What makes one a winner in life

The purpose of life is to be happy and have a decent lifestyle. Photo: Collected

There are plenty of plants in our world. The process by which these plants grow is really interesting and bears a life lesson. Only when there is a perfect balance of water, air, sunlight, and nutrients, do millions of cells within a plant grow, and the plant keeps getting taller day by day. 

Clearly, a plant's growth depends on some external things, such as water, air and sunlight. If there isn't enough supply of it, a plant cannot grow bigger and taller.

Our life is like a plant. In most cases, in order to have that growth momentum in life and be successful, you need some external or aerial help, most of which are beyond your control.

The purpose of life is to be happy and have a decent lifestyle (from a materialistic point of view) unless you are into some mystic pursuit or have decided to practice asceticism. 

From childhood, we are prescribed to study hard for a good job that pays well. But it's not guaranteed that if you study hard, you are going to have an economically sound life. Even after studying or working hard, you might have to flounder in life.

Meanwhile, you will see many others who did not put in much effort but they are doing better in their lives. These are moments when you are railroaded into pondering what was wrong with your approach to life. 

Very naturally, a question keeps swirling in our minds like the vortex of a cyclone. What makes someone a winner in life?

Let me put it in context. There are many average-performing students doing better in life than high achievers. You probably studied hard and were one of the toppers at your university. Now you have a decent earning, probably around Tk60-90K per month. Considering the turmoil in the kitchen market, you are now finding it hard to have a good life, even after cutting corners.

Amidst all these, you suddenly meet a friend who was a poor performer at the university and never cared about learning anything new. Now he is doing much better than you. 

While exchanging pleasantries, you get to know that after doing terribly bad at university, he is now taking care of the business his father developed. It was a cakewalk for him, even if he did not put any effort into life to achieve something. 

Life, with all its fortune, came to him without any hard work.

It happens to most of us. We strain every nerve, take part in the race of life to achieve success, and we get close but no cigar. Someone else who was running at the speed of a tortoise suddenly comes, lifts the trophy of life and conquers the race while rolling in all the luxuries. As clichéd as it may sound, the truth is that you cannot have the upper hand in life unless some invisible factors are in your favour.

Uncontrollable factors such as where you are born and the support system you have (like helpful kith and kin) decide how far you will go in life. Someone who is born into the family of a business baron doesn't have to do anything in life. Life presents itself before them like a prosperous spring.

However, it doesn't mean the end of someone's journey, especially one coming from a humble origin. For people aspiring to do something big, it's important to remember that there is also a chance for you if you make the right decisions. 

In fact, this is smartness. If you are smart enough, it's possible to navigate through the uncertain alleys of life by making the right choices at the right time. 

Because it's all about the choices you make in life that can make you happy or sad, our aspirations and abilities are often at odds, but if you can strike a balance between these two, you are well on your way to finally having some solace in life.

For instance, only being a meritorious student and a top performer at university will not guarantee you a good job. If you want to be a winner in your career, you have to understand the way the world works. And the job market demands more than just your acuity and acumen.

Outside of spending time in the library and delving deep into different subject matters, you need to start developing your network right from the university. You meet people instead of meeting your professors after class, establish communication with them, do some personal branding on LinkedIn, start writing your opinion on issues you care about and become a part of different social media groups that keep organising different events on a regular basis.

Declare your presence at those events and keep connecting with people. At the end of your university life, reach out to the people you have interacted with for all these years. You will see that what you have learned or achieved can sometimes matter less than your connections.

Life is actually a game that's beyond our control. Even if you try hard to have a good life, invisible forces might not let you have that peace of mind. Life will keep throwing surprises at you. There is nothing you can do about it. It's difficult to digest a proposition as abstract as this one (as articulated in this piece). Only those who have tried and failed in life and at the same time, witnessed the rise of less deserving people can identify with this idea.

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Md Morshedul Alam Mohabat is a columnist who likes to delve deeper into the human psyche and social incongruities with a view to exploring the factors that influence these.       

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.