SUCCESS MANTRA

 ‘You are the architect of your life’

PIALI DASGUPTA

I can’t sit on a platform and pontificate about how I made it in life. I have always compared myself to the dog on the streets who’s somehow managed to cross the street at peak hours. There’s no specific mantra or compass or map to success. Real achievers are people who have carved their own path to success and are intelligent enough to advise others to not follow their path. I can’t suggest a sure-shot path to success, since my reality and mental makeup is different from that of others.
    I don’t believe in luck or any other invisible power guiding us. You alone are responsible for the events in your life. You are the architect of your life. Whatever I have accomplished so far has been because of my own endeavours. Various people in my life have obviously played significant roles, which has humbled me in the process. I have kept on re-inventing myself.
    I have also been focussed. I have a demonic commitment to whatever I decide to do. I believe in deadlines and am accountable for my actions.
    A defining moment of my life has been meeting U G Krishnamurthy, the greatest thinker human kind has ever produced.
    He made me believe that as long as I try to become someone else, I’ll achieve nothing. My encounter with him was life altering. He was the lone star in the dark sky. He taught me to take failure in my stride.
    And I did. My failures have taught me much more than success; success has only lulled me. It’s the lousiest teacher.
    Having said that I understand that no one forgives a failure and that’s where success is important.
    Criticism hurts. It breaks you. It’ll hurt you no matter how successful you are. But criticism holds a mirror to you. It helps you to constantly polish you ways and adding to your arsenal.There’s no full stop to life.
    Today’s youth has an attitude and platitude borrowed from the media. They are like assembly line products.
    I’d like to tell them to hold on to their distinctive attributes and not be a cheap copy of someone distinguished, because no two individuals are the same.
    No experience of another person can be your raft to sail through the wild ocean of life.