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So, Are You Successful?

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Tricky matter this, success. Before looking at the subject of success, let us look at the people chasing success, and their actions, in this particular case. Let us go with Anirbaan first. He seems to be a bit of a cry baby. He has been in a large corporate set-up for 18 years. He was a CFO. He should have been aware of the process of whistle-blowing. In a corporate set-up, there is usually an internal audit, and the CFO has access to the Board. But he has not followed any process. That, however, does not take away from the purity of his intent. He has done something noble. The consequences have hit him badly. He should get his family together, explain the situation to them and get them to rally behind him. Here is his great chance to be a hero with his son. He should fight, clear his name and start again. Som, I think, is a winner. He has stuck on in the big bad world of movies. He has written an award-winning script; he has made his movie with a top-billing star — big things in the movie business. He now has regular work. Raghav Kashyap's comment — "… Som could not risk what has taken him a lifetime to build' — is quite silly. An actor's schedule is an actor's schedule; it cannot be changed easily. Cyrus is probably a case of bad investment. Coming from a family of actors does not ensure that one will have the talent to make it as an actor and capture the imagination of the audience that you are trying to communicate with. Cyrus, Kashyap says, "… has found a connectedness with life." Could Cyrus be hiding behind it? Has Cyrus ever stepped out of his family talent and examined what his individual capabilities are? Or, like Anirbaan's son, has he willed himself to do what daddy wanted him to be? Aparna has flimsy belief in herself. She keeps shifting the goalposts in her life. Earlier, she was younger and her son more predictable, nay, pliable! Now she is uncomfortable with her son, who is pushing the envelope. Is she missing a point? Should she not encourage her son to pursue a career in music? Anupam Roy is a raging hit singer in Bengal; he is redefining modern Bengali music. He is a gold medal-winning engineer, who gave up engineering and started singing commercially. So do not be wary Aparna, just hang on to your son's dreams and continue to guide him as you have been doing all these 19 years! Anay is young and has not found his calling. Just inspire him to find his calling. He surely will. Sakhi is like a zillion working women who give up their careers when they marry or have children. I have seen women who agonise about losing their financial independence. They lose the shine from their purpose. It seems that Sakhi has not. Then she is happy. And it is her happiness that counts and not what others think of her chucking her career. Arthur cannot be called lucky. He worked hard, without letting failure (in the true sense for him) weigh him down. He had the legitimacy of education, though a change of place affected him. He went outside his skin and developed a new skill. Zah used her education to make a career. These are builders — even out of broken dreams, they were capable of extracting life. All of them are great studies in character. Anirbaan and Aparna are fragile. Som and Arthur (and Zah) are sturdy. Cyrus is compliant. Success, for each group will be a different animal. For the fragile, success is terribly in the eye of the beholder. They will always be complaining. They will always find reasons to think that they are not successful. The sturdy will be the opposite. It is not to say that they will not ever sleep badly. But they will find a way. The compliant are wretched beings, accepting things as they come. I have, in my long career, lost more games than won. My losses have been reported as gloriously as have my wins. I have, however, approached my life and career in a simple way. I have trained hard, gone in to give it my best, and have always been positive. Would you call me successful? I am not as successful as Roger Federer. Then again, today, as an Indian athlete, my success (in terms of my wins) is astounding. Success will always depend on the context and will be put up against external measures especially in today's world where goals, plans and road maps are parts of even school curricula. So what will you worry about? Your own being? The context? The external measures? Things that are in your control? Things that you cannot control? It is best to remember the character types. The fragile. The sturdy. The compliant. Focus on what you want to be. It could be argued that character types are genetic. To an extent, yes. But again, with awareness and training you can mould your character. Do not worry about success. Do not bother about failure. Train hard and give it your best. Remember, if you are successful, handling that will be quite a job too. Leander Paes loves life, soccer and music. He has also won 12 Grand Slams in tennis (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 21-11-2011)