Success – Attitude or Ability? (To be continued)

Success, one of the most coveted things in this world by one and all. A singer wants nothing more than be world renowned, a genuine applaud is the best sound that a musician may ever want, a performer will perform better when he knows that some one is watching him and a business professional will want a resume worth his while when he or she looks at it a decade down the line from when he started.

The question that arises is what makes success so elusive for the normal professional. Is it as rare as the diamonds which successful actresses adorn on their bodies or more precious than the thrones that cost many thousands of lives to retain? Is it that only people who have great ability succeed in life? If not, why is success so elusive and why can’t every one be successful?

Well, success is not as elusive as it is made out to be. It’s just that greed is more rampant than it ought to be. A son of below poverty line parents may see success as providing his family with two square meals a day, something that remained elusive to him for most of his life. In case that comes via a clerical job or at the helm of an MNC would not be of much concern to him.

Success for a performer may be to the point that people recognize and appreciate his talent, even if he, just like Mirza Ghalib, in his lifetime lives like a pauper. Success to a sportsperson may mean that the nation adores him for that one century that he made to save his home team from embarrassment or to help them win that one big tournament; subsequent oblivion may not matter, ala Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who is till now famous for the win against Pakistan at Sharjah a long time ago.

In the same vein, success to some business professionals may mean getting good emoluments in return of their hard work. In other cases, getting to the top of the corporate ladder signifies the much desirable success.

As everyone may agree, not every writer, singer, actor or even professional gets to be successful. But the issue that I would like to raise is whether it is the ability of a human being or his will to succeed that make him or break him.