Every student gets to hear inspiring stories of successful people. There aren’t one or two but so many successful people in this world and they all have their own stories. If you observe them closely, you’ll find a pattern they follow. Usually, the stories start from the successful man as a poor infant with only one of his parents alive. The story then moves to the child’s education where one of the two possible situations would come up. The child either pursues excellent education in dire economic conditions of his/her family (like studying under street lights!!), or the child is not interested in mechanical study and eventually becomes a school dropout. From there the story continues on the lines of how the student managed money for education; what he did for living; how he made right decisions; how he made use of opportunities and how, in the end, he became a successful person.
Ever since I was a kid, I used to listen to such stories and feel motivated. A story a day will make sure that I don’t keep my books away! I still go agape when I imagine the struggle in dreadful circumstances that these great men have gone through in their lives, to come out as a highly respected successful individual.
Let’s look at some examples. Ramanujan lacked the basics for living, Bill gates was a school dropout, Steve Jobs was a college dropout, Narayana Murthy was once struck by poverty, Dhirubai Ambani started reliance with Rs.15000, Lakshmi mittal was poor and a part of unmanageable huge family, Rajini kanth was a bus conductor, and our own ARR... needs no introduction.
All these stories were inspiring alright; but every person who becomes successful has this kind of story behind his/her achievement. And normally, we all are awestruck by it!!
This is where some serious questions run into my head. Do they all lead to a stereotype “successful people had to win some very hard battles in their lives”? All stories have the same base which is one or more than one of the list - poverty, lack of good education or education in bad monetary conditions,” striving to live” years, and other equally grave conditions. At a level, this really irks me. Such stories have literally stopped motivating me for the simple fact that I too am going through an important phase that’s going to decide my life and want to be successful! And if only hardships at younger age can bring light to the great future, then I don’t see any bright light glittering at even the farthest point I can see from here.
I never had formidable monetary problems. Education was bad but I am not a school dropout. I am not struggling for food or shelter and I have my own room with lot of space. I have taken numerous bad decisions in my life. I have carelessly overlooked many opportunities. And now I am sitting and writing this post wondering what the theory is behind big achievements because we have never heard (or at least I have never heard) of a successful man who was far from poverty with almost comfortable school life. Such people have always been a tiny dot and financially, either well-situated or troubled; more often the latter. How so ironical!
I do understand that success (in whatever form) cannot be achieved if we do not fight for it, and that you can never get to the top overnight on a smooth ride. But now I am saturated with identical “success stories” that I cannot endure another one of them starting from tortured childhood to terrific adulthood.
Miles to go!!
God Bless
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