Aditya Shamsher Malla

Doubletree by Hilton Pune

They say experience is the best teacher. And the story of growing up takes us through various stages of life, each with a purpose and a lesson. When you look back, you do indeed connect the dots.

At a certain stage in my life I was at the peak of success. It was literally a pedestal and I had not got it easy. I had worked hard, very hard and delivered consistent results under very demanding conditions. So the success seemed natural and deserved. Little did I know that there are lessons yet to be learnt...

Then a storm struck and a series of decisions which seemed right at the time, took me on a different path altogether. I could see the castle crumble and even though I tried my best to hold on to it, life seemed to slip like sand through the fingers. When I thought I could see the challenges clearly and gathered myself, I was struck with the demand of a huge financial penalty, created by an erroneous submission of my tax returns. As if this was not enough, I was dragged in as a respondent in a complex claim against my Company. All this in a period of 18 months!

With diminished resources and mounting stress, each day took me lower in self esteem and mental strength. While I always believed in prayer and ‘Karma’, it was only now that these became my lifelines. Since none of these situations were a result of my conscious actions, and in fact misrepresentation of the actual events, I still held on to my faith in God.

It was at this moment that I received a goodwill call from a friend, who seemed to have had a super smooth sailing and seemed to be born for success. The conversation led me to eventually discuss my misery with him and this was a turning point. My friend was kind enough to give me a patient hearing and then offered to share his story. On hearing what he had to say, I realized the waters I was in were not as turbulent as he had just swam through. Yet today he was an example of success and all that is right. Suddenly I felt a surge of positive energy inside me. The kind you feel when you can see the shores through the mist. This one instance gave me the strength I needed to get through the last stretch and slowly things began to fall in place. I was back on the path I had deviated from and started putting it all back together.

It was at this moment that I received a goodwill call from a friend, who seemed to have had a super smooth sailing and seemed to be born for success. The conversation led me to eventually discuss my misery with him and this was a turning point. My friend was kind enough to give me a patient hearing and then offered to share his story. On hearing what he had to say, I realized the waters I was in were not as turbulent as he had just swam through. Yet today he was an example of success and all that is right. Suddenly I felt a surge of positive energy inside me. The kind you feel when you can see the shores through the mist. This one instance gave me the strength I needed to get through the last stretch and slowly things began to fall in place. I was back on the path I had deviated from and started putting it all back together.

I owe a lot to this friend, only for sharing with me his own story. I decided that day that I will, without hesitation, share my story, ups and downs alike, as we never know who would draw strength from reading it and choose to fight another day instead of giving up.

Material success does not teach you as much as failure and the feeling of rejection. Family is the biggest source of strength and inspiration at such times and keeping it all together against all odds will give you a sense of achievement when you look back from the shores at the rough seas you just left behind.

Behind every success story is a series of failures.