Success against all odds

Hello friends!

Welcome to a new episode. I hope you enjoyed the previous ones and you did communicate it with your friends and discussed it over; thought about it and digested it.

Today, we talk about a very important subject, which is now very common in most discussions; FAILURE. Failure is looming large in the horizon today, especially in the COVID situation when the whole world is on lockdown. More than half the population are indoors, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. The economy is also not doing so well in the world and production is affected, distribution is affected, the purchase is affected; our normal life is affected.

So in this condition, we do not know what to do, what to say. In this context, I would like to talk about failure, from a different angle. Failure from what? It is usually from our expectations; we made plans, we made goals, we made expectations, and if it did not happen as we expected, we call it a failure. But is it really a failure?  We can redefine, if we made expectations we can redefine it, right? We can also redefine our goals, we can re-plan, we can re-install, we can reinvent, and we have that capacity because it all started with us. We are still the same. We are healthy, we are intact. Situations were not in our control. But that should not stop us; if we have a good objective, if we have a clear objective, if we are here to give life and enhancement to the world around us – why not – it’s not a failure, there is no failure. Whatever happens in the world, we don’t have to worry.

Now I will tell you a couple of stories, they are not full stories, but it’s just a kind of hint so that you understand how some people handled their failures and found success. One is Honda. You heard about Honda, the car company in Japan? The founder of Honda – Mr Honda – he started his work in a very low position in the world. And then with all his effort and investment, he found a factory. Then World War II happened and bombing happened, and his factory was totally bombed. Everything that he invested in, everything that he envisaged became ashes, completely gone. Then he had to start again. But he started again, he did not sit down and cry, he did not blame anybody, he did not blame the situation, he did not blame the people, and he did not blame America. He did not blame, but instead, he picked himself up and started walking. And he made that particular part of the car, and he tried to sell it to Toyota. When Toyota said it’s not good enough, quality is not good; he went ahead and he again redid it. And then he brought it again. Toyota rejected saying not good. Again, the third time, fourth time, a few times later, the product was accepted by Toyota. Mass orders came, he started producing, and then like that he reinvented his dream. And it took time, but then he did not stop.

So, we should have a heart like that; not to stop at adversities. Otherwise, we are a victim of a dream, lack of fulfilment of a dream. So we should not be victims.

Another person, Sylvester Stallone, you all know him very well. He made a script for the movie Rocky, and he went to various producers. Many people liked the script. They said they will produce it, and they even decided who the actor should be to play the major role, but Sylvester Stallone said, only he will play the major role, the character should be him. He wants to play it. But nobody wanted him because he’s a rank outsider, nobody knows him. He does not have value in the outside world because nobody knows him. So, a person who is not recognized may not be accepted either. They wanted an accepted actor to play, but Sylvester Stallone insisted he will sell his script, only if he is that character; he’s the actor, main hero. And finally, for a small amount, he was able to sell his script with him as the hero, and that became a big hit. Rocky came. Rocky was a very big hit. And then it’s history. He had literally to toil; he even acted in a pornographic film to survive. He did not have money. So from there, he scrambled and with his effort and with his determination, he reached that level. We all can do that; we have that in us. It’s our attitude.

Failure is not a failure if our attitude is right. If our attitude is to survive, if our attitude is to be successful, if our attitude is to win, we will win. Otherwise, for every small thing, we sit down, complain and we will not be able to function.

So, this COVID situation is giving us an opportunity to be winners, to be successful, to succeed over adversities. This is a great opportunity because situations are grossly beyond control, and we see a lot of people pessimistic. A lot of people you talk to, they don’t give you good information. What they tell you is that things are not right, and situations will go worse. Maybe situations will go worse. We don’t know. But we can always be positive; we can do whatever we can within our control. And we must.

There should not be any shame here. If our goal is pure, if our aim is pure, if our intention is pure and if everything is selfless and we really want to make a mark in the world; nothing should stop us. We have no failure. So, this is the thought I would like to give to you today. And with this thought I leave you to contemplate, to discuss, to understand it further, to assimilate. Try to find out a lot of people who have succeeded in life against all odds. Those who have succeeded, they have succeeded after a lot of effort, nobody had a cakewalk.

See, now we have a great foundation, Mohanji Foundation, a foundation which is spread over many countries. So many people know us. This foundation is available to you. You can walk forward, and you can do your stuff through this. Don’t look at what you don’t have. Look at what you have, you have a huge family; the family we have around the world is a huge family, and this is a very powerful family because collectively we are strong.

Individually, we might be weak. Individually, we can’t do many things. But collectively we can do a lot of things, and there is a lot of power and energy behind us, in us and outside us, so we utilize it well.

And like, Walt Disney, who went to many places and approached many financials, and they never thought that a Mickey Mouse will sell. And finally, one banker, after his few visits, agreed that okay, I’ll give you start finance, and then the rest is history. The Disney World happened, and everything was glory. Like that we all can make glory.

So, please don’t ever sit on your dream, or believe that you’re a failure, time is not right; all these things have to be discarded. Get it done. Move it.

Lots of love.

This is Mohanji.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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