N.K. Sondhi
N.K. Sondhis first book was Management of Banking , which draws upon his experiences as a manager in the Punjab National Bank. He then turned to fiction writing, bringing forth the seen and unseen aftermaths of the partition of India in 1947 in his novel Cart full of Husk . He followed it up with a short non-fiction, Forgotten City of Delhi (How Delhi became Delhi). He wrote his next book, A Match Made in Heaven: A 2000-year-old love story , based on the life of an Indian princess, who became first queen of Korea in 48 AD.
Working with young people as he pursued social activities after his retirement, he sensed the restlessness among youngsters, who are facing a large number of problems due to stiff neck-to-neck competition in every field of life. Growing use of advanced technology has further alienated them from the main stream of the society. This led him to initiate this book Know Your Worth with the young and enterprising writer Ms. Vibha Malhotra.
Vibha Malhotra
Vibha Malhotra is the founder of Literature Studio and editor-in-chief of the literary e-journal Literature Studio Review . In the past, she has worked as an editor with Dorling Kindersley (Penguin Random House) where she has edited beautiful coffee table books on subjects such as history, nature, fitness, lifestyle, and travel.
She is also a poet and a translator. Her work has been published in literary journals across the world such as Wasafiri , Muse India , Tipton Poetry Journal , The Luxembourg Review , Red Fez , and in dailies such as The Times of India and Ceylon Today . Know Your Worth is her first work as an author.
Vibha holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, UK. She teaches creative writing to all age groups. By Profession, Vibha is a Lead Software Engineer at Adobe Systems.
Published by GENERAL PRESS 4228/1, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002 Ph. : 011 23282971, 45795759 e-mail : generalpressindia@gmail.com www.generalpress.in N.K. Sondhi & Vibha Malhotra All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publishers. First Edition : February 2017 ISBN : 9788180320231 1 3 0 4 2 0 1 7 |
Contents
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all those readers who aspire to explore their own real worth in order to fight the odds of life and to achieve what they have set out to accomplish. This book is also dedicated to all those who we have looked up to for inspiration. Without you, this book wouldnt have been possible.
Disclaimer
This book contains views, experiences, observations, thoughts, vision, insights of several great achievers. In our lives, we have drawn inspirations from these thought leaders. These views, opinions, and incidents, have been cited in the book with the relevant credits. Apart from this, we have also included some long-forgotten folk tales of our childhood, that inspired us when we were young. These have been included so that our readers too can get inspired.
We have also included several contemporary anecdotes. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all imaginary. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events or localities, or organizations is purely coincidental.
Introduction
Are we our own worst enemies? This question can sound melodramatic, but in fact it is true for many of us, even if we do not realize it. Think about it. When was the last time you patted yourself on the back? Or treated yourself for your success? Our guess is that it has been a while. In fact many of you cant even remember when you last felt happy about something you did or the way you did it. Now try to remember the last time you felt like a failure or felt that you didnt handle a situation well. Many of you will be able to think of many such situations.
Now let us reverse this situation. Think about the people around you. Do you feel they are doing better than you? And if yes, are you able to find enough strength in yourself to feel happy for them? If your answer is no, then the problem lies in how you perceive yourself. This may be slightly confusing right now, but the truth is that if you are happy with the way you are living your life and the things you are doing, you will find it easier to feel happy for others (even your rivals) for their achievements. However, the question is how do we reach such a state.
Our society at times is too protective of its young. Most of us, when we were growing up were never put in situations where we had to take decisions or assume positions of responsibility. We lead a sheltered life till we go to college and for many of us, this shelter continues even after we have graduated, started working, and have children of our own. Society tells us how we should lead our life. It dictates what is the measure of success and failure. It prescribes a strict code of conduct. In other words, it does everything it can to prevent us from thinking out-of-the-box.
Many of us grow older without actually growing up. We do not put enough energy and thought into learning precious lessons from life. We dont spend enough time exploring who we are and what can we do with our lives. We are afraid of dreaming big because we do not trust ourselves enough to achieve those dreams. We do not test and realize our strengths. To actually get to know ourselves, we have to depend on our own energies, strengths, confidence, and courage. These traits, unbeknownst to us, already exist in us. We all know that billions of people fail to live lives they dream of; the ones who fail to realize their ambitions and give up as soon as they encounter the first obstacle. On the other hand, we also know of several successful people who have started from the scratch and created great empires worth billions of dollars, but they are still fighting and continue to chase still bigger dreams.
Most of us wait for things to happen to us instead of making them happen. Then life puts us in a situation where we are suddenly forced to start growing up. We are forced to take charge and we realize that we can take charge of our lives too. In the context of this book, let us call such a moment the transformative moment. And the purpose of this book is to precipitate that moment for you, to hasten it so that you can achieve things that you never thought yourself capable of.
Writing this book was a journey of self-discovery for us too. Hopefully we will be able to share some of those learnings too through this book. We hope that reading this book will be a fruitful journey for you too. With these hopes and prayers, let us together embark on this journey.
Acknowledge Your Superpowers
Knowing ourselves and knowing what we want to achieve in life is like the chicken and egg situation. Without knowing our strengths and weaknesses, it is difficult to figure out what is within our reach. And if we do not aim high, we can never challenge and overcome our weaknesses. So, understanding what we can and what we want to do in our lives is much more than a decision. It is a process. You need to give it time. You need to have patience.
