Should the horse be in front of the cart or behind it? Some experts say that you should get the cart before the horse, if you wish to achieve personal greatness. Let me explain it further. Once I asked my friend a question: “Are you happy?” He replied, “No, I am not”. I continued, “What do you think it would take for you to become happy and content?” Without hesitation he replied, “There are a few more things to be done before I can become happy.”
Many people maintain checklists of things they believe they need to do like getting a job, getting married, becoming financially independent, building a house, educating the children, marrying them off and so on. The list is endless. How do we acquire the things, we believe we need for happiness? Maybe, it is through working, negotiating, manipulating, planning, achieving, etc. M.F. Hussain, the great artist, used to get excited when he painted a horse, bull or Madhuri Dixit. Likewise, Sachin Tendulkar loves his cricket, Tiger Woods his golf, Amitabh Bachchan his acting and you and I the work we are doing.
Take Shekhar Kapur, a qualified Chartered Accountant who completed a course at the London School of Drama and started directing movies. He had the guts to climb down the ladder and find a vocation, discover his potentials and realise it. Many people never discover what they want to do. They are blissfully ignorant of its existence. A boy who collects butterflies need not become a botanist; a man who collects coins need not be a finance expert. The point is that they have discovered their hobby and eventually they will discover genuine talent because they are on the road to discovery. When hobbies become passions and serious professions, they become spectacular successes later.
Sydney Smith said: “Whatever you are by Nature, keep to it; never desert your own line of talent. Be what Nature intended you for and you will succeed; try something else for which you are not suited and you shall fail.” A Press Reporter once asked Indira Gandhi: “How do you work for 18 hours a day throughout the year and never get tired?” She replied: “I don’t get tired because I love my work.”
