Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

Academically how rich you are? Dropped out or not enough to be excited? If yes, so what! Still you have the potential to be something significant … something influential, like:

Benjamin Franklin: One of the founders of The United States of America; co-author and co-signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. You name it, what he wasn’t: polymath, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, soldier, and diplomat.

Thomas Edison: Inventor, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the electric light bulb.

Valentina Terescova: Cosmonaut; first woman in space to orbit the earth.

William Faulkner: One of the most influential writers of the 20th century; won one Nobel Prize and two Pulitzer Prizes.

Agatha Christie: Best-selling female author of all time; the most translated individual author in the history.

Mary Lyon: Women’s education pioneer; founder of Mount Holyoke College (America’s first women’s college)

Helen Gurley Brown: Editor-in-chief of the Cosmopolitan magazine; the highest paid copywriter in 60s.

Frederick Henry Royce: Co-founder-designer of the “Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Company.”

Florence Nightingale: Modern nursing pioneer, nicknamed as “The Lady with the Lamp.”

Gene Autry: Singer-songwriter; the first “singing cowboy”; wrote and co-wrote over 200 songs, including “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Only person to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Marcus Loew: Early Hollywood pioneer; founder of the “Loews” movie- theater chain and co-founder of “MGM” studios.

Simon Cowell: The richest TV personality after Oprah, the creator of Pop Idol, The X Factor, and Britain’s Got Talent.

Aretha Franklin: 20 times Grammy winning singer-pianist; the first woman artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rod Laver: The only tennis player to have twice won all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year; tennis’s first millionaire.

Mildred Zaharias: Women’s sports pioneer; won 6 Gold medals and broke 4 world records at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic.

So when people look at your academic qualification and say, “Isn’t your education a draw-back for your success?” Let them know, success isn’t limited without formal education, success is limited without vision. What’s your vision?

There are two ways we can tag failure in our life. First: “I’m a failure!” Second: “I failed at something!”

When we say, “I am a failure,” it indicates: “I’m the reason of this … it’s all because of me.” But when we say, “I failed at something,” it indicates: “It’s not me … it’s my action that fails. It’s not me!”

We all have failed many times although we mayn’t remember. We fell down the first time we tried to walk or ride a bi-cycle. We almost drowned when the first time we tried to swim, didn’t you?

Just think, did you hit a sixer the first time you swung the cricket bat? Forget about yourself, think about the following cricket greats.

Sachin Tendulkar, the one who has scored the maximum number of centuries and the highest run getter in one-day-international, has failed to score his maiden ODI century for the first five years of his career. It was his 79th one-day-international when he finally succeed to score his maiden ODI ton.

Saeed Anwer, the highest individual scorer in the one-day-international (194), couldn’t open his score sheet and was out for duck in the first four innings of his test career.

Mathew Hayden, the second highest individual scorer in the test cricket, was ousted from the selection of under-21 Australian cricket team and in the first five years of his career, got the chance to play only seven test matches.

Sanat Jayasuyra, the only cricketer to score over 12,000 ODI runs after Tendulkar, in the first 80 matches of his career, had the batting average just below eight.

Sourav Ganguly, the third highest run getter in the one-day-international and the most successful Indian captain, was dropped from the team after playing his first ODI. After four long years of waiting, he was selected again and got the change to play his second One Day International.

Naah, we are not failure; we failed at something. So don’t worry about the failure. Worry about the chances you miss, when you don’t even try. Remember, there is only one angle; everyone should look through—that’s TRYangle.

So tenderly your story is
Nothing more than what you see
Or what you’ve done or will become
Standing strong do you belong
In your skin; just wondering
~ Clint Eastwood (Jamie Cullum)

If it would become possible to buy any dream you wanted, would you try to buy? If yes, then why you never worked to achieve it?

Okay, I’m giving you the answer.

You force yourself not to go for your dream because you know—life is never easy for those who dream. It’ll knock you down; push you back and make you the reason to be laughed for.

Then your inner-voice whispers to you, “Better, don’t try.”

THE ATTITUDE

You know dear, there is a formula:

C + R = O

(CHALLENGE + RESPONSE = OUTCOME)

You can blame the challenge (C) for the lack of your outcome (O). But by simply changing your response (R) to the challenges (C), you can change the outcome (O).

You can’t change the fact that you have to face obstacle and the success rule will act in a certain way. The only thing you can do is to play your part with the right attitude.

As you have dreams you have to face challenges. There is no other way.

FACING THE CHALLENGES

In Chinese, the word “crisis” stands for “weiji” which often has been said to be composed of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.” That’s why in the Chinese culture, a crisis is regarded not merely as a danger but also as an opportunity.

If in your success there is no challenge, it’s a fair bet; your success isn’t big enough to be proud for. Yes, the challenges enrich the tale we call success.

Actually if you think deeply, you’ll find that the troubles are the price we pay for our success. Each and every trouble makes us more confident … more passionate. Because then only we want to achieve more, as revenge—to show that we can!

WINNERS TAKE IT ALL

Do you know the basic difference between an ordinary people and a winner? The winner takes everything as challenge, while ordinary people take everything either as a blessing or a curse. So what happens to you, it can be a curse but it’s your responsibility to make it a blessing!

Because, people never become winners by winning; they win as they are winners.

We always have to accept some defeats— it’s the biggest truth of our life. No one can avoid them. And it’s always better to lose some of the battles in the struggle of our dreams than to be defeated without knowing what we’re fighting for.

THE DESTINATION: SUCCESS

It’s true that we all have our own destiny, but the importance is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads us.

If you have the attitude to win, you have achieved half of your success; if you don’t, you have achieved half of your failure.

Remember, no one can defeat you unless you first defeat yourself.

Picture this!! You are just eight and only for 20 dollars, you are singing in local clubs because there is often a shortage of food and money in your household. Yes, it is when you are just eight.

When you reach the age 13, your family has lost their home and for the shelter, you are spending your nights under the tress with your mother and other siblings. Added to your trauma, before you reach 20, you find that you have lost your parents. Then to take care of your siblings, you start working as a sales-girl in McDonald’s.

Now tell me, from there, how far you can visualize yourself – how far? You know the answer. But Shania Twain, from there, raised herself to the Grammy winning singer-songwriter.

It’s the same Shania whose third album, Come On Over, became the biggest-selling album of all time by a female musician. She is also the only female musician to have three albums certified Diamond by the RIAA. Not bad for a girl, who once hunted and chopped wood for survival.

Now ask yourself, how tough are your challenges?

Nothing want to go my way–
Yeah, it just ain’t been my day
Nothin’s comin’ easily
Up–up–up–
Can only go “UP” from here
~ Up (Shania Twain)