What needs to be done to win?

Prof K S Chandrasekar
“In order to win in your every move, you should know yourself thoroughly” is the old adage. From here the persons’ every move counts. Life teaches us difficulties, happiness, achievements and failures. One should be able to understand the same at every stage. First aspect for success lies in understanding oneself. Not everyone is same. Hence its important not to compare with others. In school, the teachers or parents compare the best student. The best student is not the ideal one as such. For him or her, it is the best. However, for others, they need not take the same route.
Self-assessment
One should always conduct self-assessment at crucial stages. It is better to leave the assessment at a very young age and only after one enters VIIIth class, one should do self-assessment. This could be done by talking with ones close classmates on the strengths and weaknesses. One may ask them to write down the same in a paper and then collate all the details. At this stage, the parents can step in. They could provide an unbiased assessment. This can be cross verified with the report from classmates. Here, the final report prepared will give an idea of what personality one is and what is good for him or her. It was found that in the Australian army recruitment process, they don’t consider a candidate who has never failed in any activity in his school or college.
Composure
By the time one reaches a stage of self-confidence and ability to perform on his own, the next stage starts. At this stage, it is the ability of the individuals’ to face victory and failure with equal weightage becomes important. In this present competitive world, parents are anxious for the success of the children which actually creates undue pressure on them. This stage starts at home. Parents should be able to teach them that failures are not the end of the world and success will follow them. By sheer hard work and commitment, on should easily succeed. Extra -curricular activities are as important as curricular aspects. Most of the off the track careers seek only those who are good at sports, arts etc., are considered. These extracurricular activities, one would often fail and he or she will be able to withstand the pressure and overcome failure at the young age.
Persistence
In the early years, if a person is asked what he wants to be, the answer could be taxi drivers, auto drivers, bus drivers, conductors etc.,. This happens as they see a hero in each of them in their daily routines. Over the period, they start interacting with more people and then their choice becomes different. Parents should watch for the signs given by the children at a young age in terms of their interests. One may like to be a painter or guitarist, see whether it is a general habit or becoming a serious avocation for them. If they feel that they can excel in a form, parents need to see whether there are opportunities for them and can they make a career out of it. Once a person has decided to pursue a career at say 10th standard, parents should lock the same and provide all supporting materials and documents for the same. A great film director Sri. Manirathnam completed MBA from Mumbai before venturing to directing. Hence it is important to see the signs of change shown by the wards.
Passion
There are cases where one has been entrusted to study a particular field, he or she still shows interests in some areas which are alien to the parents. Only with passion, one can be a good career person. Such people perform well in their life also. Once self-assessment is done, see whether the person is showing interest in that specific field and is asking for more support from parents in this area, then we need to understand that passion is there with that individual. If passion is not there in what a person does, he or she will always be a failure. In this clamor for engineering and medicine, parents need to understand that there are more courses outside these two which are very good. There are instances where the students have to leave courses mid-way due to their non interest in the subject and pursue a different career.
Life skills
In schools and colleges nowadays, life skills are not taught. They are in fact, given at different stages of a class. Basic important skill is communication. Communication does not mean that one should be conversant in English. It is how clearly one is able to communicate the content to the receiver. It is hence important that from being a shy, one should start interacting more with the peers there by ensuring that the communication process is good. Decision making and problem solving, assertiveness and empathy are part of the life skills. Organizations are willing to select individuals with creative thinking abilities. Once a person joins organization, he or she needs to assess the environment, the scope for improvement, future opportunities in the organization. Even if the salary is low in the initial stages, it would be prudent to be part of the organization for at least two years. One may face a tough boss in the initial years, but should persist and work harder. This training will make the person comfortable to perform in later years. Facing failures in the initial stages will make the person mentally strong and will not repeat the same in future. Such people have reached top management positions.
Happiness
The last of the steps is to see happiness in everything one does. One should try to find happiness in all activities undertaken either at home or at work. The happiness at home will have a spillover effect in work and that will create a very conducive working environment. Happiness is how a person views it. There are people who find fault in everything. Such people need to be avoided and focus needs to be shifted to those who are enjoying their life.
If one follows the above, one can see the difference in their life and work culture and be a successful person for others to emulate. Let us practice through this, “Lokah samastah Sukhino bhavantu” which translates to “May all beings everywhere be happy and free”.
(The author is the Vice Chancellor, Cluster University of Jammu)

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