Source : Google photo of Lawrence of Arabia
Synopsis : The destiny awaits everyone but some people make their own destiny by their audacious efforts and strong will power. For such people, destiny is not engraved in stone who take matters in their own hands and decide to shape the future. The blogs looks at what it takes to change the destiny and come out a winner.
We often hear this word that means people are born to fulfill their destiny whatever that may be while others do not believe in the word and say that strong people make their own destiny. So here is the wisdom in a nutshell. It means that the strong people make their own destiny while the weak people succumb to it.
It reminds me of the character of Lawrence of Arabia in the movie where he crossed the Nefud desert to get to Aqaba when everyone thought it was impossible. By declaring that nothing was impossible if one is determined, he earned the respect of the Bedouins who admitted that Lawrence was right . Some people make their own destiny by their sheer will power. Lawrence through his sheer will power and his ability to surmount all difficulties made a powerful fighting force out of rag tag Bedouins of the desert and took on the mighty Turks whom he defeated and changed the destiny of the Arabian people forever.
But Lawrence was a strongly motivated and willful person who never took no for an answer and influenced those around him with his power of persuasion and leadership so he was able to change the political dimensions of the Middle East and its destiny forever. Without defeating the Turks, the Saudi Arabia as it exists now would not have come into existence and prosper the way it has so yes. Lawrence changed the destiny.
If we study the character of strong persons , we notice that they develop the strong personality from their childhood and are influenced by the way they were brought up by their strong parents who helped develop their character and personality but it can also be said that some people have to face great challenges in their life when they find their great inner strength to overcome them. I have written a blog called The determination that you may like to read in this context here.
I like to think of destiny in a positive way in life and not in a destructive way the way Adolf Hitler decided it for his country. Strong and willful people have led their countries into freedom, prosperity and development like Deng Xiaoping or Lee Kuan Yew while others like Hitler and Tojo brought only disaster and ruin to theirs. The reasons behind Hitler’s rise to power and its Nazi party and why he led Germany into war is well explained in his book Mein Kampf that I have read and understand him but he learned nothing from Napoleon and attacked Russia that led to his doom.
Kemal Atatürk brought his country out of the doldrums into the modern world while the present day dictators of ISIS and various terrorist groups only bring death and systematic destruction in many countries where people only want peace and prosperity for everyone. If we learn anything from history, it is that great leaders of positive thinking bring peace and prosperity to their people while the demonic dictators write their own destiny that ends up very badly for them like Hitler, Mussolini, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Tojo and lately Baghdadi among many others.
So the destiny of a country often depends on what kind of leadership it produces and in what direction their leaders take them. There are many failed states like Somalia where their leadership has failed them although given half a chance they too could have overcome their poverty and famine to prosper so we see the future of a people is often tied to a single person who can either take his people in the right or the wrong direction changing their destiny forever. A potentially rich country like Zimbabwe was brought to its knees by a ruthless dictator who wasted millions in taxpayers money on his own frivolous perks while the people waited in long lines for a loaf of bread.
Today I would like to focus more on you and me and see how we can influence our own destiny in our own way because destiny is the end result of a series of decisions you make in your life.
Some people who are born in rich families get all the opportunities they can imagine to succeed in life and inherit great fortunes , companies or enterprises their parents leave behind them to run so they get the education and training required to run it. But they are very few in numbers and are called very privileged people. They step into their father’s shoes easily and expand the business because they are better educated and trained to do so. In other words they get used to the destiny that awaits them.
But it is not a guarantee that they succeed as their parents because the success depends on sound management of the assets they inherit with a clear vision for the future expansion in which many fail spectacularly
One example comes to mind here that I will mention. There was a great industrialist who set up the brewery business in India before the independence that did very well so when his son inherited the business later, he expanded the business rapidly through investment and diversified into textile, chemicals and many other business so initially was successful in all he did. But in the process, he became very greedy and started an airline business for which he took very heavy bank loans to the tune of millions of dollars.
He started living a flamboyant life style that included race horses, formula one motor racing and started buying sports teams. He gave lavish parties and bought expensive villas and properties in India and abroad using the borrowed money that was supposed to be for his airlines so his airline failed and he quickly ran out of money to pay the airline staff. Eventually his airline was dissolved and his other businesses started failing so he ran away to England to avoid his creditor banks.
His houses and other properties were seized by the government and many bank executives were arrested because they were involved in massive bank frauds and the arrest warrant was issued for this businessman who is still fighting his extradition to India case in the British courts. His destiny now looks like a jail cell because he chose to gamble with borrowed money that landed him in trouble although he had started out on very solid footing early in his life.
So some people even with their good education ,training and great inheritance fail to rise above their personal greed and lack of morality, character and integrity. Their actions lead them to self destruction while letting down those who depend on him. There are many such cases where people suddenly become very rich but their whole life is based on crime, fraud and villainy that lead them to long jail terms.
But the average person is not a villain. He wants to get a good education and a good employment so that he can live a decent life raising a family somewhere just like most people but they never become Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They do not invent anything and do not make headlines. They live an ordinary life and die an ordinary death in old age.
By destiny I mean a spectacular and audacious destiny but that requires spectacular effort to surmount the challenges of life and succeed. Some people never get discouraged by failures and they never give up trying. They are adventurous and are not afraid of the unknown so they take risks and find it exciting. Such people make their own destiny.
Source : Google photo of Narendra Modi , Prime minister of India
When an ordinary person born in a very poor family gets a good education by trying hard and by sheer tenacity and hard work becomes the Prime Minister of the World’s largest democracy , he makes his own destiny. Such is the case of Mr. Narendra Modi who is now acclaimed as the world leader whom many countries have given their highest awards. There are many such stories of people like Mr.Modi.
While it is true that strong willed people with positive thinking, hard work and diligence who overcome their challenges succeed in achieving their goals in life, to say that they are self made is like stretching the truth a bit. I believe that no one really is self made because everyone needs someone to help him at a certain stage of his life. Such people are called mentors who will help you by guiding you in the right direction when you are young and need guidance. The best mentors are often the parents but there are many others who may take an interest in you because you show the promise of becoming someone important later in your life.
I believe that to succeed in life in an audacious way, you must have the audacity to begin with and have a grand plan to make it happen, work hard on the plan you make and be always ready to accept challenges and overcome them. Barack Obama is such a person. You must also have the opportunity that may come your way perhaps only once and have the wisdom to see the potential it offers, grab it with your two hands and move forward.
If I take the case of Lawrence , we see that he was an extremely intelligent and talented army officer who spoke Arabic fluently and could read and write it as well as any Arab but he was wasting his time doing clerical work in the army head office in Cairo where no one knew what he could achieve given the opportunity. His commanding officer did not like him and thought of him as a good for nothing officer but Lawrence had a mentor who saw the great potential in him and gave him the opportunity to prove himself.
Lawrence grabbed the opportunity and never looked back. He became a legend in the annals of history of Arabia and went on to fight along with General Allenby who saw and recognized the talent of Lawrence after his victory in Aqaba against all odds.
So everyone needs a mentor at a certain point in his life just like Lawrence who showed him the way to prove his worth. A talented and strong willed person is like a rough diamond that needs cutting and polishing to shine to prove its worth. What Lawrence did to shape the destiny of Arabia was nothing short of audacious. He took great risks to fight the Turks but succeeded using meticulous planning, military strategy and cunning and he asked no one to do a job that he could not do himself.
So to make your own destiny, you must have some qualities that others do not have. It means you are a very determined person in a positive way and will work hard to reach your goals in life. It means you have some extraordinary talent in convincing others that you deserve better and can be depended on to make an impossible task possible. It means that you have dedication, strong moral personality , integrity and accept failures but are not deterred by it. It means that you have the tenacity and will not let go an opportunity to shine. It means you have extraordinary oratory skills that can connect you to the millions who come to listen to you and be inspired. Such a person can become a Lawrence of Arabia or Narendra Modi some day. Are you audacious?
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