Everybody wants to be happy and successful. In the materialistic world wealth creation being central to success, everybody wants to become a millionaire. Unfortunately, not everybody’s chances of becoming a millionaire are the same, partially because the playing field is not even. This is clearly visible from the following data. While 15.5% people of Switzerland are millionaires, it is 0.1% for India, 0.5% for China, 9.4% for US and around 5% for European countries, Japan, Canada and Israel. Global number of millionaires is 56 million, which is 0.7% of global population of 8 billion. Interesting data is 39% of global millionaires are in US followed by China with 9.4%.
Even with change of yardstick from wealth to intelligence, fame, politics, art, etc, I am sure the percentage of those outstanding people will still be around 1% only. Does it mean balance 99% of people are failures? Absolutely not; as long as one is happy, healthy (both physically and mentally) and capable of taking care of decent life style, can surely be considered successful. Still a huge percentage of people are below such average or higher average life.
How to progress in life or business? Success coaches come with a big list of dos which include goal setting, focus, positive attitude, passion, motivation, ambition, perseverance etc. There are lot many couplets in Thirukkural too about what is success or progress and how to attain them. Thiruvalluvar also written one full chapter on “Absence of Laziness” which I considered most important to attain and retain success in all walks of life. I reproduced the meaning of those Kurals below:
“As laziness get into one’s life, the eternal flame of family vanish.” ”Let those who desire their family’s reputation, leave out laziness.” ”The (lustre of the) family of the ignorant man, who acts under the influence of destructive laziness will perish, even before his demise.” “Family reputation will be destroyed and faults will increase, in those unenthusiastic men who give way to laziness”
“Procrastination, forgetfulness, idleness and too much sleep, these four things, form the vessel which is desired by those who want to get destroyed.” “Even if the wealth of an emperor ruling the earth come and join, it is rare to find a lazy one benefiting from it.” “Those who do not engage themselves in dignified exertion due to their laziness will subject themselves to rebukes and reproaches.” “If laziness rests on a state and its rulers, it will be enslaved by its foes.” “When a man gets rid of idleness, the reproach which has comes upon himself and his family will disappear”
Laziness is the biggest enemy of life. It has a bad effect on our physical and mental health. Laziness is a disease which slowly steals everything from us. The biggest attribute of laziness is that we don’t understand its ill-effects on the right time, and afterwards we can only regret. The lazy persons become less efficient and the energy level of the person becomes down. The brain of lazy persons does not function properly. They have a weak memory. They take much time to answer any question. Laziness has killed careers, futures, relationships, families and friendships. To become intelligent, skilful and efficient we should quit laziness first.
