When Prabhash Karan decided that he was going to become an engineer, little did he know how his life was going to turn out. Born in a remote village, Prabhash just wanted to do something big in life. “An average person with an average talent—with a clear goal—can outstrip a brilliant intellect. Here is the story of an average Joe. He was born in a little village in India. Like the other boys in the village, he could not stretch his imagination beyond his village. He attended the village school with other boys of his age and returned home with them, kicking up the dust in the village road that used to become so slushy in the rainy season that even walking was difficult. Then, somehow, he started thinking that his future was not to remain confined within the little village community. He told himself that he would become an engineer. There was no engineering college in the town, so he had to go to a big city. Getting admitted into an engineering college in those days was extremely challenging, as the admission rate was less than 1 percent among those who expected and prepared to be engineers. He had to compete with a large number of students who received a better education in the city schools. But he resolved within himself that he would have to make it. His resolve took him past all the tests one by one, and one day, he found himself in a prominent engineering college. He worked hard initially to get good grades, but slowly, it became easy, almost like a habit for him; consequently, as his self-confidence grew, he never had to struggle to do well in other tests. At the end of the course, he qualified with a good ranking, which got him to fulfill his aim to become an engineer. Not that he always made tremendous efforts to attain his goal. But whatever he did, he did sincerely.”—an excerpt from the book Of Human Nature and Good Habits by Prabhash Karan
He started working at metallurgical plants after graduation in engineering and then decided to go for further studies. He has been the designer structural engineer for six nuclear power plants and was involved in developing IBM’s three operating systems. If you want to emulate him, you need to follow the tips given below.
- Forget about the easy
Easy does not exist. You cannot expect to play the stock market and become a millionaire in a few days. Neither can you dream about establishing businesses where you start with an initial capital and start gaining profits in months without putting in much effort.
So, don’t be fooled, don’t fall into the trap.
On the Internet, there are millions of businesses that promise a lot of easy money, and they are ALL a scam. They play with the desperation of people. Most of them are functionally predatory.
Please do not forget, easy money does not exist.
- Forget about luck
You can have a stroke of luck several times, but it has an expiration date. When it comes to long-term one day or another, the balance will balance, and both luck and bad luck will cease to exist.
Do not expect luck, since in the end, you will only depend on your efforts. And don’t blame bad luck either, since it will probably be caused by something badly done.
To give you a very clear example, think of a collective sport that you know well. There will always be better and worse teams. Some will be above the table and others below.
It is possible that one day, some teams from the bottom will win one from the top. But at the end of the year, the top one will be up, and the bottom one will be down.
Then, in the long term, perseverance and a job well done begins to bear fruit.
Luck has an expiration date; a job well done does not.
- Love what you do
You feed on your motivation. If what you do does not motivate you, you will not put enough effort into achieving success.
So whatever you do, you have to like it. It has to motivate you. You must be passionate. Don’t do things you don’t love, or you’ll never get far.
Focus on identifying what you really love and what your true passions are. From there, you can start walking towards success, but not before.