection. But once you realize your passion following it is perpetual, self actuating. Following the "Light" of your passion will leave a shadow of "Success", which will follow you till you follow the "Light" of Passion.

Excellence

The opening line of one of the songs composed by Nobel Laureate, “Kaviguru” Rabindranath

Tagore epitomizes what “EXCELLENCE” means to me. The line says, “If no one responds to your

call, then start the journey on your own – all alone”. This line reflects what a man par excellence

should have – right attitude, courage, spirit to walk that “EXTRA” mile, striving for perfection,

never stopping, never satisfying with oneself, leading and creating the path that others shall

eventually follow , following his passion – no matter what it takes.

Advent of Communication Technology – What’s Lost?

iPad, MacBook, lappy, tab,netbook, mobile, wi-fi, e-mail, voice mail, video conferencing...the list is endless and most of them have secured their position in the marketplace in a span of a few years. These are all new means of communication. These are the gadgets which are advancing in leaps and bounds in terms of speed and ease of communication. They are providing us with cheaper, faster and easier options to communicate. One can actually communicate with anybody and everybody in this world. Thanks to the era of “Social Networking” now friends are just a click away. They get updated about your status every millisecond. With so many communication devices and means of communication, are we communicating more and communicating more effectively and efficiently. With so many connections and networks of friends aren’t we devaluing friendship? Are our hearts really beating in “sync”?

The advancement in communication technology is so rapid that the communication gadgets become obsolete in a span of a few months. It is a fact that the children nowadays do not know how to write a letter. The “Gen Y” people enquire how people used to manage their lives without mobiles.

But with such advancement I think we have lost the “Human Touch” in communication. We have lost the emotions in communication. Now it is just the way to say “I like” or “I dislike”. Now it is just “status update” in Facebook. The video conferencing has troubled the aviation industry, but distant relatives are still far away  as they cannot match the time zones and talk to each other even if all the relatives have high speed network connections capable of streaming “HD quality” video chat. With iPads, tablets and wi-fi connection everybody is connected “on the go”, but nobody really connects to friends as there are too many friends. People keep at least 2 mobile connections: one for office and other for personal purpose, but keep it in “Silent mode”, so can’t pick up the calls.

Telephone is obsolete, so is e-mail. Do you remember letters? With these technologies we used to communicate sometimes back in time. We never used to forget the festivals as in each festival it was a ritual to write letters to our elders saying “Pranam” and younger relatives wishing “Shubhkaamnayein”. We never used to forget our friends’ birthdays and we used to drop a greeting card to wish him/her “Happy Birthday” with colours of life. We used to call our friend when we were in real trouble and we used to give full attention to any phone call from our friend and we used to help our friend as he was really in trouble otherwise he would not have called at all.

Letter, Telegram, Telephone. Mobile was nowhere in picture. The sense of emergency was the factor which was responsible for the change in response. Yes, there was a response for each communication, be it letter, telegram or telephone.  With advent of technology and with its spread, it became ubiquitous. Now everything is urgent, which implies nothing is urgent. Everybody is important (Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai), meaning nobody is important. We are always connected, means we are never connected.

One must understand that the communication devices are only the tools for communication. They are not communication itself. We need to judiciously use the tools. We have to prioritize the means of communication and then actually we can communicate effectively and efficiently.