CURTAIN RAISER! 

           I must say the major population of SULEKHA is is very concerned and vocal about certain issues affecting our daily lives. I got a reasonably good response for the debate “ WHAT DOES MATTER FOR SUCCESS IN LIFE? IS IT MERIT OR NET WORKING?”.  I got 13 entries. Keeping into mind that it was just the beginning, the response was satisfactory. But I expected some more participation.

          PEARLS OF WISDOM. Poetbittersweet was the first one to enter the contest and in his typical style, he really made some very valid points—though he gave his personal example. In the end, he summed it up too, in his hillarious style.  All other posts, I must say they were well argued. I was really made wise by some of the authors. Frankly speaking, I too had vague ideas on “SUCCESS” till I started this contest. I have now a clear vision. Some of the famous quotes from the entries are:-

         Poetbittersweet ---------“Success is nothing but a continuous process of tuning up our abilities and those abilities are out of our academic, theoretical, practical applications to the tasks by our observations, judgments, priorities, resources available, and reasoning.”

        Premsaran----------“Success is a relative term.  Every learned individual will have his own parameters of success based on his merit to lead a happy and contended life.  This being the rationale behind success we must admit that every one is successful in his  own way.

       AjitNambiar-----“Networking is the branches of the tree called success, but roots are the merit of the person”

        Vijayshekar---------------“The meritorious person may win the odd battle,but the networked person often wins the war. As a teacher I have seen hundreds of students pass each year with glorious marks. But whenever they come back for an alumni meeting,I am always pleasantly surprised to find the most successful persons were people with average grades in academics.”

        Ehsaas--------------------“There is a saying “You need to be at right place at right time.” This sentence very well describes the opportunity for success created with networking. But my basic idea of the major root of success being the merit would still stay as if no merit how would you do justice to success? “

 Dr Madhavi --------------“Finally success is not a destination, it is a continuous journey and depends on your outlook whether you achieve it on total merit or with added extra networking; it hardly matters as long as the path is taken up with clear conscience. At the end of the day you should be at peace with yourself.”

  Meerajay--------------“Success is a non-stop walk in life. It keeps continuing and there is no end to it. Merit and Networking are like the two eyes that lead us to success in our journney of life.I would like to conclude that, for Life to be successful, both Merit and Networking are equally essential. Hope I have tried to justify my thoughts here.”

  Ravi Sharma---------- HE DELETED HIS POST OR WHATEVER. THE LINK PROVIDED BY HIM GIVES A BLANK. I WENT  TO  HIS PAGE,TOO.  BUT RAVI  DHAWALANI  HAS NO BLOGS POSTED.

  Ether ---------------------“Merit or no merit, matter for success is irrefutably conglomeration of an apt dose of time, place, method, system, and the very abstract luck.”

Pavementfeud,----------“ Merit comes first. It is pure in nature. Seldom 'tasteless.'Networking is an add-on. It adulterates merit, in that the 'networker' at times devotes far too much time in building contacts. Often said to be 'tasteless' by some.”

Aditiray----------------------“Success has different meanings to different people. Merits of different kind are necessary for the kinds of success one aspires for. But merit and networking are not ‘either or’ choices, the ability to network is a merit too, as are looks, personality, intellect, and articulation, among others. The ‘only’ other factor which is not a merit in an individual, but is crucial for success of any kind,  is luck.”

Lotuspetals----------------“  Merit can be gained by constant hard work and devotion to one's work..There  was  no  use  of  the  word   'net working’. Before some years ...it has become familiar in later  years.The companiesuse a big amount of its budget  for  adveritsements  every year..but  some times a certain product  lacking  quality  ( we  can use merit in broader sense)  do not gain suceess  in selling.....!   So thus  in my opinion  Merit  is most important criteria  for success....  A topper gets his rank as due to his output  in examination......”

Poetbittersweet at his best. Real networking – like say if I am short of a couple of billion, I can just call Sam and say- “Listen, dude – I need some dough urgently – ok, gimme 8, no, round it off to 10, I’ll give it back after the IPO.” What’s a couple of billion to Uncle Sam, old chap – the richest man in the world. Just loose change.”

MY TAKE ON ‘SUCCESS’

             I have certain points on how to view success. I discuss them in the points given below.

            Defining Success  In my view, success is nothing but an act/job/work/assignment/objective completed (51 to 100 percent of the envisaged work) to the satisfaction of self—your boss—your organisation—your elders.The degree of success might vary.

         Success/Failure in every Step/Act.  Every act--------every second---whatever you do, it has elements of Success and failures. You lift a tea cup from the table to clean it---but the cup falls and breaks—you have failed---cup is cleaned---you have succeeded. REMEMBER EVERY ACT HAS A FINAL OBJECTIVE---YOU ACCOMPLISH ---YOU SUCCEED. I will give you some more examples:-

             AGNI-3 was successfully fired---what does it mean to you? Simply, the set parameters were achieved.

            Again, Mr X, was successful in catching the flight---would imply that despite all odds , he reached in time to board the flight which was his objective at that precise moment.

           Yet again, Avinash was successful in his board examinations—would simply mean that Avinash had an objective to pass his examination and he did it.

 Is it measurable or quantifiable?  Can you quantify or measure success? I am afraid I hold the view that it can not be measured in physical terms. It is an abstract term. You might have 50 percent success or 99 percent or even 100 percent but you can not quantify. To do so you have to quantify each major/ minor/ small/tiny part of your given job or the objective. There will be sub jobs---sub sub jobs---sub sub sub jobs and so on---it will carry on . Each job within job  will have degree of success but no quantification.

IS SUCCESS ‘GOODNESS’? This is a very important question , one must understand. Not necessarily SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE GOOD PEOPLE, TOO OR THE VICE VERSA. Invariably, purely in materialstic terms, SUCCESS DOES NOT COME BY ETHICAL OR THE MORALISTIC ROUTES.  If you have to establish a BUSINESS EMPIRE LIKE ‘RELIANCE’, THEN YOU HAVE TO MANAGE THE ENVIRONMENTS, if I am allowed to mouth this phrase, so frequently used by late Sh Dhiru Bhai Ambani.

What Is Managing The Environments?  What Ambani meant by managing environment was to say as to how to ‘NETWORK YOURSELF’. It is your investment for the future. You neutralise all those adverse factors coming in the way of your success—whether it was officialdom, the government or the leaders. To succeed in material terms you have to manage your environments.

Isn’t Networking Talent, too?  Well! most of us look at this term “NET-WORKING” with a tinge of hatred. We shouldn’t. Everyone can not have a network. It is a special attribut you acquire after years of ‘ON THE JOB’ training. You know your limitations and the system you are working in. It is simply the expertise you acquire like your income-tax advisor telling you how to minimise your tax-paying. All of us do it. Besides, networking is not only in terms of your outside connectivity—it is also within your organisation to keep your team together—rally them around as a leader. As a subordinate you have an easy access to your boss---it opens up second channel of communication.

What is a talent?  It is a very apt question. Talent and Genious are two different things. Talent can be in-born or it can be acquired. When we talk about talent we talk in generic terms. We do not talk in specific terms. When we become specific, it turns into a ‘GENIOUS’. A talent is a trait or a quality or an attribute or a qualification which allows you to do which you like to do the best. You could be a good painter, singer, runner, academician, mathematician, actor, driver, shhoter, lawyer, cricketer, sportsman, orator, writer or what ever. All these traits can be acquired if you have attitudinal inclination or aptitude to learn that specific talent.  The most IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE THE TALENT REQUIRED FOR THE PARTICULAR JOB. You should not be a square peg in the round hole. When Amitabh Bachhan was rejected for a clerical job in KOLKOTTA some 40 years back it was because of the lack of talent in him. When BILL GATES dropped out of college, it did not mean he had no talent to succeed on his chosen path. It has been generally seen that those who are academically brilliant do not make mark in the MATERIALISTIC LIFE.YOUR EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS ARE NO PASSPORT OF YOUR BRILLIANCE  OR OR GREATNESS. The top academician may prove to be a ZERO in SOCIAL LIFE.  A TOP PROFESSIONAL MIGHT BE A ZERO IN FAMILY LIFE—His wife and kids might leave him or hang around only to benefit from the riches he has made.

SUCCESS NEEDS TALENT, NETWORKING and WHAT ELSE?  Success in life, the question of the debate, needs three ingredients  to make it a sumptuous recipe.Talent and networking  are two of them. Which is the third? Let me first ask as to how would you define success in life? I think it was very well answered by one of the participants---when she said it was a comparitive table of your worth between two ends of your life’s journey.  Let us say, you were born as a Village school teacher’s son. You worked hard, you cleared IAS examination and retired as a Secretary to the govt of India. You have really succeeded. Now look at Mr A, the son of an army officer, say a Colonel/Brigadier, he,also, joined IAS and he too retired as secretary to government of India. He was also successful but degree of his success was neglegible as compared to yours. It means the success in life has to be defined, keeping in mind the adversities neutralised by you. Lal Bahadur Shastri’s achievement was much more than Jawahar lal Nehru. But both were successful. Therefore, what is the third angle? It is LUCK. Sometimes, despite all your efforts and talents it runs against you.  The element of luck too plays an important role in getting you the success.

The Debate?    The operative words of the debate were, “what matters” and “ Success in life”. In other words, the requirement was to define “success in life” and not “success” alone. Similarly, under ‘what matters’, the role of ‘Talent’, ‘Net-working’ and ‘Luck’ was to be discussed. Most participants did it but in a somewhat haphazard manner.  Actually, most of us do not get into the nitty gritty of the question. As an instructor in a premier institute, I had observed while correcting answer books of the students, that most students, who were very well-prepared, went about displaying their knowledge, rather than answering the questions straight. They invarably got less marks. It is very important to understand the operative words of the question.

Over All Impressions

It was a wonderful experience to gain knowledge from such well read and highly qualified people. I must say each one desrved to win. Reading them I have gained tremendously. All of them are real gems of SULEKHA. I hope TEAM SULEKHA realises their merit and give them their desrved place of honour in its various forums. I wish to thank each one and say you were really remarkable and you helped me start a feature which shall. Hopefully become a regular feature.

The Results

I know it is the most awaited part. But let me say All 12 ENTRIES WERE WINNERS. In order to let the show go on I have to declare the judges and the host of the next show. I am awaiting for the points given by Other two judges, namely, Sh. Yash Chhabra and Sh Kamalji . I will compile it announce the winners in PART-TWO of the RESULTS. It will be announced on 16^th May 2008.