Recently, I was given an opportunity to interact with a few school children who were in their senior grades. They all showed a positive attitude and strength that would amaze anyone. They all come from different places but all had one thing in common, they were all from economically poor backgrounds. But that did not stop them from dreaming big!
Among all these children, one person’s story shook me to the core and taught me a very valuable lesson about perseverance. This student donned many feathers on his cap! He was the captain of his school’s football team which had won district matches under his captaincy. He was a great orator who went on to win at both state and district levels and had done talk shows with local radio stations and private television channels. He was the leader of a small team of student volunteers who took part in social awareness events. Among all these, he was also one of the toppers in his class.
All these will make us think he had a perfect family to support and encourage but no he had a completely different tale to share!! His father left his family when he was only 4 years old. His mother had to do odd jobs to make ends meet, and to take care of both the children. When he was 10 years old, he lost his mother to depression. He says there were people around him telling him to quit studying and go to work. But the siblings had other plans, the one that would never fail! Both the brothers decided to channel the strength they had towards studies and be the best and that's how he did all the above achievements. His elder brother is in college doing a computer science degree along with part-time jobs.
There is always no shortage of people around us to pull us down and discourage us, to tell us nothing is going to get better. But perseverance will prove them all wrong! Where we focus matters the most and what we stand for shows our courage to face things head on. At some point, all the 2 were left with was only hope to succeed no matter what life throws at them and I am pretty sure they are going to do much better than most of us!
Even if we look into the lives of most of the successful people around us, it was always their thirst and determination to win against all odds that made them who they are today. There has never been an alternative to hard work and endurance. We will face challenges along the way of life and might end up failing miserably but how we react to it determines our future. We can either crib and stay in that same place or dust off those failures and get back up again!
As the saying goes, “It's hard to beat a person who never gives up!”, we need to make it a point to focus on not giving up instead of succumbing to the pressure of failure. Even if life knocks us down, be determined to be like a seed that grows into a strong tree by fighting against all odds when thrown into the darkness of being buried underground.
All of us are born with talents and abilities to succeed in our way. Success stories are different for different people but the common formula to succeed would always lie in perseverance and the never-give-up attitude!
The famous quote of Thomas Edison says, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”
What we choose, we become! Giving it one little push one more time is all it might need from our end to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Make sure to have a great story of determination to share with the people who might just follow in your footsteps someday soon!
Choose to get back up one more time, choose to give it a try one more time, and we might just win!
About the Author
Shalini Solomon comes with close to 15 years of industry experience in the Human Resources space. She is currently designated as Head - People and Values with Kazh Fintech Private Limited. She likes to interact with people and makes sure they have the space to grow and learn and are free to work without any pressure. People first is always her approach. She holds an Engineering degree in Computer Science.