Success mantras to live by
A bit predictably, most of the achievers that I would like to mention as having a story to share or a success mantra to guide you with, are young people who have something to do with the internet, in the online space, part of Digital India. That’s where most of the stuff seems to be happening and we are in danger of overkill. But that may just be my old age talking, because honestly, many of the stories are inspiring to say the very least, and have been shared with great generosity.
Yet the hallmark of great success stories is always measured by how replicable they are. And here, one quality seems to stand out — a passionate imagination which enables you to SEE your success long before anyone has the faintest inkling of what you are trying to achieve.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”Shradha Sharma” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]
“Don’t expect someone else to make the magic happen for you, go and make your own fertile land in 2016.”[/pullquote]
I’m sure you have come across a website called yourstory.com. Set up around seven years ago by Shradha Sharma, it carries original as well as curated content from other sites, and to all intents, is doing a super job. 2015 was in Shradha’s own words, “An unprecedented year for yourstory.com. We raised Series A funding after seven years of existence, we’ve written 23,000 original stories, we are now in twelve Indian languages, we’ve expanded to become a 65-member rock solid team, we’ve started working on new products, many new brands, government bodies, etc. That’s a lot of milestones for a single year. At one level, it felt that finally all my mad running of so many years was showing some results.”
Shockingly, at another level, she found herself experiencing a deep sense of pain and loneliness as she struggled to cope with the ugly side of the seemingly glamorous start-up world which so worships youth and success.
And so in December, she found herself stepping back from decisions and people and the overall work situation, following the advice of a psychiatrist who said that even fertile land needs to lie fallow for a time, to rest, heal and recover. Which she seems to have done, if the article she wrote on her return is any indication. And she has this mantra to share: “Don’t expect someone else to make the magic happen for you, go and make your own fertile land in 2016.”
“Life in itself is quite meaningless, an empty vessel. It is we who bring meaning to it… with our thoughts, our dreams, our hopes, beliefs and endeavours.”[/pullquote]
A bit like Shradha, Swati Chauhan also has the internet to thank for her success. A London-based computer engineer and management graduate, she is also a mother of a small child. By her own admission, she wanted to set the world on fire, bring about change, make an impact, but nappies and formula and all the things that go to make up very small worlds got in the way. So she decided not to wait anyway and set up theerurekalife.com. Her early blogs are dated May 2013 and what she has achieved since then is admirable.
She writes on relationships, trends, children, parenting and related subjects and so far, she has racked up an enviable number of recognitions and awards, from Huffington Post to Revlon, and was chosen by Circle of Moms as placing among the Top 25 European Moms in 2013.
What did she do that was different from most of us who have dreams, hopes, ambitions and then do nothing about it? She did not wait; she just went out and did.
Writing in 7 Top Habits Of High Achievers, Swati says, “…does life have any meaning at all? I would say NO! Life in itself is quite meaningless, an empty vessel. It is we who bring meaning to it… with our thoughts, our dreams, our hopes, beliefs and endeavours. We keep asking the question when we are the answer itself. So the discovery of life is actually a discovery of your own self!” And she discovered that writing about what she knew best, life through the eyes of a mother seemingly on the sidelines, could be the ‘great idea’ she was looking for. And through her blogs, she has been able to impart another truth she bases her life upon — that “the habits practised by (achievers) over and over again so much so that they become intertwined with their personality” are what separates them from the mediocre, the ordinary and the also rans.
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Carol Andrade is a journalist and a former Chief Editor of The Afternoon daily. She is the Dean of St Pauls Institute of Communication Education, Mumbai.
