(The information on the various personalities mentioned in this has been taken from wiki, for inspiration purpose, I never intend to hurt the feelings of any of well learned person by not mentioning their names or saying they less famous)
People many times say that “He/she was destined to achieve it”, but I feel it should be, “He was determined to achieve it”. It’s our determination that determines our destiny.
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) we know him as Thomas Edison, an American inventor and businessman was a school dropout. He got hearing problems at an early age & he became completely deaf in the middle of his career due to an accident. Edison is holding 1,093 US patents in his name.
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (28 December 1933- 6 July 2002) whom we know as Dhirubhai Ambani, a matriculate due to circumstances. But he always knew what he wanted from life, once he told his father "Why do you keep screaming for money? I will make heaps of money one day". After school on weekends, he began setting up onion/potato fries stall at village fairs to make money which he gave his mother. He also used to sell milk powder to make his income before moving to Aden. After working in Aden, he gained the practical knowledge which was required for a successful business. Then after coming back to India he started slowly & gradually became an icon.
Steven Paul Jobs (24 February, 1955- 5 October, 2011) popular as “Steve Jobs” a dropout by choice from Reed College, Oregon. But to learn calligraphy, he stayed in hostel & slept on floor in friends' rooms, returned Coke bottles for food money.
Later he started working for Atari. Then he started APPLE, and later on he was fired from his own company. Then is owned Pixar Animations & after few years sold it to Disney. Later he came back again in APPLE & gave the world some marvelous products & rest is the history.
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger (born 24 March, 1951) a.k.a..Tommy Hilfiger, again a dropout by choice. He suffered from learning disability. After attending his high school, he started to work in retail shop at the age of 18. Hilfiger used to go New York City to buy jeans and bell-bottom pants, which he customized and resold to a store in downtown.
Then he started a store called “The people’s place”. In the age of 25 years he became bankrupt & moved to New York City. He was offered design assistant positions with designers Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis. Though he was broke, he turned down both the offers with greater plans in mind. Later he founded the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, which he sold in year 2010 for worth $3 Billion.
Lance Edward Armstrong (born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times after having survived testicular cancer. In 1996 he was diagnosed as having testicular cancer with a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He went on to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005, and is the only person to win seven times. His one of the most famous quote is “I figure the faster I pedal, the faster I can retire.”
Steve Jobs in one of his speech in Stanford University in 2005 said “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him; "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." And he added, "I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it”
These are the names of quite famous people, we have several examples around us where people coming from estranged small place & have achieved a stature in various fields say it business, service, artists, designers, architects & so on. This is dedicated to all the successful people who have made it large in their life with the thinking of a visionary. Look around you and you will find a number of people excelling in their field. Though they are not as famous as the above stated names but still they have achieved it.
It doesn't matter who they are - inventors, businessmen, designer, sportsmen, - successful people have more things in common. They have a mindset for getting successful.
- Vision and focus: Have a vision to foresee. You should be able to look beyond. What will be the worth of the thing after 10 years & then focus on it and give your 100%. Coz even 99 doesn’t have the charm of 100 runs.
- Calculated risks: Never check the depth of river with both legs. You must calculate the pros and cons of where you are going to take dive.
- Give credit: “Credit cannot be taken, Credit has to be received.” Give acknowledgement to those who have helped you in reaching the position where you are today. You should be grateful for those people coz they are the ones who trusted you.
- Don't believe in luck: Luck will get you only the things, which is left by the people who actually gave their best to achieve it.
- Have the persistence & determination to rise: Even after the darkest night, the sun rises. So you must have faith in yourself to change the things to better from what they are today.
- Last But Most Important, Never stop learning: Success is built upon failure and failure truly is not learning from mistakes. Successful people know that mistakes are inevitable in life but they do not take their failure for granted. For them, failing at one thing is a surefire guarantee that they will succeed at it the next time around.
So, here we end with “Destiny is what you make it.”
