Urja
Mahesh Karia
In 1879 a boy was born. He was a slow learner and took
longer than other kids to speak. His parents thought he would never speak. He
spoke his first word at the age of 2. He liked Math but struggled in all other
subjects. His teachers said he will keep failing and wanted to disown him.
Feeling unwelcomed in his school, he dropped out.
He failed his college
entrance exams and also dropping his citizenship became stateless. He then went
to a new college and got labeled as laziest person in the class, graduated
later on at the bottom of his class, and became the only person in his class
with no job offer. He tried for military school, and failed there too.
He still
didn’t give up. His friend got him a job of patent clerk but he didn’t like
doing the work so every day he finished his work in 2 hours and later spent
entire time doing his own science. He then, made a discovery -, “discovered
that light is a particle and a wave at the same time”.
He developed the
general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. In
1922, he received a Nobel Prize in physics. At one point in his life he even
got approached to be the President of Israel which he refused. He kept working
on the theory of everything (Unified Field Theory). He was potentially ill but
refused any kind of surgery and living life artificially. In 1955, at the age
of 76 he died wishing he could learn more. He was no other than Albert
Einstein. He is an perfect example of, ‘no great success was achieved
without failure’.
Failures,
setbacks, rejections happen to everyone. But the important thing is how we face
them. If Einstein would have gave up when he faced so many failures in life,
would he be remembered as the most famous scientist of all time? Would he have
made those discoveries which he made? No. He wouldn’t. But he did not let any
circumstance disable him. And that is what made him different. Being different
from the lot, that is all it took for him. Being different doesn’t mean you
stop being yourself just for the sake of being successful. Be how you actually
are and everything will sort out on its own.
Failure
is nothing but a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next
success. It is the biggest stepping stone to success. When a person fails, he
either goes into a cocoon, a cocoon of fear, doubt and insecurity or he dreams
bigger than he did the first time when he failed. The second type of people let
their failures drive them. They are passionate and more confident. But how?
Because, they know what is it that they have to do this time that they didn’t
do the first time. They improvise and they change the way they want to look at
things.
Everyone
fails, even I have. But, that’s how it is. Failure is something we can avoid
only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
Let
things gradually take their course as we do learn things we are supposed to. So
we shouldn’t worry about it much. At times, all we need is a reminder about
how things should be for our better future and sometimes it comes to us in forms
of Failures or Setbacks or Rejections. Just flow like the water along with
waves. Don’t let the rocks stop you.
As
Robert H. Schuller said, “Failure doesn’t mean you are a
failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.
(Author may be reached at oorjakaria@gmail.com)
- See more at: http://taxguru.in/chartered-accountant/failures-dont-disable.html#sthash.7HXVewSH.dpuf
