Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
Remembering the Missile Man of India on his birth anniversary…
The former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, fondly remembered as the Missile Man, was born on October 15, 1931, at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. As a student, he faced many hardships – even having to deliver newspapers door-to-door to sustain his education. However, such was his commitment towards learning that he conquered all challenges and achieved rare excellence – as an academician, a scientist and then by occupying the highest constitutional post of the country. Little wonder that he continues to be an iconic role model for students and youths alike!
Dr Kalam’s words always filled his listeners’ hearts with renewed energy and enthusiasm, inspiring them to put in their best efforts and not give up in the face of difficulties. On his birth anniversary, celebrated as the World Students’ Day (October 15th), we present to you 10 gems by the legend.
1. “You have to dream before your dreams can come true.”
2. “If you want to shine like Sun, first burn like Sun.”
3. “All of us do not have equal talent. But, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.”
4. “Don’t take rest after your first victory because if you fail in second, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.”
5. “The best brains of the nation may be found on the last benches of the classroom!”
6. “Excellence happens not by accident. It is a process.”
7. “Winners are not those who never fail but those who never quit.”
8. “Two rules for a peaceful life: Depression in failure should never go to heart and ego in success should never go to the brain.”
9. “If you fail, never give up because ‘Fail’ means ‘First Attempt In Learning’.”
10. “Creativity is seeing the same thing but thinking differently.”
Career
Dealing with rejection, rebounding with resilience
‘Spring’, a new book serves as a simple, powerful guide to processing rejection and bouncing back, writes Harish Bhat in the Hindu Businessline. Here are key excerpts from the review:
- Most of us face rejection of some kind, at some point, in our lives. When this happens, it inevitably impacts us deeply, often painfully.
- Yet rejection is a subject that many of us don’t even like speaking about, because of the social stigma attached to it, particularly in India. This is why Ambi Parameswaran’s new book, Spring, serves as a breath of fresh air.
- None of us wish to crumble in the face of rejection. We would like to be resilient, get up each time we fall and go on to succeed. But unfortunately, that is not always the case.
- We may react emotively or harshly to a moment of failure, and decide not to move forward at all, which could be unfair to our own capabilities.
- We may even draw ourselves into a negative spiral of thoughts, which may lead to withdrawal or depression.
- The reader may think here is a very successful man (Parmeswaran), what can he tell me about rejection? But wait a moment. At the very start, you will encounter the story of how Ambi was rejected at his very first job interview at Hindustan Unilever. Then again, you will read about how his advertising pitch for Hyundai cars was rejected outright by the Korean car major because his team and he did not make a good impression, and their level of preparation was woefully inadequate.
- There are many more such stories of his own failures that he narrates with refreshing candour. You soon realise that while the author has indeed been very successful, many of his successes are, in fact, built on learnings that he has gained from these failures.
- Ambi uses powerful examples from several professional spheres to illustrate his point — you will find in this book stories drawn from worlds as diverse as banking, marketing, sports, writing and science. Famous names such as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Steve Jobs mingle with other names but there is one common thread — all of them have suffered failure and rejection, and each of them learnt how to bounce back from the dumps.
(The reviewer is Brand Custodian, Tata Sons, and author.)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the authors.)
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