Does
anyone of you remember the famous dialogue from the movie – THE 3 IDIOTS? –
where Amir Khan says to his friends – “Think what would have happened if Sachin
Tendulkar was forced to become a singer, or Lata Mangeshker was forced to play
Cricket?”
I
can safely claim, without intending to offend either of them that Sachin
Tendulkar could never have become a singer, even if he practiced 24x7 for all
his life and Lata Mangeshkar could not play cricket even if she was made to do
the same. If they tried, today they would have been labelled as failures.
The
visual imagination of the whole idea seems so absurd that it has the potential
to make us roll in laughter.
But
don’t we all do the same thing?
Regardless
of finding out our individual potential, we tote the line. We then struggle to fit-in
and stay afloat. We can’t figure out why things are not working exactly the way
it should, or why we are not happy anymore.
Sachin
Tendulkar cannot sing – That’s his weakness and Lata Mangeshkar cannot play
cricket – that’s her weakness. But do we see it that way, as far as these two
personalities are concerned?
Never.
Because
they have not played on their weaknesses. They played on their individual
strengths. And that’s the whole talking point.
When
we talk of individual strengths and weaknesses, it can be divided into two
levels –
1. Strength
and weakness based on talent.
2. Strength
and weakness based on physical ability and mental skills.
Strength
and weakness based on Talent
– Besides the Sachin – Lataji example, think of all the people who aspires to
become something in life, but end up doing something as absurdly different. In
India, ‘something different’ is the
language of a failure. If you are not a doctor or an engineer, or a Chartered
Accountant, you do not count. This, ‘to-count’
pressure kills the individual in every person. That’s one of the reason, why,
even though we have the largest number of youth population, news of something
excellent, unique or different, almost always comes from across the seven seas.
People
work to earn money, live and die. They seldom find their point of excellence.
To
become a doctor or an engineer, because only that counts, can never give you
excellence. It will make you earn, but it does not have the power to make you
excellent.
Discover
your individual talent, because that’s what your strength is. Work with your
strength. Give it life. Give it power. Give it your passion, a Vision and see
it create magic in your life!
You
cannot become a doctor, doesn’t mean you cannot become anything else. Find your
passion, for everyone has one. We are born with it. It just needs to be
discovered.
What you cannot become is not your weakness – so do not fuel it.
Instead, what you can do is your strength. Find it and fuel that.
“Everybody
is a genius. But
if you judge a fish by its ability
To
climb a tree, It
will live its whole life ‘BELIEVING’ That
it is stupid"
Albert Einstein
Strength
and Weakness based on physical ability or mental skills
– In guerrilla warfare, there is a special unit of combatants where men qualify
because of their short height. The force use short height as a tool against
their enemy. These people, because they are short, can hide easily, they move
silently and stealthily, and are trained for a different kind of body agility
which is not possible with broader, heavier men. So, who said anything about
men being short?
This
is an example of a weakness turned upside down and converted to strength.
It
is important to first be aware of our weaknesses. In my 6 years as a
Motivational Speaker, I have never come across a person who doesn’t.
While
some weaknesses can be rectified by taking correct measures --
For
example – and here I am taking a few scenarios –
n “I
do not know how to work on excel sheet.”
So what do you do? You learn it. Or, you hire someone to do it for you.
n “As
a cricketer, I have lots of experiences to share with the world, but I am not
good at writing.” Well, we all must have
heard of ghost-writers, who can do the job for you for some money.
n “I
want to achieve so many things in life, but I am so low in confidence.”
Well, the only solution is to then boost it up. These days there are so many
ways to do that – self-help books, blogs like this one, methods and techniques
found in the internet, and motivational speakers like me, who will ensure that
you never have to go without your shot of booster-dose as and when you need it.
So
while these are some of the weaknesses that can be reversed if steps are taken,
there are some that probably cannot be reversed. What do you do? Lots of people
have come up with extraordinary ideas and made their weaknesses work for them.
They made it so absurdly large that those very weaknesses have now become their
USP – That is – Unique Selling Point.
For
example – and again I will site a few scenarios –
n Indian
Prime Minister Narender Modi – The
opposition, when they discovered that the aspiring Prime Ministerial candidate,
Mr. Narender Modi was a petty tea seller at one point of time, they blew up the
entire media. They pointed out that a great country like ours, does not deserve
to have a tea seller as a Prime Minister. But Narender Modi, instead of seeing
it as a weakening factor, saw it as a strength. He was a tea-seller. That is an
irreversible fact. So he chose to blow it doubly up and make it work for him.
And oh! What a propaganda it was, and how he played with it. Not only did the
idea help him win the Prime Minister’s seat, it completely changed the outlook
of the working class of the people of this country. New hopes seeped in, and a
new sun shone in their tattered lives!
n Stephen
Hawkins, the world renowned physicist
– This is 2014 and he is still alive, waiting to celebrate his 70th
birthday on 8th Jan 2015. At the age of 21 he was diagnosed with a
type of motor neurone disease and doctors said he will not see his 25th
birthday. Even though the disease slowly made him completely paralysed and
quadriplegic, his inventions, theories and discoveries actually took momentum
after he turned 25. Whatever the world knows today about Cosmology, General
relativity and Quantum gravity is largely his contribution. He lost his voice
and can’t move even a single muscle in his body, but that did not stop him.
Nothing stopped him. Doctors are baffled and have come with lots of
possibilities for him to be still alive, but they have nothing concrete. But he
has defied even death, and that is one truth that is alive for us to see and
learn. His mind won all wars. He completely paralysed his weakness, and
strengthened that one single thing that was still alive in him – his mind. It
seems, that was just enough for him to push ahead. His presence, sitting on a
wheel chair, with a completely wasted body, but a brilliant mind is enough to motivate
every living cell in this Universe.
n Bhupender
Singh Rathore, Motivational Speaker
– Ok. That’s me. When I started as a Motivational Speaker, I was all prepared
and geared up for the job – except one thing – I was just 26 years old then. “A
26 years old Life Coach? How much of life has this lad seen?” might be quiet a
valid question. I thought this age factor of mine will pull my mother ship
down, but I made myself believe that it was not my weak point. It fact it could
be one of my greatest strength – If at 26, I could unravel enough of life, to
make it turn around a 360 degree, than imagine what inspiration I can be, if I
stood near a similar young crowd and made them believe what all they could
achieve, especially because they were of such a tender age. So this is how I go
– Yes I am just 26, and I rock – So listen as I speak, and keep your awareness
radar high to understand what I say. For your tender age could be the right
beginning to a very long rocking life!
The
word weakness is a perspective. Change your perspective and you will find that
all your weaknesses change into your strength. Like a celebrity food critic
once told, when asked how he made such a unique career choice, “Food is my
weakness. I decided to change it into my strength.”
In
life’s journey we can perceive things to be difficult and impossible or
challenging and opportunity-driven. What we chose, is what we make our life to
be. The choice is, of course, entirely ours!
Choose Wisely!
Have a Happening Time Ahead
Love,
BSR
