Stop Thinking.

 

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.”

                                                   - Swami Vivekananda

First of all, I would like to pay my homage to the world-famous spiritual leader and the youth icon "Swami Vivekananda". He has been an inspiration

to many of us. Most of us have followed his footprints and implemented his ideology of living life to become successful. 

In today's article, I would like to emphasize one very important point of life that we often get trapped and it diminishes the goal of our life. We spend half of our life thinking about today and it leaves the impressions on us so badly that we mess our tomorrow. Life is not that easy. You will face challenges. It's full of ups and downs. But a successful person always comes out from the downfall and becomes successful in life. Let's understand it in detail. 

If you've read my previous article Failure - The preparation of success, I've mentioned one incident that how I improved my English. It was never easy for me. I went through many ups and downs. I got rejected in many interviews because of the same issue. But I didn't give up. I stayed focused and worked on my goal and finally I achieved it. 

I still remember the days, when I was lost my job and there was too much pressure on me. Paying rent, EMI's, etc, and taking care of day-to-day expenses as my parents were staying with me. Every day, I used to think that how would I manage? This How factor overpowered me so badly that the next day I used to get up thinking about the same problem. I was going through a bad phase of my life. I always used to think in the back of my mind that I would start my small consultancy firm. But I never dared to take the first step towards it because how would I manage? I didn't have finance with me so that I could have started. This how factor used to interlink all situation together and I used to get frustrated. I almost thought that I have lost. But then, one incident took place and it changes my mind completely. I used to go to a car mechanic who was very hard working. His name is Ahmad. He called me one day at his home just for a cup of tea. I went to his home. I was surprised to see his home. He recently bought it. He has a family of 4 members. His wife is a homemaker. His elder daughter is in 10th standard and his younger son is going to playschool. I asked him out of curiosity that how he managed all this? 

He told me about his struggle in life. He said he belonged to a well-reputed family. But due to differences of opinions within his family members, he had to leave his home and came back to metro cities. When he came to this city with his wife, they didn't have a place to stay. He started living in rented accommodation and looked for a job. He was not highly educated so he started in a motor garage as a cleaner. He was doing good and learned the technical work quickly. The owner was very happy and started giving him more work and increased his salary also. He was happy. Life was going smooth. But there is a fact, "If your lifeline becomes smooth (straight) it means, you are dead". 

Suddenly, one day a major accident took place and his wife had to get hospitalized. Doctors advised him to go for surgery but it was very expensive. He didn't have any other option except borrowing money from others. He had to mortgage the jewelry he had. The bad time was yet to come. The operation was successful. But when he went back to his owner, he was asked to leave because he was missing from his work for many days. Though he used to inform him every day the owner was not ready to listen. He simply said that he can't keep him. Now his tension started. He moved to other shops asking for work but when bad time comes, it screws you up. No one gave him a job. He came back home with a fake smile on his face so that his wife should not get any clue about this incidence. He was getting trapped with this incident so badly and on top of it, people have started knocking him to give back the money he borrowed from them. He was so frustrated that he decided to finish his life.

He moved for it. But then, his inner voice stopped him asking that who would take care of his wife in this world if he finishes himself. He came back. He was unable to figure out what to do? Days passed. He stopped thinking now. He decided to start again. He moved to different societies and asked if there is a job for a car cleaner. He will wash and clean the cars everyday. At the same time, he asked the people to give him time so that he can arrange money and give it back to them. People have agreed. He finally got work in one particular society where he used to wash and clean cars daily. He used to do 30 cars everyday. He didn't give up and kept the ball rolling. 

One day, he found one society member was trying to start the car but was unable to. He was getting late for his work but there was some issue and he was very upset. He walked up to him and asked he allows him to check his car. The guy said, "Do whatever you can, but do it quickly". He examined the car and finally he fixed it. The person was really happy and gave him some money for fixing the car and thanked him. Then after few days, this guy called him to check one of his friend's car. He went for it. Normally we ignore it. But he didn't. He took it as an opportunity. He fixed the car too. This guy asked him about his work. He told him the entire story. The person asked him that he has a shop which is closed for many days. He can give him the shop for rent. Ahmad agreed to it.

 

The shop was opened and the guy helped Ahmad to buy the tools and asked him to pay for them by next month. He was okay. There was still a challenge. The shop was opened and things were in place. But if there would be no customer, how would he make up? He continued to do the car washing and cleaning every day. He used his brain and printed brochures for his shop and distributed it to the society and nearby societies also. Slowly people started coming to his shop. Ahmad's talent started shining and rewarding him. He didn't look back and gave his heart and soul to his work. Within 6 months he paid off all the money he borrowed from people. He then decided to expand his business. He hired few mechanics and started getting more work. He introduced packages also for his customers. This is how he overcomes his bad phase of life. 

His struggle inspired me and changed my mind completely. I told him my situation. He offered me some help. I politely gave a denial but told him I would seek his help if I would need. I came back home and called my old team members. I told them about my project that I would like to start a consultancy and I would be offering certain services. They found it interesting. I asked them for small help like, promoting my work and sharing it in their friend circle and they will get some profit out of it. That's how the journey started. I started with a batch of 6 people. I was completely focused on it. I started taking interest in my new work and it helped me to get more batches. I still remember the day, when I got a call from one of the management institute to give a guest lecture on one of my modules, "The 4 W's Principle" I was very happy that my hard work paid off.

Incidents in your life teach you lessons. I also got a lesson from the incident that 

"Stop thinking. Today is gone. Start afresh tomorrow."

I am sure this article will inspire you. 

All the best!

Regards,

Moloy

(To read in Hindi, click here)