Two decades ago, when I was serving as in the police, I saw the current Kerala Chief Minister, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, personally lead a protest ‘dharna’ before the Trivandrum Collectorate. At that time, his party was in the opposition.
He was sitting on the road, raising slogans. As the day went on, it got excruciatingly hot — the sun was beating down mercilessly. Yet, he did not budge an inch till 6 pm.
And this is not just him — every grassroots political leader goes through an unbelievable struggle. And even then, fewer than 0.01% probably get to the top.
In fact, not just in politics — this is true for any field. Some of my friends who run massively successful startups (including a mega-unicorn) look very lucky. Yet, I have known them struggling for years, doing things that never took off.
When I was at the University of Pennsylvania, a few of my college contemporaries were assistant professors there — and despite a top-notch Ph.D., post-doc, and lots of papers, they were on tenterhooks about landing a tenure.
Some people might win a lottery. But those are rare exceptions.
If you see someone who became successful easily, you probably don’t know them well enough.
There is no shortcut.
Grind is the way. There is no other.
– Rajan