Talmud, the Jewish Scripter says, “Unhappy is he who mistakes the branch for the tree; the shadow for the substance.” For example, the share market attracts many people, as they believe that it is important for their welfare and future. There are people who live and die with the fluctuations of the market. Some have even committed suicide, unable to suffer the loss not realizing that it is a fantasy world. When the market is up, the person is happy, when it is down he feels miserable. Once you step out of such a dream world, you see them all for what they really are! Robert Kiyosaki in his book, ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad,’ says that we are all fed on the illusion that owning a home is an asset. The author argues that assets produce income, while liabilities are dead debts and outflow of capital. Some call it digging a ‘hole in water’. The alternative is to make a hole on the ground; you may get oil, gold or diamond! Then what is reality? The dying person will say, “All activities that matter, even when you are given a death sentence, are the realities of success that result in truth,” The person living in the fantasy world suddenly is shaken when the ‘hype’ comes into the open. The ‘yes-man’ is another example, who, with no independent views, is not able to contribute anything. As an executive observed, “When two partners agree too often, one of them is unnecessary,”

In fact, disagreement is the seed of innovation because you can’t discover what you don’t know based on what you know. For example, the great art works, inventions, poetry, songs, operas, musical compositions and ideas that we see and enjoy are due to the genius of innovators and original thinkers. As Henry Thoreau, “the tragedy of life is that most men lead lives of desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” When we decide to launch ourselves for a successful life, it is like a rocket, which consumes tremendous energy in the take-off stage, and later it becomes steady, going towards its objectives. Those who work from ten to five in the office, looking at the clock for the launch and coffee break, achieve nothing as they remain mediocre. On the Contrary, the person who gets up one hour earlier, reads, hears tapes or at least thinks what he should do for the day, is definitely a good starter and ends up creating, contributing something.

Similarly, a person working overtime or on holidays devoting a few hours’ climbs the career, ladder, when others are at the bottom. The popular saying is, “May be, people need something to fill their minds, to fill the void, to feel alive.” Living purposefully, creating something new, or thinking about the unusual represents the actualisation of the human potential. Innovation is not only making of the new, but also rearranging the old in a new way. The human subconscious is a vast storehouse containing wisdom of the past the understanding of the present and the vision of the future. By tapping into its vast reserves, we can create new thoughts and act upon it. There is a saying, “when everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking at all,” That is the beauty of ‘yes-man’ who surround the power centre and produce mediocre decisions. It may be called becoming a ‘carbon copy’ instead of carving out something new. The photocopying machine can produce any number of copies from one original or master copy but the master copy is the key.

When you render more service, the return also is bountiful because ‘service is the rent you pay for the space you occupy here on the planet Earth’. In many industries including hotels, malls and educational institutions, we find a Board displaying, “The customer comes first’ or ‘the customer is king etc. It indicates more service than ordinary. Only when we attain excellence in our chosen field of endeavour, Can we hope to become successful in life. Anything less, we can’t reach our full potential. It is a thin line between high achievers and others. For example, in any game like tennis, the form, agility, reflex action, speed of service and quality of play counts a lot in winning or losing, similarly, in golf, only one or two shots separate the champion from others. In Olympics, the difference between gold and the silver medal in a 100-meter dash is fraction of a second. Vince Lombardi, the celebrated American Coach said once. “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavour.” It is in our hands alone, to improve the quality of our lives. Superior human relations are the master key to victory!