Try and try till you succeed. Never ever give up. We have grown up listening to such inspiring words that we try to apply in all aspects of our life. But somewhere down the line we have failed to realise that hard work and perseverance can only take us only so far. No matter how hard we try, sometimes some things just don’t work out. There is a fine line between tenacity and foolishness. In our eagerness to succeed we simply cross the line, destroying ourselves in the process.
Trying till you succeed sounds nice but accepting failure and rejection is the bigger lesson to be learnt here. Today’s generation is adamant in not taking no for an answer. Nearly 13 lakh students sit for the IIT-JEE examination each time to get into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), but only around a lakh clear the first stage. So what do the remaining 12 lakh do? They write attempt again the next year, devoting lots of time for preparation. And if they fail again? Never mind beta, Edison failed nine hundred and ninety nine times before he invented the light bulb. If maybe Edison hadn’t been so steadfast, he could have actually contributed so much more to science than a light bulb.
The poor students sit for the exam over and over again. And finally frustrated that their efforts are bearing no fruit, they take the extreme step of taking their own life. Alas, what a frightful waste! The body that couldn’t have contributed as one of the million engineers that our country is producing could have contributed as a unique scientist or teacher. But no, it’s either succeed or die trying. Failure is just not an option.
The media are not really helping with the situation. Nearly all forms of entertainment create a sequence where the average-looking hero who apparently has no work other than to pursue the “so-called” woman of his dreams whom he falls in love with at first sight but is adamant he isn’t in love with her just for her looks. He relentlessly follows her and tortures her to fall in love with him. And of course all his hard work and perseverance finally pays off. How inspiring! It will definitely pay off when a big fat pay checque is orchestrating the entire sequence.
Getting inspired by this ultimate display of love, every other Tom, Dick and Harry sets off pursuing a girl who is steadfastly ignoring his advances. The entertainment which taught him to never ever give up, unfortunately did not offer a crash course on what to do if the girl, who in this case is not being offered a six-digit salary for returning his advances, is genuinely uninterested. So the poor confused stalker is left with no other solution than to permanently destroy the girl who is not sticking to the script. Because at the end of the day hard work must lead to success. It must. It must. It must.
I’m all for endurance and never giving up. Try once. Or twice. Or ten times. Maybe fifteen. But somewhere we need to realise that the tree we so lovingly sowed and watered carefully is just not going to bear fruit, for absolutely no fault of ours. There is a beautiful lesson to be learnt when you realise that all your hard work has brought no reward other than to make you feel terrible and worthless. It is at that point you begin to love yourself and unearth your positives because you are desperate to contribute to the world in any possible way. If Katy Perry had stuck to singing Gospel Music till she became the best at it, or of Walt Disney intended to become the greatest businessman ever, we wouldn’t have had such inspiring personalities to look up to. Find something you love. Give it all you can. And if all it offers you in return is a No, accept it and find something else. Because at the end of the day, you deserve the love you keep trying to give.
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