This is a true story.
Sometime back a company headed by a friend of mine was adjudged as the best among their industry and was declared the winner of a prestigious national award presented annually.
I sent him a congratulatory message wishing him greater accomplishments in the future for his company, while also telling him that I have always admired the simple and humble ways that he has maintained throughout the long years I had known him. He replied and thanked me. He said that their achievement was a collective effort, results brought in by every one in his team and that the 'simple ways' had been instilled in him from the days he was a schoolboy.
He recollected the good old days when his Principal, clad in an immaculate white suit walking and doing his morning rounds in the college, stopping to pick a speck of dirt wherever he saw one, amply demonstrating what a simple character he was. And in these two sentiments I think, lies a lesson for many of us. There is hardly anything in this world that you can achieve all by yourself, and it always pays to be a simple and humble person however high your self esteem is, having reached a high status in life.
Be it a great sales performance in your company, a launch of a new product that will capture half the world's attention, a grand slam victory in a sporting event or even a world class performance at an examination which brings you and your country great honour, the chances are almost all such achievements are a result of a team of individuals.
So if that is the case why should we be proud and arrogant about any of our achievements? Shouldn't we remember that behind the successes that we achieve today, are a countless number of people who have helped us all along our lives and paved the way for us to be where we are today in life.
Our parents who have instilled the inherent good qualities, our teachers who guided us to identify the good from the bad in addition to all the academic lessons they enriched us with, our brothers and sisters who were our first team players, our office colleagues who help us put things together in many difficult instances, our subordinates who carry out the tasks entrusted to them, this list can go on and on based on different circumstances.
It will make you feel so good if you can take a moment to think about and be thankful in your heart to all those people who have been guiding lights in your life at those glorious moments when you scale the heights of greatness.
And that sense of gratitude for others in your heart is bound to give you great happiness while making you an admirable person with richer relationships in any society and also helping you achieve continued success.
Try and see whether it works. I am sure it will.
(The person referred to is the MD/CEO of a leading Engineering and Construction Company in what one may call a very unique sector in Sri Lanka) |
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