COMMENT
Since times immemorial this debate about being ‘born’ with traits or if these can be acquired, has been raging. Philosopher’s, management scientists, sages and learned masters have all written and commented upon this paradox. So, what an ill-informed scribe, like me can offer on the subject, the readers may wonder. The simple answer is recast their thoughts and possibly add focus on some of the related matter.
When we look around leadership be in the political, corporate, religious or military arena’s there are occasions when looking at the person at the helm we wonder why and how did he get there? Invariably the answer to this emerging question in mind, will find answer in the fact that ‘we don’t know them, well enough’. We rush to form opinions about people with no or at best half-baked information. Only when we discover the personality in its fullness that we begin to appreciate why someone is perched on the top most echelons of any hierarchy.
To the onlooker a person is seen, as is visible. The many dimensions and characteristics that are in obscurity could very well be the fundamental reasons for any person to acquire the status of ‘stardom’ in his area of influence or profession.
Background and lineage, especially when it comes through inheritance of a title, catapults even minions and nincompoops into positions of authority. In contradiction to this possibility there are many examples in human history where the progeny’s success has eclipsed the parentage. So, yes some are born great, some acquire greatness and a very large majority of inherited position holders have greatness thrust upon them.
Of all the seven Moghul emperors, only Akbar, regardless of how and why part of it, was blessed by historians with the appellation of ‘Akbar the great’. He surely must have had pronounced distinctive features that separated him from the rest, albeit all of them, barring Zaheeruddin Babar had inherited the ‘right to rule’. The seventh and the most well-known Nizam of Hyderabad state, Mir Osman Ali Khan had four sons- they were all entitled by birth to succeed him, as the Nizam, but Mir Osman considered his grandson Mukkurram-jah to be his heir- apparent. It is quite obvious that the grandson had elements in him that were waiting in his father and uncles.
So, if we set aside genetics and look at all other probable factors that launch an individual into stardom category, we are likely to conclude, that there is more to do than just birth right. Hanson W. Baldwin, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist had written, ‘….Great Generals, like great writers, poets or artists are born, not made yet the influences that touch their lives unquestionably shape their careers. It is safe to say, that most are born with unique qualities but only those who refine and polish their respective traits move towards acquiring stardom recognition. At the end of it all, genetics helps but does not guarantee ‘star’ position; in contrast the right quantum of hard work with lady luck on side, is most likely to endow the status of recognition.
Lets then examine how life experiences enrich the route of success. An ancient adage says, ‘the doctor dresses the wound and God heals it.’ Divinity in its ‘best design’ forms, perfects and liberates, the human spirit. Individuals who believe in themselves are always confident that their hard work will inevitably bring good results. They train themselves well for the position they aspire.
The exercise towards recognition begins with self-belief. And to have self-belief, the foundations of hard work will need to be employed to their best and fullest. Application of skills acquired with resolute faith, ushers in, self-belief. On hard work and its related affect on thought process is best explained by the parable, my father narrated to me, when I was a school going youngster…. A man, lazy and lethargic was sitting as beggar, on the roadside pavement and with severe pangs of hunger, would after every few minutes, look up towards the sky and exclaim loudly, ‘there is no God, for if there was, then I, His creation would not be lying here, hungry for several days.’….. Just when for the umpteenth time he made this remark, a shining and attractive large apple fell before him, from nowhere. He looked up, smiled and said, there is, God. Being seized with lion’s hunger he rushed to pick it up….the apple moved backwards…he tried again…and again… and again, it just could not come within his grasp. Exasperated and profusely perspiring, he looked towards the sky and proclaimed, there is magic but there is no God. A voice was heard that said, ‘you have worked hard enough now; pick up the apple and eat it.’ He did and said, ‘there is God.’ Later when my catholic Rector, Bro. Robert Todd, was explaining to my class the proverb, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ I could relate to its meaning. Stardom requires an ocean of perspiration. There are no short cuts. As is said, truly there is no substitute for hard work. Even mediocre with clenched teeth make it to the best in their areas of interest. Such never lose sight of their quest. They do not let either the environment or people to dislodge them from their pursuit. They remain steadfast. ‘Stars’ are not deterred with negativism around them. They persist. They remain focussed. They choose their environment or make one that will be conducive towards the attainment of their stardom status. Gandhi is credited for having remarked, ‘I will not allow others to walk through my mind with their dirty feet.’ Negative tendencies or thoughts should be immediately seized and expunged. In our everyday life on the corporate floor we are exposed to the epidemic of negative thought nursery where if one was to get caught in its lethal cobweb it becomes extremely difficult to extricate oneself. The need is to recognise its existence and then take all steps to insulate oneself from these tendencies.
Positive thought breeds positive action. As man increases his knowledge of heavens why should he fear the unknown on earth?’ said US president Lyndon Johnson. We must recognise and learn to live with the lot that environment bestows upon each of us, with a discernment of what to pick up and what to leave. The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings’ (Shakespeare in Julius Caesar). Failure can never be crime. But not working enough or trying with determination is. Had remarked a sage if you aspire for the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at second or even the third place. Effort will and is the only way that summits are conquered.
Will Durant’s, the reconstruction of character aptly describe the negative person and the positive person.’ Here is a negative person- he tends to be undersized; and though he admires intensely every redeeming quality of his face, his form, his mind and he is awkwardly conscious of his physical inferiority and looks enviously out of the corner of his eye at the tall and vigorous workman…. What the negative person lacks above all is body, energy, horsepower; he has not blood enough to be strong? About the positive man, ‘he has health and vigour a sufficiency of flesh and blood to warrant him looking straight into the eye of the world… he does not look at you; he is absorbed in his enterprise, intent on his goal. He is less interested in persons than in purposes.’
Mr. Jinnah was not born great- he acquired it through hard work, commitment, grit, determination and an unimpeachable and unquestionable strength of unalloyed integrity in all its formats and manifestations.
In conversations with colleagues, I always impress upon effort and little on results. Divinity demands ‘efforts’ and ‘guarantees results’. Noah’s arch would have been done with Divine command of ‘Be and it is’, but no; Noah had to task himself with laborious hard work but ‘success’ was his faith.
Stars are not born. They are made. Hard work and self-belief being the cornerstones of this thought and approach.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
