Few days back, while visiting a local shopping mall with some friends, I found a big hoarding which said, “ Boost your confidence, get success”. There were a few people sitting on wooden chairs with a long desk infront and covered with a white sheet, just under the hoarding. I enquired and found them to be graphologists who claimed that they could help you “boost your confidence and achieve success in life” just by studying your handwriting. It was something new for me. I belonging to the rare species of those Indians for whom their career comes before that of Sachin Tendulkar, found it extremely intriguing. So, without wasting any time, I wrote a piece and handed it over to a lady sitting in the cult of graphologists. She started scrutinising it, making wierd faces as if I was doomed never to have success in my life and that nothing could be done about it. However, I waited patiently for her to finish and tell me my “success mantra”.
“You are a very hardworking person. You are very agile but you always live in the past and you.............”
To my disappointment, I realised that she was not telling me anything that I didn’t know about myself and hence, I told her so.
“Its very good that you know yourself and are accepting what you are. Most the people in this world don’t know themselves and that is the sole reason for their failure in life. Let alone their shortcomings there is a deluge of people who are not even aware of their strengths and capabilities”, she said.
“What non-sense”, I thought, “how can someone not know about himself ?” But surprisingly, I was wrong. No sooner had my thoughts ended than a friend of mine, having just got his handwriting analysis done, came to me and said that all this is rubbish because whatever the graphologist told him was not true.
“He said that I am very creative and that I am very.........”
“But that is what you are”.
“No, I am not”.
And then the world became still. The clock stopped ticking, the birds stopped chirping and the sun stopped setting. People became the magnum-opus of a sculptor. A state of complete tranquillity existed. But someone was still moving. It was the lady. She came to me and burst the balloon of silence.
“It is very easy to be successful in life. All you have to do is to know and accept what you are. You need to know your strengths and your weaknesses. You need to know your capabilities, for you can not shoot untill you know that you have a gun and you need to know your weaknesses, for even the mighty Troy would have fallen had Achilies been aware of his weak heels. Always remember that there is a substitute for every weakness like hardwork for dull mind, technique for the lack of physical strength etc. But the bitter truth is that people are not aware of both and even if they are aware, they live in denial never wanting to accept the facts.”
“But where does confidence come into picture?”
“All these facts about strengths and capabilities and weaknesses are like streams which are the source of water for a large lake- confidence. Once you know that you have mastered your strengths and that you have covered all your weaknesses, you get the feeling of being omnipotent. This is confidence. Confidence is the elixir of success. Once you have it, even the most formidable adversaries will kiss your feet. So, all one has to do is to make his strength his spear and shield his weakness with an armour and jump into the battleground. This is the mantra of success for everyone”
