Success – Is It Talent, Sweat, Luck Or Destiny!

Pullela Gopichand, India’s chief badminton coach, got into playing badminton not by choice but by accident. In a podcast with Smita Prakash of ANI he said, when they moved to Hyderabad during his schooling days his mother tried to enroll him at a local cricket academy but admissions were full.  So, she considered lawn tennis but seeing the number of cars parked outside the coaching club she felt it was a rich man’s game and expensive. Then she found a badminton coaching academy, where admissions were easily available and it was not expensive. The rest is history. Gopichand was the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the All England Open Badminton Championship in 2001

Even in his wildest dreams N Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, would have never thought of becoming the Chairman of Tata Group. He was neither a Parsi nor part of the IVY League.  He studied in a Tamil medium government school, graduated in Applied Science from Coimbatore Institute of Technology and did his Masters in Computer Applications from the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu in 1986. A year later, in 1987, he joined TCS. Months before MD & CEO S Ramadorai was to retire from TCS, Chandra’s name was doing rounds as his successor. Ratan Tata was also talking to the likes of Keki Dadiseth (Hindustan Lever), Arun Sarin (Vodafone) and Indra Nooyi (Pepsi) but finally, Chandra was the chosen one in 2009. As a CEO, he did a great job at TCS. In 2017, when the battle between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry took an ugly turn Chandra was appointed Chairman of the Tata Group. He has done a brilliant job steering the group from strength to strength. Little wonder he has got an extension till 2032. 

Again, Dr Manmohan Singh must have never ever dreamt of becoming a Prime Minister. For somebody who was not a seasoned politician but serious academician and career bureaucrat he was India’s PM for two full terms, 10 years. Dr Singh became an accidental PM because Sonia Gandhi who was all set to take over the reins decided against it at the last moment.

So, to what do you attribute the success stories of Dr Manmohan Singh, N Chandrasekaran, Pullela Gopichand to? Pure destiny or talent, hard work or luck!

Definitely, it cannot be attributed to one factor. But, the general tendency of people is to use the word “lucky”.

Let me elaborate on the word “luck”. While working at CNBC TV18 I was anchoring a show -- Making It Big – which ran for eight seasons. The series chronicled the success stories of 100 Indian entrepreneurs who despite all odds made it big in their world of business.

While my questions varied from entrepreneur to entrepreneur there was one common question, I asked all the entrepreneurs and it was: “Do you believe in luck?” And you would be surprised it was not an emphatic “yes” or “no”.

I have listed below some of their reactions. They are:

Luck Comes To People Who Are Tireless

There Is Nothing Like Luck

Harder You Work, Luckier You Become

Luck Is The Weapon Of A Weak Man

When You Are Not Successful You Blame It On Luck

Luck Is Not The Key To Success. It Combines With The Variety Of Factors To Make You Successful

Maybe lady luck ensures you are at the right place at the right time. But the truth is, successful people work harder than an average person. The living example in India is that of our prime minister Narendra Modi who works for 18-19 hours a day, 24 X7 which is around 130 hours per week. A chaiwala has shown that anything is possible.

Yes, luck, hard work needs to be complemented with extraordinary talent for you to go places. A petrol attendant in Aden (Dhirubhai Ambani), a bus conductor (Rajnikanth), and a ticket collector (MS Dhoni) could not have become a legend in their own lifetime without talent and hard work.  One common trait they all had was -- passion in whatever they did. I recall Qimat Rai Gupta who founded Havells, defining an overnight success story as 25 years of hard work.

Sure, people like Pullela Gopichand, Dr Manmohan Singh and N Chandrasekaran were destiny’s children but the truth is they did not sit on their haunches. They worked hard, worked smart, worked long. And like the epic hero Arjuna were laser-focussed. And that's what differentiates men from the boys.