Relentless Efforts: Words of wisdom from The Wall
Updated: Nov 11, 2019
Often hailed as The Wall as numerous opponents had failed to breach his stout defense, Rahul Dravid is one person I would pay to listen! His wisdom is equally impeccable.
RAHUL DRAVID, a former captain of the Indian cricket team, once delivered a speech at a prestigious Indian engineering college. He said that his wife had planted some seeds of a Chinese bamboo species many years ago. After one year of planting, nothing happened. Nothing sprouted. The same story continued in the second year.
And another three years added but no signs of the Chinese bamboo plant sprouting. When his wife had abandoned any hope of the seeds ever sprouting, then suddenly one day she saw them germinating. And in the span of the next 3 months, they grew to about a height of 90 feet at an unbelievable rate! They began to grow at such a rapid pace that one could actually see them growing.
Rahul then asked his audience, ‘Did the Chinese bamboo plants grow in 3 months or 5 years and 3 months?’
His answer was equally fascinating like that bamboo species.
He said that they grew in 5 years and 3 months. For the first 5 years, they were growing their strong root system – their base – to support the rapid pace of growth once the right time would arrive, even if nobody could see the relentless effort.
Similarly, it’s not the 100th blow that breaks a rock but the cumulative blows of all those 100 strikes. An ironsmith doesn’t curve a sword in one blow. A sword is the result of each of the many blows the ironsmith gave resulting in its magnificent shape.
Success, most often than not, seems like a moment of brilliance to others; but in reality, it’s not. Success comes to those who persevere, those who put up efforts, often relentlessly. And that is a secret very few people could understand.
Success is like that Chinese bamboo plant, that doesn’t seem to yield any result but suddenly all the years of relentless hard work and perseverance pay dividend and it not just sprouts but grows exponentially to reach a gigantic and majestic height.
The reason success eludes most people is because, for them, the journey doesn’t exist but only the destination. But no one has ever reached a destination without a journey. It is the journey that teaches a person the secrets of the road and the eventual success. It is the road – often the road less traveled – traversing which a person achieves success. The only thing that shouldn’t be done is to abandon the road.
If you want to read further about Rahul Dravid, the man who epitomizes the very word relentlessness, read a beautiful book on him, Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel. You can click here to buy the book.