Behind every achievement that we see in our world, is the unseen hand of the human will. The material comforts, scientific achievements are all the products crystallized out of the human will and determination. Behind all the technological progress are the determined efforts of hundreds of dedicated men and women, who faced all the challenges to make their dreams come true.
The will to face up to the challenges that one comes across in the world is born out of one’s own courage of conviction. Every one of us has ideas of our own, but only a few of us live up to them. The lives of all great men point out to us that the basic necessity for the development of a strong will is the ability to live up to the intellectual convictions and to act thereafter in terms of that knowledge. Truthfulness is the spirit to honestly live our intellectual convictions within.
The secret of success in life lies in keeping the head above the storms of the heart. A successful man never allows his faculty of discrimination and judgment to be disturbed by the rising tides of his mental emotions. When emotions and impulses start dictating our actions, we sink to the level of the animals. To mould one’s destiny is the privilege of the man of cultivated will and not of the animals of natural unique impulses.
At the intellectual level, one must be ready to consider and reconsider for a thousand times, if necessary, any idea or ideal and, in the light of all the evidences available, one must be ready to accept or reject an idea or an ideal. But having once accepted an ideal, one must discover in himself the heroism to live up to it always. This is called honesty or truthfulness. This is the spring-source of the will and courage to act and achieve.
The most important trait in an eminently successful man’s life seems to be integrity – an inflexible, undaunted, firm integrity. Once an individual in himself has discovered and fully developed an indomitable integrity, he finds he is master of every challenge, and in all his efforts we observe a self-assurance which is both captivating and rewarding. A man of integrity is accepted, believed, trusted and befriended by all. To attract to oneself such genuine attitudes from others is to create and assure a vibrant environment for great undertakings and perhaps, with other’s ready help, a spectacular success. Truly, integrity is a personal asset to man in every field.
