The other day there was no power in the hostel and i had nothing to do (since my computer hibernated). So, i started thinking weird things. Suddenly a question came to my mind – “What is the difference between successful people and those who are not”? What maks them successful? What is lacking in others that they don’t succeed? Well, ofcourse, if everyone will succeed, then there will be no successful person ofcourse! But i was trying to find out the extra think they posess which makes them successful.

I remembered that once i was sitting with a good friend of mine and discussing about something. He was again and again saying the words “peer pressure”. Yes! thats it! thats what it is! Here it goes…

What?

What is different in successful people?

We are seldom alone in our professional life. In school, we study with our classmates, in college with our batchmates and when we work, we have co workers. So, we always have peers. Now what happens when we are in the company of our peers? We are under pressure to outperform them. Be it school, college or work – we always try to compete with them. Everyone says that healthy competition is good. It might be, but here goes my viewpoint…

Why?

Why do we compete?

Well, its human nature. Also, folks. How many times has it happened that you took your grade card to your folks and they didn’t compare your performance with another one in your class? With me, never. And i always gave explanations(and still give) that they never understood.

What is the problem in competing?

As such, people may think that there is no problem in competing, and some may say that it is good to compete. But have you ever given a deep thought to this? Consider the following case:

There is a peer of yours with whom you compete. Now your exam syllabus is 11 out of 15 chapters of your book. The book is considered to be the bible of that subject. Now your peer always outperforms you as he/she reads all the chapters thouroughly and you don’t. This time you decide to beat him by reading the chapters more carefully. You succeed. Congratulations! But you’ve missed something! You see, what you do is read the 11 chapters and stop. Because you think that its enough to outperform that stupid. And it is. But its not enough for gaining deep knowledge in the subject. A book which is considered the bible of that subject. How can you afford to leave 4 whole chapters from that?? And then say that i have studied that subject well, look ma i got an A+. I would also like to add that such teachers are stupids who leave out chapters from bibles. But again, its us who have to suffer the loss in the future.

Such type of study is called marks oriented study. And believe me, it might keep you a hero for some time, but you will eventually become a zero.

Now consider the following case:

Google is the best search engine in the world. How? Why isn’t that Y!, MSN, and others are able to reach even close to Google’s hit count? Here’s the reason(as per me):
Google tries to make the best possible use of its resources and deliver the best it can to the people. It doesn’t compete with any other search engine. If Google has developed something new, others will develop a similar thing, stop and wait for Google to develop more. This hinders their innovative thinking. Its not that they can’t, but they don’t. If they try to develop the best they can, they will definitly reach at par with Google(but not outperform it as i m a big fan of Google personally. I don’t want it to be defeated ;-)).

Similar is the case with Windows and Linux. Linux developers always try to compete with windows. If there is a Winamp for windows, there is xmms for Linux with the same look and feel.

Today Google and Microsoft are at the top positions in their fields. Because they have a vision. A mission to extract the best of what they have and develop the best they can.

Similar should be our attitute. As a student, if you want to learn a subject, never ever leave a chapter from the bible of that subject. Marks oriented study leads to nowhere. This is the difference i was talking about in the first paragraph. Successful people have a vision, and they stick to it. No matter what happens.

Suddenly my thought cycle met with an accident. My computer speakers started blowing like hell. Power was restored in the hostel. My computer was back to its previous state with songs playing at high volume.

I think its enough for today. Did i mention that the good friend of mine in the 2nd paragraph was Partha? I have learnt many good things from Partha. Will discuss them some other day.