Yesterday VS Today

“A diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.” – Anonymous

Life is another name for ‘struggle’. As we are born, we are destined to work hard throughout our life to achieve what we never had, what we desire and what and where we want to be!

Not everyone is born rich. Most of the successful people we know have faced poverty their entire childhood but their dedication and determination gave them the days that they were working and hoping for. Some famous people we hear about who works for great causes have been through the worst. They make sure to be the kind of person that people follow and idealise.

Everyone dreams even if it varies from person to person. Some people dream to be doctors, to serve humanity. Others may dream to become a social worker, to work for the betterment of the people.  Some people’s dream may be solely to become rich, to provide for themselves and their family with everything that they desired or could never have.

In order to achieve what they desire, they become what they were not in the beginning. The change may be acquired through any kinds of struggle, but at the end, the person doesn’t remain the same.

Jack Ma, now famously known as the co-founder of the Alibaba Group, endured poverty in his childhood. As English was not his mother tongue, he would drive seven miles to learn the language. He applied to the Harvard Business School ten times and got rejected every single time. He did poorly in school. While in college, he completed the course in four years which could have been completed in a year. When he tried to apply for a job, he applied for thirty places and got rejected in every application but nothing could stop him from doing what he wanted to achieve. Today, he is a well-known billionaire.

Paulo Coelho wanted to be a writer from a very young age but his parents opposed his decision. At a certain point, they admitted him to mental asylum but he ran away. Certain publishers rejected his work but it was his determination that made him a well-known and favourite author of almost everyone in the world.

Oprah Winfrey was so poor in her childhood that she used to wear potato sacks instead of clothes and the village children would make fun of her. She was molested and sexually abused by her extended family members. Later, she was fired from her evening news reporter gig, the Baltimore TV reporter role, because she was too emotionally invested in her stories and she was deemed unfit for television news. Today, we know her as the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, a show that focusses on self-improvement and mindfulness, and also as a billionaire. She is praised for overcoming all her problems and hurdles to become a source of inspiration to others.

J. K. Rowling, like any other successful person had to endure a lot: poverty, her mother’s death, divorce and rejection of her manuscript from twelve publishing houses. All these challenges would have been enough to break anyone’s spirit but she was determined to publish her books no matter what. Now, we know her for the famous Harry Potter series.

In short, your background doesn’t matter, but it does matter who you are now as a result of your struggle:

“No one looks at your past, but everyone looks at who you have become.” – Stoori