His mantras for success

His first mantra is time management. Everyone has the same twenty-four hours; we cannot add to them, but we can stop the theft. Cut long phone calls, idle gossip, laziness and endless social media, and you may find two or three hours a day.

The second is to look for the ways a thing can be done, not the ways it cannot. Possibility is everywhere. Don’t tell yourself you will fail; tell yourself you will pass, and look for the road. The third is not to be discouraged by small successes. When he wrote his first book about forty years ago, he says, he never imagined it would travel across India and abroad. Small successes, one after another, strengthened his mind for bigger work.

We want excellence, he says, but skip what it takes: going deep and repeating the work. In primary school his teachers made the class recite counting and poems every day, and he still remembers them. Practice works the same way at every age. Don’t expect results in eight days, as people do when they join a gym.

Decide what matters most and do it first. Many of us have stopped saying no; we say yes to everyone and to everything, and the important work is left undone. Practise saying no, use the phone only as much as you need it, and give less time to messages and Instagram.

To win, he says, you need strategy and good sense. That does not mean being cunning or cheating anyone. It means knowing when to run and when to stop, and sometimes letting others run ahead while you watch and learn. If you are writing a book or launching a product, study what people need first.

Listen for what people mean between the lines, and what they are thinking when they fall silent. Understand their need, and win their trust. Keep reading to know what is happening in the world. And never lose in your own mind first: if you want spring in your life, it can come even in autumn.

If luck were everything, he asks, why would we need to do anything? Your actions can rewrite your luck. Had fate been fixed, those once pushed to the margins would never have risen; Gandhi, in his Sabarmati ashram, embraced sanitation workers and ate with them despite fierce opposition. He also mentions the film 12th Fail, based on the true story of a young man who failed, kept going, and became an IAS officer.

He tells of a friend who knows literature deeply but never writes, and so the years have slipped by. Reprogram the mind with positive thoughts, he says: the subconscious acts on the signals you give it, and on the company you keep.

Late for the office, low marks, missed the merit list: we always have an excuse, he says, and we spend more energy on excuses than on the work. As children, he admits, he and his friends hoped the power would go so they would not have to study.

Excuses do not build a personality or move you forward. In every situation, look for the opportunity instead. Change your attitude, think positively, and keep company with people who make you think differently. Rain, heat, a broken-down vehicle, a family that did not help: put the excuses down, he says, and move on.

Cricket, football, cards or carrom: no one plays a game without rules, he says, and even a king must follow them. Why, then, live without rules? Rules are discipline, and the rules you keep yourself are self-discipline.

There may be difficulties at first; do not be afraid of them. Self-discipline teaches you to use time well and, most of all, to hold your impulses in check. Someone who masters their impulses becomes steady, as Rama was. Learn even a little of it, he says, and when hard times come you will not leave the field.

Confidence is not a feeling, he says, but an inner strength, and it has to be built. It can show light in darkness and ease in difficulty. Without it, even great effort comes to nothing; with it, you can say ‘I can win’ and mean it. The Buddha, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak and Gandhi all had it, and Gandhi’s inner strength let him challenge the British.

His practical steps: each morning, look in the mirror and tell yourself you are confident. Stand straight with your shoulders back, and look people in the eye when you speak. On stage, pause, and don’t sound as though you are reciting; Churchill is still listened to for his speeches. Build your vocabulary with a dictionary, in whatever language you speak. And when nerves strike, count backwards from ten to one and take a long breath.

No one becomes rich overnight, he says. What looks like one night’s success hides many sleepless nights of work and dreams. When a doctor charges a fee for checking your pulse, remember the years of study behind it. Earn ten times, fifty times more if you can, but keep ethics, morals and energy in it, and do not take shortcuts.

The very rich read, he adds: Bill Gates is said to read about a book a week, books that give him new ideas. One idea, or one good teacher, can change a life. Are you ready to change, or will you live the same day until the end?