So, winners can be losers and losers can be winners. It all is a matter of attitude. As illustrated earlier, we all start as losers, but one is adjudged a winner. You may be the defending champion, so what! This is a new competition, a new arena, new rules, and hence new challenges. It is important for that person to get back to the original loser state and be hungry to prove themselves to the world again.
The biggest hurdle in this is perhaps the media hype that surrounds the so called winners. The media does it to dish out some so called interesting stuff for the couch potatoes, but this hype gets to the head of the champion and they already start behaving like winners, thus entering a state of over confidence and complacency.
Just take a look at most of the world championships (team sport or individual sport) and look at the upsets / surprises that you get. Most of the times the defending champions (winners) tend to be bitten or beaten by some underdog. Some stage a come back (our club of losers), while some stage shows (the so called illusionary winners). Sports, Entertainment, Politics and Religion -- there are examples you can narrate.
Taking a cue out of this, we are engulfed by Reality shows as couch potatoes and live it by the moment. Reality shows are churning `winners’ by the hour and they fade into oblivion in minutes, because the decision about their talent is made in seconds. Impulsiveness can never judge class (stuff) – for class (substance) is permanent.
The important lesson is to not get carried away and to keep persisting – yes we all want to win, but don’t get into the state of being winners – Proud to be a LOSER!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Discovered Model Role Model Loser
Two Models that fit the bill in the Chronicles of a Loser -- Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra, both losers in the competition they entered – Femina Miss India, and went on the win the Miss World titles. Both tried their hand at films – firstly the Tamil, and then the Hindi and tasted some success, but managed to stay in the limelight. They provide the impression of being winners.
Look at the two people who won in their times Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta respectively. Now get into comparing on career graphs, or popularity charts and you may want to debate as to who is the real loser.
This Winner Loser taxonomy is getting more and more complicated. Just to clarify our viewpoint – winners are complacent people; and losers are persistent in their efforts.
In life, we all start as losers, one wins. The others are consoled with a better luck next time. Some give up, some resolve to succeed. If the winner gives up (complacency) and gets over confident of repeating their feat, they end up being a loser.
Then it is like a game of snakes and ladders. There is the ladder at 21 that takes you to 82, but there is a snake at 93 that brings you to 39. Most of us get elated when we get the ladder at 21 and sometimes overturn the board when we hit the 93 syndrome. Our worry is that the opponent will win, we do not muster courage to claw back.
Our Model Role Models have had good ladders (successes), but also been bitten by snakes (setbacks), but persisted to taste periodic success to emerge as good examples.
Look at the two people who won in their times Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta respectively. Now get into comparing on career graphs, or popularity charts and you may want to debate as to who is the real loser.
This Winner Loser taxonomy is getting more and more complicated. Just to clarify our viewpoint – winners are complacent people; and losers are persistent in their efforts.
In life, we all start as losers, one wins. The others are consoled with a better luck next time. Some give up, some resolve to succeed. If the winner gives up (complacency) and gets over confident of repeating their feat, they end up being a loser.
Then it is like a game of snakes and ladders. There is the ladder at 21 that takes you to 82, but there is a snake at 93 that brings you to 39. Most of us get elated when we get the ladder at 21 and sometimes overturn the board when we hit the 93 syndrome. Our worry is that the opponent will win, we do not muster courage to claw back.
Our Model Role Models have had good ladders (successes), but also been bitten by snakes (setbacks), but persisted to taste periodic success to emerge as good examples.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Does History, Legacy and Glory make you a Winner of Loser?
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it! But those who remember history and only bask in that glory saying it is legacy, become history themselves (in a negative way).
Say Hockey and any Indian will be proud to flaunt “Dhyan Chand”, but that was 1936, where is Indian hockey today? Football – and Brazilians will flaunt Pele and half a dozen other names.
Come a world Championship or Olympics – and the truth comes out periodically giving these nations a reality check. “We are still supreme and will win it the next time, don’t worry, we are skilled and the world has still not caught on to us.” Both these nations have had sketchy victories for whenever they have basked in the past glory, they have had to justify their existence on the past glory itself and describe the current loss as a skirmish. They remain in a world of illusion of being winners, instead of accepting that they are losers.
Look at the conversations around you, and you will see a language of justification. Instead of learning to try harder to succeed, and regain what has been lost, we like to behave like winners. We simply refuse to accept the state we are in and instead try to justify ourselves as winners.
Remember one famous line “Forget the past, and don’t worry about the future, concentrate on the present and you will succeed in everything.” They call this `The Power of Now’
No wonder the individuals and companies that follow the above principles have the right recipe for success, and those who don’t make it say “The Grapes are Sour!”, because they lost the art of focus.
Winners Continue, Losers Beware!
Say Hockey and any Indian will be proud to flaunt “Dhyan Chand”, but that was 1936, where is Indian hockey today? Football – and Brazilians will flaunt Pele and half a dozen other names.
Come a world Championship or Olympics – and the truth comes out periodically giving these nations a reality check. “We are still supreme and will win it the next time, don’t worry, we are skilled and the world has still not caught on to us.” Both these nations have had sketchy victories for whenever they have basked in the past glory, they have had to justify their existence on the past glory itself and describe the current loss as a skirmish. They remain in a world of illusion of being winners, instead of accepting that they are losers.
Look at the conversations around you, and you will see a language of justification. Instead of learning to try harder to succeed, and regain what has been lost, we like to behave like winners. We simply refuse to accept the state we are in and instead try to justify ourselves as winners.
Remember one famous line “Forget the past, and don’t worry about the future, concentrate on the present and you will succeed in everything.” They call this `The Power of Now’
No wonder the individuals and companies that follow the above principles have the right recipe for success, and those who don’t make it say “The Grapes are Sour!”, because they lost the art of focus.
Winners Continue, Losers Beware!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Prism Prism on the Wall - Pinpoint my detractors and enemies
A mirror reflects, and what you see in that is an image, but we love to stand in front of a mirror and form a judgement about how others will want to perceive us. We think that is life and get into managing our lives accordingly. Wish life was that simple.
The truth of the matter is that life is like a prism. That triangular object, that transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. A prism can break white light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow).
The deeds that you do are like the while light that hits the prism (society). Now what the society thinks is given out as a spectrum because there is multitude of opinions. We tend to like a certain band of colour that suits us, and not look at the entire spectrum.
Some colours in isolation are good, but the colours in combination are balance. Like, we tend to think we are right all the time, and detest the negative feedback, thus becoming selective in our hearing of convenient opinions.
We get into a manipulation of cocooning ourselves in a make believe world of convenience and comfort. When confronted with reality, we like to blame the system, the society and everything around us. If we are blamed, then shift the blame conveniently or start searching for scape goats, thus getting into a segment of selective colours we desire.
Remember when you point a finer at someone, three fingers point towards you!
The truth of the matter is that life is like a prism. That triangular object, that transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. A prism can break white light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow).
The deeds that you do are like the while light that hits the prism (society). Now what the society thinks is given out as a spectrum because there is multitude of opinions. We tend to like a certain band of colour that suits us, and not look at the entire spectrum.
Some colours in isolation are good, but the colours in combination are balance. Like, we tend to think we are right all the time, and detest the negative feedback, thus becoming selective in our hearing of convenient opinions.
We get into a manipulation of cocooning ourselves in a make believe world of convenience and comfort. When confronted with reality, we like to blame the system, the society and everything around us. If we are blamed, then shift the blame conveniently or start searching for scape goats, thus getting into a segment of selective colours we desire.
Remember when you point a finer at someone, three fingers point towards you!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Escape – “Ctrl-Alt-Del” - Reboot
… And they lived happily ever after! Is the biggest line that makes us happy, on having reached the logical end of a story. Rags to Riches, Struggle to Success; or Pain to Pleasure. We are all programmed with that escape clause. Once you move from one stage to another, this is portrayed as the ultimate destination, and not a new journey.
What happened to the seven goats in the story of Seven goats and the wolf, or to Little Red Riding Hood – what kind of girl did she grow up to be? What happened to the three little pigs – did they remain little all their lives? What happened to Jack in Jack and the beanstalk after he managed to kill the giant. In all these stories the rise is always towards the sky. No one will tell you how to sustain a state of success, but every one will tell you ways and means of achieving success from despair. Our movies are modelled that way, our conversations are modelled that way, our stories are modelled that way, and so are our modern day idols.
We are conditioned to think that life is a honey moon, and struggle, or challenges are just a temporary phenomenon. Once you taste success, you will succeed and only succeed. Those who think that are condemned to revisit history, and those who do not want to hope to press the ESC button in life or the Ctrl-Alt-Del button in their lives.
We all love to escape from reality or reboot life rather than confront it, or better still hope to hear …And they lived happily every after.
What happened to the seven goats in the story of Seven goats and the wolf, or to Little Red Riding Hood – what kind of girl did she grow up to be? What happened to the three little pigs – did they remain little all their lives? What happened to Jack in Jack and the beanstalk after he managed to kill the giant. In all these stories the rise is always towards the sky. No one will tell you how to sustain a state of success, but every one will tell you ways and means of achieving success from despair. Our movies are modelled that way, our conversations are modelled that way, our stories are modelled that way, and so are our modern day idols.
We are conditioned to think that life is a honey moon, and struggle, or challenges are just a temporary phenomenon. Once you taste success, you will succeed and only succeed. Those who think that are condemned to revisit history, and those who do not want to hope to press the ESC button in life or the Ctrl-Alt-Del button in their lives.
We all love to escape from reality or reboot life rather than confront it, or better still hope to hear …And they lived happily every after.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Relish Challenges – Achieve Goals
294 words
Despite many stellar achievements these personalities (my idols) seem to relish challenges – struggle, but achieve their goals.
Kapil Dev (Haryana Hurricane) and Mohinder (Jimmy) Amarnath, a person famous for the number of comebacks he staged literally scripted one of the greatest moment in the nations cricketing history. Fighting against all odds characterize their personality.
Gaekwad for one was the tipping point of the winning spirit of Indian cricket for as a coach, he gave the best results that any foreign coach could not. S.Venkataraghavan donned the role of Player, Coach, Manager, Selector, Umpire – show me another cricketer in the world who has done all that.
Jayprakash Narain –catalyzed the formation of India’s first alternative to the ruling party. The man who showed that after 25 years of demise of the Father of the Nation, the non violence methods still worked.
Affirmative Action –authored by V.P.Singh, was included as a part of sociology syllabus at Harvard in mid 90s. 1985 budget was the tipping point for the discerning middle class through, but he is remembered for Mandir and Mandal.
Cho Ramaswamy, Khushwant Singh and Arun Shourie are outright frank and hard hitting, be it the vitriol or satire. They faced enough obstacles from various quarters, but emerged as great icons.
Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl achieved greatness during their times, but the peak eluded both when it came to completing their Grand Slams.
T.N.Seshan and Kiran Bedi need special mention for their belligerence, sense of purpose and missionary zeal of doing their duty.
Zamanaa wahi badlata hai, jo zamane se takrane ko tayyar ho
Aur zamaana yaad bhi unki ko karta hai
People who dare to change the times, end up being victorious, and are remembered for their deeds and actions.
Despite many stellar achievements these personalities (my idols) seem to relish challenges – struggle, but achieve their goals.
Kapil Dev (Haryana Hurricane) and Mohinder (Jimmy) Amarnath, a person famous for the number of comebacks he staged literally scripted one of the greatest moment in the nations cricketing history. Fighting against all odds characterize their personality.
Gaekwad for one was the tipping point of the winning spirit of Indian cricket for as a coach, he gave the best results that any foreign coach could not. S.Venkataraghavan donned the role of Player, Coach, Manager, Selector, Umpire – show me another cricketer in the world who has done all that.
Jayprakash Narain –catalyzed the formation of India’s first alternative to the ruling party. The man who showed that after 25 years of demise of the Father of the Nation, the non violence methods still worked.
Affirmative Action –authored by V.P.Singh, was included as a part of sociology syllabus at Harvard in mid 90s. 1985 budget was the tipping point for the discerning middle class through, but he is remembered for Mandir and Mandal.
Cho Ramaswamy, Khushwant Singh and Arun Shourie are outright frank and hard hitting, be it the vitriol or satire. They faced enough obstacles from various quarters, but emerged as great icons.
Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl achieved greatness during their times, but the peak eluded both when it came to completing their Grand Slams.
T.N.Seshan and Kiran Bedi need special mention for their belligerence, sense of purpose and missionary zeal of doing their duty.
Zamanaa wahi badlata hai, jo zamane se takrane ko tayyar ho
Aur zamaana yaad bhi unki ko karta hai
People who dare to change the times, end up being victorious, and are remembered for their deeds and actions.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Your Idols – A Reflection of You
Idols they say shape a persons character. As an exercise, if you do try and write down your idols at various stages of life, you will get a pattern to your life too. Interestingly despite stellar achievements, my idols never got their due in their fields.
My first idol was S.Venkataraghavan, one from the famous spin quartered of the country, followed by Anshuman Gaekwad, Kapil Dev and Mohinder Amarnath. In tennis Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Ramesh Krishnan, Chris Evert Lloyd and Gabriela Sabatini were my idols.
In politics Jayprakash Narain and V.P.Singh, In journalism, Cho Ramaswamy, Khushwant Singh and Arun Shourie, In Corporate world Nusli Wadia, and amongst Bureaucrats Kiran Bedi and T.N.Seshan were also my idols.
These personalities have achieved immense greatness in their respective lives, but could have been greater (this is my view point). When people talk of the respective fields most of these names do not tend to be top of the mind.
There is a simple pattern in all these personalities -- “Out of Sight, Out of Mind!” But each of these personalities displayed the stellar qualities of grit, determination, perseverance, and patience. Their ability to bounce back is a lesson for all of us, and I am sure on the type of character you are, you too will be able to draw pattern from your idols.
My first idol was S.Venkataraghavan, one from the famous spin quartered of the country, followed by Anshuman Gaekwad, Kapil Dev and Mohinder Amarnath. In tennis Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Ramesh Krishnan, Chris Evert Lloyd and Gabriela Sabatini were my idols.
In politics Jayprakash Narain and V.P.Singh, In journalism, Cho Ramaswamy, Khushwant Singh and Arun Shourie, In Corporate world Nusli Wadia, and amongst Bureaucrats Kiran Bedi and T.N.Seshan were also my idols.
These personalities have achieved immense greatness in their respective lives, but could have been greater (this is my view point). When people talk of the respective fields most of these names do not tend to be top of the mind.
There is a simple pattern in all these personalities -- “Out of Sight, Out of Mind!” But each of these personalities displayed the stellar qualities of grit, determination, perseverance, and patience. Their ability to bounce back is a lesson for all of us, and I am sure on the type of character you are, you too will be able to draw pattern from your idols.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Perspectives - The Way You Look At It!
In any contest, there is one winner and the other one is a LOSER! The adulation is to the winner and the brickbats are for the LOSER. Rat Race they call it, but should the winner be adjudge as “A RAT”.
In a country, we adjudge the Leader of the Opposition as a Loser because he is not ruling the country, but he too is a winner, because he is leading a Party.
In a Sporting contest, a Runner Up is branded as a loser, we do it because he lost the most important deterministic contest, but won atleast five to six game to get there.
This LOSER business is something that has completely LOOSE definitions, and hence we are not going to attempt any traditional definition searching on the same.
I thought of giving a perspective to some incidents and anecdotes around us that you can relate to. This is not to draw any sympathy or feelings about me the author, for whatever my friends think of me (positive or negative), “I am what I am and I will always be What I am, despite the fact that I try to be what you want me to be.”
We proceed on a journey in which I hope you relate to, for each one of us has gone through this, but not taken the pains to put it in writing, I have done that because I am now trying to be a PAIN asking you to read these posts, and get some expression out of you.
In a country, we adjudge the Leader of the Opposition as a Loser because he is not ruling the country, but he too is a winner, because he is leading a Party.
In a Sporting contest, a Runner Up is branded as a loser, we do it because he lost the most important deterministic contest, but won atleast five to six game to get there.
This LOSER business is something that has completely LOOSE definitions, and hence we are not going to attempt any traditional definition searching on the same.
I thought of giving a perspective to some incidents and anecdotes around us that you can relate to. This is not to draw any sympathy or feelings about me the author, for whatever my friends think of me (positive or negative), “I am what I am and I will always be What I am, despite the fact that I try to be what you want me to be.”
We proceed on a journey in which I hope you relate to, for each one of us has gone through this, but not taken the pains to put it in writing, I have done that because I am now trying to be a PAIN asking you to read these posts, and get some expression out of you.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Starting to be a Loser
What a title? Chronicles of a Loser! You may wonder as to whether this is this some kind of autobiography or personal account of the author. It is a story of `You and Me’, so it is about `US’ or `We’. You too have been branded a Loser by somebody in some field – maybe it is Life itself, or work, or academics, or your style, your car, your preferences. Don’t Lose heart. Just Remember – Losers Loser Battles, But win wars and winners win Battles and justify that they won the war.
Losers don’t give up easily, and have it in them to be in the race for the longer term, The have the spirit of never say die, and are always thirsty for more – never satisfied. Winners come and go, and like to justify their position. They tend to be satisfied and hence complacent. .
So if you are a loser the qualities of: perseverance, persistence, patience and passion is inside you, for winners too have been loser sometimes. The debate is whether it is good to be a winner and hope you stay there or be a Loser and work harder. Maybe we are trying to sound like “Avis Jeans” We are second, but we try harder.
The Spirit of Challenge is alive in Losers! For Challengers are known for their bravery, valour and capture people’s hearts. Keep Reading.
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