Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Has someone asked you when are you going to succeed in whatever you have started? It can be a business or it can be any endeavor which you deeply wanted to pursue towards which gives you complete fulfilment of your existence in this great planet. Lot of people have asked me and even to this day they ask me how things are looking. I have been working on business endeavors over last few years and is going very well. I am still in the active pursuit of accomplishing my goals which I have set for myself through my business opportunity.

What is the time limit you give yourself in order for you to succeed in anything worthwhile? Do you want to know what’s stopping you back from success?


To answer that, I would like to share couple of stories.

…Steve was excited; he had just finished his first book.  He had dreams of becoming a best-selling author after pouring his heart and soul into his first thriller.  Now it was just a matter of time before he found a publisher…

Unfortunately Steve was declined by the first publisher he submitted his book to, however he didn’t get distressed.  He knew that in order to succeed he would probably encounter several obstacles.  He happily submitted his book to another publisher. 

Yet he received another rejection.  And another rejection, and another, and another, he received a total of 29 rejections.  Down-and-out, Steve agreed to try one last time!  He anxiously waited he get the results, he knew this time things would be different; he was excited.

But alas…he was rejected once more.

At this point Steve was depressed; his dreams of becoming a great writer had been crushed!  He hung his head low, and threw his book in the trash, at least this way he would never have to be reminded of the book again.

But!

Somebody say, “But!” …But Steve’s wife went into the trash and retrieved the book…she encouraged him and motivated him to resubmit the book, and the rest, as they say, is history.  Steve also known as Stephen King whose book, “Carrie,” became an iconic thriller, and he has become one of the best-selling authors of all time.

Another story

Walter worked hard at his job; he worked for the local newspaper.  One day while Walter was working, his boss told him that he was fired!  His boss said that “he lacked imagination, and had no good ideas.”

Walter was depressed…yet he picked himself up.  He decided to go into business for himself, but that didn’t last too long, soon he was bankrupt.

But!

But he was only bankrupt financially; he was not out of courage, not out of strength, and not out of faith.

Walter went on to start one of the most imaginative companies in history, the “Walt Disney” company, which today is responsible for $35 billion dollars in sales annually; so much for lacking imagination.

What is the time limit I should give myself to succeed?

So the question remains, “How long does it take to succeed?”  For most people it takes about ten- twenty years of focused and determined living.  It could happen sooner, or it could take longer, either way you’ll have to be determined like Stephen and Walter in order to succeed.

Why so many years?  When I look at people who’ve succeeded, it generally took them about lot of years of focused living to do so.  Ten-twenty years is enough time to discover your passion, to become a master; it’s enough time to fail, and enough time to re-gain your focus.

Why do I even mention this? We live in a microwave world. We want instant noodles, instant coffee, instant popcorn, instant results.. The moment it takes longer, we think it is probably not worth it. Just because you don't get the results which you wanted, you don’t need to think you’re “dysfunctional”.For all of you who are working towards your goals and dreams I want you to be mentally prepared, so that you can understand that success is a science, and that it takes years of work to go from an apprentice to a master. I have worked in pharmaceutical industry. It takes several years and several million $ to go from a research lab discovery to FDA approved drug. That is exactly how any worthwhile endeavor takes.

What about kids who succeed when their only ten years old?  Their parents probably put in a majority of the requisite years for them.  Some years are transferable, that’s why it’s important to keep good company, and to associate with people who are going where you want to go.

Karthik, but why does it take long time?

Success takes time because the requisite for success is that you provide value.  It takes a lot of work to become a person who provides significant value to others.  People pay for value, valuable people succeed.

So how many years have you put in?  You may have more years than you know; you may have fewer years than you think.

It’s kind of like college credits; when you “graduate” depends on how many credits you have towards your major.  If your life goal is to be a successful writer, then those years you spent reading novels everyday probably count significantly towards your experience. It’s possible that the years you spent with the right kind of people will help you to get their faster.  One way or another, you’ll probably need a good time of learning and applying in order to succeed.


If you don’t value the task enough to push until you succeed, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.  You have to remind yourself that there will be setbacks, your success is not based on your ability to avoid setbacks, but you ability to push through those setbacks until you get the requisite years you need to succeed.  If you remain focused, if you put in the time, success will surely be yours!