AMBITION HAS ONE HEEL NAILED IN WELL
“Ambition has one heel nailed in well,
though she stretches her fingers to touch the
heavens.”
-
Lao Tzu
I don’t’
think, it’s possible for any of us to achieve anything in life without ambition.
Now, some of us may not like to admit that… But, I seriously feel, that it’s
our ambition that propels us to achieve whatever we desire to, decide to…
Some four decades ago, as a young man, here in Mumbai, I, too, wanted to
know how people ‘succeeded’… how they achieved whatever they desired to. I
wanted to know if there was a systematic method, a way, to do that. That’s when
I had found, on the footpaths of this city, an old copy of Napoleon Hill’s
famous book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’. Incidentally, the author, too, said, that
his own search had started with the same question – “How people achieved great
success?” Challenged by the great steel-tycoon of the time, Andrew Carnegie, young Napoleon Hill had decided to devote the
next twenty years of his life researching
on the science of success… And, he had come to the conclusion, that Man could
really ‘think and grow rich’… The word ‘rich’, however, did not mean only
financially… He had famously concluded, ‘Whatever the man’s mind conceives and
believes, it can achieve’.
I was a struggling, jobless young man in this big city when Napoleon Hill’s
message had begun to sink into my heart. I remember reading the book over and
over again… till I got up, one day, and said, “This is it”!
It was, indeed, that… It still is… and, it will, always, be. Yes, after
almost four decades, I still swear by “Think and Grow Rich’ - ambition is the
only force that propels all of us to achieve whatever we desire in our hearts…
Be it a beloved or be it a kingdom, be it a loving family or be it a king-size
life… I seriously think, that I could not have become a teacher, trainer or a blogger
without being propelled by my ambition. And, I don’t think, it’s any different
for Mother Teresa or Bill Gates, for Sri, Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi
Vasudev or A.R. Rehman… I don’t think, it’s different for Julius Caesar,
Alexander or Adolf Hitler… I don’t think, Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan,
Rajinikanth, Lata Mangeshkar, Usain Bolt, Michael Jackson, or Barack Obama –
name any achiever in this world – yes, I don’t think any of them could accomplish
whatever they had without the force of ambition…
We
teach it to little children, right when they are able to understand… “Think and
grow richer in life… grow bigger in life.” We tell them, what the ambitious Julius Caesar had
told his noble friend, Brutus: “Men at some time are masters of their fates. The
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are
underlings.”
But, the wisdom, that ‘riches’ of life are never confined to money,
fame or power alone, comes enroute our quest. We all have to make our choices along
our journey… Yes, some of us ‘understand’ what good and what bad the same force
can do for us… And, some of us don’t… We live in our illusions and keep chasing
the mirage!
So,
if I have to go back to my struggling days and pick up a book on our city’s
footpaths, I will still pick up the rugged-and-torn copy of Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think
and Grow Rich’. Yes, I will still do it, even though I haven’t grown rich
financially as an Andrew Carnegie or a Mukesh Ambani, nor as ‘big’ as a
Sadhguru, Baba Ramdev or Mother Teresa. I
would never hesitate to tell a young one, that he has to be ambitious in life
to achieve whatever his heart desires… But, in the same breath, I will never
forget to remind him of Lao Tzu’s wise words, that the lady Ambition has to nail
her one heel, always, in well… yes, yes, while she constantly stretches her fingers to touch the heavens…
Has any of us ever been able to touch the heavens?
But, then, the Legend tells us, that we can… we can!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Kamal Kishore Rikhari
Comments