Reality Check One: Arvind was just an average student. Not the high flier type, and certainly not part of the “rock–bottom redefiner’s club”. Bloke was more into athletics. A record breaker one. Topped the school events. Won the champion’s medal (for having won three first prizes). Redefined excellence at zonal levels.
Academically, he was just an average student. Come his class X examinations, there was this slow metamorphosis from being a timid student to a brilliant intellect. He couldn’t believe his results. He was the school topper, when nobody had visualized him even in the top 50.
How could this happen? Was it because his entire life depended on that Class X examinations? No. All Arvind wanted was to just prove a point. Being good in sports does not mean bad in studies. He can handle both. Whom did he try to prove this? Just to himself.
Reality Check Two: Being the shortest in the class, meant continuous overpowering by others in the class for Maharaja. It also meant continuous jibes and bantering on his size and structure. Ordinary men would either surrender or revolt. Maharaja did justice to his name. He enjoys attention.
He was not serious about those jibes. Nor was he serious about his career. And he was still laughing his way to his home carrying his Class X marksheet which certified that he was the lowest scoring student of his batch. Not only was his head nearest to the earth, his mark was nearest to the proverbial cat’s wall.
The jibes continued, so did his enjoyment. Two years later, his position had not changed much. Still closest to the earth’s crust, still nearest to the wall.
Five years later, the jibes were still there. So was the enjoyment. Wall was the farthest for him in his batch. He had raised the bars by several notches. The golden medal adorned his chest.
Maharaja and gold medalist? Was his class full of dunces, or was he the only guy? No and No. In his own words, “All I wanted was fun and more fun. I was not very much interested in studies. Bunking classes had more fun than securing good marks. My mind was never into marks, as much as it was into fun. There was never a great desire or a compelling urge to make good grade in academics. Then I had a thought why not have fun in my studies, and then I dreamt of being recognized as an intellectual genius, and I decided to hit the roof.” And he did hit the roof, or rather the sky?
Moral of the story, desire was what gave him purpose and direction. An intense desire was what transformed him. No will. No external stimulus. No points proven.
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What is it that really differentiates from the successful and the not so successful? Certainly not the intellect, atleast not alone. All of us have it in abundance.
The above instances are not a product of my imagination. These are from the real world. Real people and real accomplishments.
All of us have come across certain people, whom we would rate so high, of whose abilities we admire and respect. But when it matters the most, their performance rarely does justice to their talent / abilities.
I am not speaking about luck, more because I don’t believe in that, and whose contribution to the equation of success is lower than that of epsilon in calculus.
The point, rather points of difference, are – Desire and Will.
The enigmatic yet eclectic Marat Safin of Russia
He puts in the effort. What he doesn’t is have a desire. He gets too bored too very easily. He loses interest in a match mid way, and failure doesn’t hurt him. Nor does success tastes him good enough. When he loses interest, any third grader would find that morbid and most dangerous human expression on his face – Indifference.
When he decides, or rather desires, he makes the tournament his own, no matter what.
Lack of desire can be attributed to either overpowering desire in something else (which in Marat Safin’s case is more in being Don Juan of the Digital Era, than a Champion Sportsman) or zero desire in anything (which is what Safin goes through when Don Juan takes to sainthood).
Zero desire is a possibility, when we think we do not have people around to appreciate us of our efforts and results. The absolute disconnect one experiences with any people. Which in turn is a product of endless hours of introspection and loneliness. Many people suffer from this weakness more than anything else. Staying away from family, with transient friends, who are more acquaintances than a friend in a real sense, pours fuel in gallons to this thought.
‘Who is going to really bother about what I do?’ completely forgetting that there is still one person for whom they should performance. For self.
Nothing worthwhile in this world has been achieved or created without that initial dope called DESIRE. Edison desired to have Light in the night. John Logie Baird desired and dreamt of something which is now popularly known as the Idiot Box. Everything starts with desire. Its the ignition for the human motor.
Then comes WILL. Will, in my view, is about believing in our abilities, putting in the desired (there goes the word again) efforts by continuously testing our abilities (and not questioning its existence). Continuously improving and improvising without losing sight of the target. Will is about treating the struggle just as effort in the process, and not as sacrifice which demands a direct bus to heaven.
Where DESIRE sets the goal, the target, WILL fuels the motor within us to reach that goal.
The bottomline is both DESIRE and WILL are required for us to succeed.
No one can succeed without either of them. There cannot be WILL without DESIRE. From era of Gladiators adorning Colosseum, to the modern day warriors in sports taking the green field, from the pagan days of Da Vinci, to the present day geniuses like Sabeer Bhatia and Bill Gates, no great deed have been done without that DESIRE. They dreamt and desired, therefore they decided. They did not simply desire and leave the work to be done by some others. They did it through their untiring efforts, which requires some WILL.
Then they succeeded.
Succeed for the sake and purpose of success. Succeed for the sake of the tremendous abilities we are endowed with. Succeed for the sake of our loved ones. Succeed for the sake of self.
To succeed, dream. Have a desire. Have that will.
Comments
But somehow, I felt they were low on energy levels, not because of lack of any ability, but lack of desire. I was just structuring my thoughts, then decided to post it as a blog. But never discussed these things with them though.
Thereafter, I often found a reason to stay motivated by reading this (strange it may sound, but I read my blogs the most, than any other person, or any other person's blog!)
Cheers