MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - EPISODE 248
I am the MASTER of my fate
12th February 2024
"Only a confused and cowardly person depends upon destiny. Brave men with self-respect do not honour the destiny." Valmiki Ramayan 2-23-16
Great men think alike. Don’t they?
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” William Shakespeare
#SteveJobAndDestiny
Is it possible to control everything happening to us? Then what about luck, fate, destiny, etc? Do they not exist in our life?
While there are some things in life that we have no control over like nature, diseases, treachery by people, etc, we do have control over many other things that can determine our destiny. Even in things where we do not have much control, we have complete control over our reaction to these things. Many champions have shown us this in their lives. They did face challenges, huge challenges, destiny challenged them very hard. They became true champions because they responded positively to destiny’s plans.
Steve Job was thrown out of the very company which he co-founded, Apple Inc., by an individual whom he recruited. Apple was not just a company he founded. Apple was his ambition, his passion. Steve Job did not give up blaming it on his destiny. He proved to everyone that he was a brave man with self-respect (as commented by Valmiki). He founded another company, NeXT (and helped to develop Pixar) which was later acquired by Apple bringing him back as the CEO of Apple Inc.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Steve Jobs
Kautilya turned insult to a challenge
Kautilya was insulted by the mighty king Dhana Nanda. He did not sulk that he was powerless in front of a mighty king, blaming it on his destiny of being born as a brahmin. He could not become a king because of his caste but he decided that he would ‘make a king’. His self-respect propelled him to create his own course, be the master of his destiny and create a great model kingdom in India, ‘Maurya Empire’.
#PassengerOrCaptain
Being the master of your own destiny carries risks. For a start it's hard work. When you set out on any journey there is a chance that you might not arrive at your intended destination. However, the other option is to let someone else decide the destination, steer the ship and make the decisions. For many this 'low-risk' option, of being the passenger instead of the captain, is preferable.
You must first believe that you are the driver of your ship and not a passenger.
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” ― Napoleon Hill
#HowMandelaMasteredHisFate
I'm the master of my fate,
the captain of my soul." William Ernest Henley
These are the last 2 lines from the famous poem “Invictus”. Nelson Mandela often used lines from this poem when he was imprisoned for 27 years to inspire his mind and the ones around him. Despite the negative circumstances he was in, he never lost focus and when he was finally released from the prison, he was self-assured about his life mission, and, how he could change his country for the better. Unbelievable.
How can we realize “Being the master of our fate”?
Will see in the next episode of MONDAY MUSINGS.
GOOD NEWS COLUMN
Sia Godika, a 17-year-old girl from Bengaluru, won the Junior Challenge 2023 International Science Video Competition, a part of the Breakthrough Prizes.
The competition is organised by various tech giants like Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Russian tech giant Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, and American entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki.
Sia beat other participants to win the prize of around Rs 3,32,00,000 in the competition with her award-winning video entry.
Her submission delved into the life and groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka on cellular reprogramming. Titled ‘Yamanaka Factors’, the video focuses on explaining and demonstrating the scientist’s work on the pluripotent stem cell technology that can reportedly “turn back time” on cells.
Yamanaka’s research has had a profound impact on the treatment of age-related and degenerative diseases.
This competition, often deemed as the ‘Oscars of science’, was created with the aim to inspire creative thinking about fundamental concepts in life sciences, physics and mathematics.
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation said that the winning prize amount would be broken up among Sia, her science teacher Arka Maulik, and the school Neev Academy — Sia will receive a college scholarship of Rs 2.7 crore, Maulik will receive a share of Rs 41 lakh from the prize, and her school will get a lab designed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory worth Rs 83 lakh.
___________________________________________________________________________________ Conceived, compiled and posted by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com) as a weekly newsletter MONDAY MUSINGS in LinkedIn