Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I used to watch lot of movies when I was in Grad school. Most of them would be movies of Jim Carrey.

I am not going to review his movies now as that is a totally different topic altogether.

Lot of us get excited and inspired after reading a book, or after listening to a talk given by a leadership guru. But most of the excitement wears out after couple of days as we let life happen to us. But there are a small percentage of people who are focussed on goals and who knows what they are shooting for. Success is all about realizing your purpose and going after it with full gusto. So figuring out what you want is really important and vital and having written goals are liking having roadmaps.

Talking about Jim Carrey earlier, he is one of the highest paid celebrities in the movie industry, but success did not come to him easily. He had to leave school in grade nine to help his parents make ends meet when his father lost his job. One of his first jobs was as a janitor.

Carrey struggled for many years to find his way, but he never lost his sense of humor or his determination to succeed, even when things got really tough for him. He was told many times he would never make it in show business, but he had set his heart on success. He moved from his hometown Toronto and moved to Los Angeles to 'make it' and to perfect his craft. During the next years of frequent rejection and loneliness, Carrey always believed in himself. To keep himself motivated and wrote himself a check for 10 million$ and posted it where he could see it everyday: that is what he wanted to earn per movie when he became a star. This was a bold vision for anybody, let alone an unknown comedian to make ends meet. It became almost an obsession with him. Today, Jim Carrey earns well over 20 M$ per movie in Hollywood exceeding even his own expectations!

What goals do you have for yourself? It doesn't have to have 10 million$ price tag on it. It can be anything you want, big or small. Write down something symbolic or especially meaningful about that goal. Put it somewhere so you can see it everyday. Focus on it, but don't lose sight of your true self in the journey.