20th October 2010
"All I would tell people is to hold onto what was individual about themselves, not to allow their ambition for success to cause them to try to imitate the success of others. You've got to find it on your own terms."
Harrison Ford
We are all born as unique and special entities. We are not a product of mass production of a factory, but each one of us a master piece. Int he entire world there is not another person exactly like us, with our thumb impression, our facial expression, our emotions and attitude.
In terms of skill and potential also we are unique and we should try to tap the same. We should have role models as our benchmark, but that does not mean we should do exactly what they did to succeed.
Imitating external behaviour will not produce world class performance. Imitations cannot become the original. You cannot duplicate Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa. But you can duplicate their mindset and attitude. You can duplicate their principles in life. You can duplicate their approach to issues and problems of life. You can duplicate their philosophy of living for a public cause.
The problem with many of us is the fact that we want to be succeeding like someone succeeded, without doing an `original research' on us. We need to meditate and ponder over ourselves. We need to discover what hidden talent we have deep inside us. We need to discover our own weaknesses and try to have a strategy to overcome the same. Our weaknesses and strengths may be unique which may not be present in others. We have to be conscious about the same.
Moreover, just because a strategy worked with someone in a specific context, it does not mean that the same will work in our case. For example, Mahatma Gandhi's strategy of non violence and satyagraha worked at a time he lived in that context. Will it work now in our context?
Think!
N C Sridharan
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