What is YOUR story?

Dearest Darling Friends,

Did you realise, through learning you can become anything….ANYTHING!!! Did this ever occur to you? It did to me and changed my life…

In the boxing ring the boxer has a weakness. The opponent exploits that weakness. The coach eliminates that weakness. Both learnt about the weakness. One became the saviour. The other – the destroyer. Through learning , I can become anything – The witness, the coach, the critic, the improved performer, the destroyer…ANYTHING!

What I become, is my ‘RESPONSIBILITY’. That is my STORY.

One darling student of mine, Neha is in London, studying early child education. I was concerned about her health and mailed her to ‘stay in charge’. She replied….”Naren, trust me. My work has taken me far beyond everything else in the universe.. It’s so interesting that no force can come and disturb it. Focus, is just a small word now…”

I was blown away. FOCUS is just a small word now. Ahaaa….! As I read it, the smile of the century was pasted on my face.A few years ago, this young lady will not step out of her home alone, easily. Today she is ready to be a rock of Gibraltar.

How did this happen? Learning ! Her learnings created her STORY.

My father is never going to respect me or my mother, cried one of my students Rajesh. To drown his sorrows he turned to hard drinks. Today at the age of 33, Rajesh is a total addict needing to consume half a bottle of liquor every evening. Without this, he claims, he cannot survive. He LEARNT his father does not care for him. Blaming his father, he went on to create his own downfall. Last I heard, his kidneys have failed. He has lost 28 kgs in six month. He now looks like a skeleton.

I also know of a Ravi Varma. His father had an extra-marital affair. His mother, his younger brother and he, were dumped by his father when Ravi was 16 years old. They were made to stay in the outhouse of a bungalow while the ‘other’ woman and his father stayed in the bungalow. He LEARNT the three of them – he, his mother and his younger brother were unwanted. In other words, he too LEARNT, his father does not care for them.

He left Punjab his home state, worked harder than anyone he knew, moved first to Agra, from there to Mumbai, from there to Pune. He was always looking for better opportunities and never hesitated from grabbing one as it emerged. Within about fifteen years of committed hard work, his net worth was a few crores. His father lived the last few years of his life with Ravi and begged for forgiveness almost every day.

Both LEARNT that their father did not care for them. Rajesh destroyed himself, Ravi created himself. Their learnings created their STORY. One wanted to escape and failed. The other wanted to explore and soared.

Life’s responsibility is to give us lessons. Our responsibility is to learn. While life gives us lessons, what we become, is our STORY.

When Praveen LEARNT his right hand man is opening a shop right next to his, he was shattered. Day and night he kept on asking why his right hand had to do this to him. Had he not taken good care of him? Had he not helped him every time he needed? Praveen felt his goodness had been exploited. He promised to himself he will never be good again to anyone as good people are not respected but humiliated. His joy and laughter left him. He became a machine. Every time a customer would go to his ex-right hand man’s shop, Praveen’s blood pressure would shoot up and his mood would be spoilt. He became very negative and harsh with his remaining employees. His business was going downhill every day.

When Rahul LEARNT his right hand man has left the factory taking away 80% of his existing marketing team and joined hands with the competitor, he was shocked. This was totally unexpected. Their main summer season was about to begin. They had made plans to expand to Gujarat this season. All this will be impossible now. His right hand knew all their strategies and plans. He was feeling down and out. He felt his business was doomed.

In that moment, a thought occurred to him. This is the time to show your mettle and courage. When things are going great guns, you start believing you are the reason. When things go wrong AND you put them back on track, then you are ‘truly’ the reason. Time to show to yourself, you are the REASON for your till-now flourishing organization.

Rahul wrote to me, “Naren, you told me a great businessman always has fire in his belly. Right now, I have a VOLCANO in my belly. I will make you very proud of me. This summer our results will be better than ever before.”

In fifteen days flat, he recreated the team. When they saw his courage and undeterred appetite to recreate, more than half the team that left him expressed regret, requested forgiveness and are back with him.

Both Praveen and Rahul LEARNT their right hand men have left work and become their competitor. While Praveen decided to feel helpless and back stabbed, Rahul faced it with courage. Both were given a lesson. Both wrote their own STORY.

My dear readers, what’s your STORY? Does your story match with Neha, Ravi, Rahul? Or does it resemble Rajesh, Praveen? We sincerely pray your STORY inspires.

Life would have bestowed you with lessons. You would have LEARNT. Would you like to share your STORY with us? Especially if your life story can inspire, we would love to receive a mail from you. Do mail it to us at naren@lifeschool.co.in
Waiting to get inspired….

With loads of love, prayers and best wishes,

Narendra Goidani

As I Live…I Learn