FEAR is the KEY

I had a discussion with somebody recently and told her that an average human being does most of the things that he/she does in fear of something or the other. And this behaviour is apparent at every age of the average human. As a school going child, he studies because he is afraid of, either, not passing in the exam or of not getting good grades. An athlete might be training very hard because he is afraid of, either, losing or not performing well enough in a race. As a young man, who is going out to meet his girlfriend, he wants to appear well groomed because he might be afraid that if his appearance is shabby, the girl he is wooing might reject him. Similarly, a girl, who has got a date with a guy she likes, might not want to meet him that day because she is afraid that he might find her ugly (just because she has developed a very prominent pimple on her face that very morning!). At the work place, a person might be working very hard and, as they say, "toe the line" of his superiors, because this person might be afraid of either losing his job or not getting the promotion/raise that he wants badly. In all these cases that I have mentioned above, the bottom line is that, FEAR is the deciding factor or the key to the actions of an average human being and, in fact, this is considered the normal behaviour by majority of the humans.



A lot of people try to take undue advantage of this "key" to human actions and manipulate the behaviour of people around them by using this "key". An average human being has the tendency to get manipulated because of this fear of losing something or the other all the time and, eventually, makes very insignificant contribution to the society at large.



It is my firm belief that those humans who have made any significant contributions to the society are those who either managed to keep a check on their fears or are those who managed to completely break free from the shackles of fear that may have gripped them. Take, for example, the life of Mr. Bill Gates. I believe he left a very renowned business school, without completing his studies there, and started Microsoft. When Mr. Gates left the B-school, he also chose to give up the chance of getting a lucrative job at some reputed company with a handsome salary and all the "perks" that are usually associated with such jobs, viz, a nice car, a nice house in some expensive area of the city where he would have chosen to stay and maybe a very attractive spouse too (not that he doesn't have one now!)! In choosing to give up on all these possible comforts of life, he also chose to give up the fears (if he had any) of not getting all these in life and, instead, pursue his dream fearlessly. It does take a lot of courage, grit and determination to pursue one's dreams, for nobody can ever guarantee you success in this pursuit but if you do manage to realize them.....then, as they say, the sky is the limit ( the success Mr.Gates has achieved is a testimony to this) .



I am also reminded of another individual, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi - a singer par excellence from the Hindustani classical school of singing, who also seems to have this fearlessness in him since a very early age. It seems, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi ran away from home at the age of 13 to find himself a guru who could teach him to sing. I don't know about others, but I, personally, haven't met any individual till now who had the courage to run away from home at such a young age in pursuit of his dreams. I guess I haven't met any real achievers, personally, till now......only heard and read about them.

I think it is our fears, especially, of losing whatever material comforts we have, that prevent us from achieving anything significant in life and making any significant contributions to the lives of the people around us.


Before I end, here is a very famous poem by a very famous poet for your reading and, maybe, your thinking pleasure too?



The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost