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When launched brands are taught the hard way of life early in their career, they start to appreciate others and treat all with respect and dignity
By Farill Farook
Growing up, key questions that were burning in my mind were: “How does an individual become successful or become a champion? Why don’t individuals follow what they truly love? Why do some achieve success and fail to sustain? And most importantly is there a blueprint to achieve success?”
A moment that was always lingering in my teenage years, was during the Olympics games or while watching the grand slam tennis tournaments between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, wondering how these athletes reached the pinnacle of their success at a young age and where do I start.
After years of confusion, pain seeking answers I pursued my own journey of studying and researching over 300 successful personalities across the globe from business icons, world-class athletes, champions of industries, creative disruptors, speakers, scientists and what I understood is phenomenal. Each person has the supreme liberty and potential to achieve excellence and is not necessarily restricted to a few only if they know how to play the game and understand the rules.
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| The book ‘Discover the winner in you’ is filled with fascinating insights and wisdom to the reader and serves as a road map for individuals to participate in their own unique success journey |
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| A launched brand is similar to picking a raw fruit from a tree and expecting it to ripen
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Why do most people lose even before the game has begun?
Today, most people seek answers to the mysteries of life unaware of where their journey ahead is. The fundamental mistake the majority makes is that they play the game of life incorrectly as they’re unaware of the rules and fall short or get confused along the way in the pursuit of happiness. Their main focus is to finish the race as fast as they could without enjoying the process or discovering themselves. Too many individuals work really hard to become rich and famous enjoying the short-term glory, yet fail to establish their core identity and end up trapped in their own success trap.
In any game, a solid understanding of the rules makes the individual smarter in choices and be better equipped to face the challenges and plan a strategy to solve them. When a person is aware of the rules that are similar to laws, it will help the person keep progressing and gain a competitive edge.
While children and youth have a core advantage as they are starting out, the good news is that anybody can achieve excellence in their domain at any age or stage by turning a new page, writing a new script and creating it a best seller.
How to craft your career path?
The key factor which distinguished why some succeed naturally and others struggle was that they discovered their core identity and converted it into a craft. The reality is that each person has the liberty of building an identity based on their passion or purpose in four avenues by participating in their own unique process. The author has researched and identified four avenues that anybody could master to build their own career path.
The four avenues are based on different age parameters and will explore critical analysis and drawbacks on how each person can shape their legacy as based on my book ‘Discover the winner in you’.
Excelling in a career in which one is truly passionate and deeply connected can be considered as one of the finest triumphs one could achieve in shaping one’s legacy, which will also inspire and impact many others to follow. People who create an identity for themselves see the world differently and differentiate from the crowd.
Success has no shortcuts and is as similar to growing a tree and takes years of nurturing to bear the fruits. The author believes that a period of five years is essential to build a personal identity and 10 years to design and own a craft. If a person achieves success, stardom or power in less than five years’ time, one can be considered launched. A launched individual will succeed only placed with the right environment and discipline or will lead into isolation and pain.
Let’s explore the four areas further in detail:
Nurtured
How often do we see talented stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rafael Nadal, or Christiano Ronaldo and think ‘wow they are so talented’ and wonder how they got all this talent, and if they were in fact born with this talent? In most cases, we label them as gifted, or individuals who possess a special ability over others. In reality, they are individuals who were nurtured at a very young age towards a passion, which became an art in later.
Nurtured individuals are identified and nurtured from a very young age and moulded into a super talent with the environment. Individuals are nurtured at a very young age by a family member, teacher, or mentor who saw a larger vision.
Age 02-10
Every child is similar to a little lump of coal that can be formed into a diamond with proper care and nurturing. When a child is nurtured from a very young age in the right environment and fed with the appropriate knowledge and skill, the child grows into an exceptional talent and holds an extra advantage over others who identified their passion later in life. Regarded as child prodigies, super kids or gifted, but in fairness, they have been nurtured from a young age by a person who saw a larger vision for them and nurtured them to the next level on a daily consistent basis.
Nurtured talents can be considered most fortunate and easiest to convert into a passion as they operate from an open mind. When children are nurtured into a skill with daily reinforcements, they gradually develop the skill into a passion and do exceptionally well in that line of activity. This is the reason that many countries train children from a very young age with the objective of nurturing them to represent the country at global contests, such as the Olympics or Commonwealth games.
Individuals who were nurtured into top brands include Michael Jackson, Professor Stephen Hawkings, Sachin Tendulkar, Aravinda De Silva, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, Gabby Douglas, Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, etc.
Discovered
In this category are individuals who discovered their passion between the ages of 10-24 and converted it into a special talent or craft. When a child or teen is unconsciously programmed into an activity, sport, or larger purpose; the potential for exponential growth is significantly larger than learning the process as an adult. Professionals, such as actors, pilots, architects, scientists, teachers, sportsmen, forces, diplomats, and politicians are individuals who consciously discovered their passion and converted it into a larger purpose.
There is nothing more rewarding in life than when a person follows his heart towards areas that inspire and uplift within. Successful people have discovered their life calling by investing in their interests during their leisure time or carrying out an activity that brought fulfilment to them. The best gift a parent could give to a child is the ability to discover what they enjoy the most and nurture this activity or skill into talent and make them follow through with the right environment.
Talents that Discovered their identity
Individuals who discovered their passion or purpose and created a world-class identity include Denzel Washington, Brian Charles Lara, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Robbins, Shahrukh Khan, Sunil Perera, Warren Buffet, Rajinikanth, Ramani Fernando, Mohammed Ali, Madhuri Dixit, David Blaine, etc.
Launched
A launched brand is similar to picking a raw fruit from a tree and expecting it to ripen. In all probability, what are the chances of the fruit getting ripe or becoming spoilt? The chances of the fruit going bad are high unless proper precautions are taken from storing the fruit in the fridge or in a safe environment. The same theory is applied to individuals who are launched as public or corporate brands without a solid foundation; the chances of the talent getting ruined are high unless they are mentored or surrounded by the right environment. One of the critical factors that define a launch person is when they have been converted into fame within zero to 36 months period thus not going through the entire process.
Today we live in a microwave era where people look for instant solutions to reach the top, rather than take time to plan and discover themselves. Most talents that launch themselves as brands without a foundation find themselves in an uncomfortable position when things go beyond their control and fall into success depression.
Success depression is similar to sending a refugee to a developed country and after a while sending him back to the camp to live in misery.
Time and time again we see successful talents being recognised publicly and after a few years go into exile, while some others become victims of their own success by getting into confrontations, drugs, alcoholism, uncontrollable desires, bankruptcy and suicide. It is sad to note that many individuals parachuted into power and stardom, only to end up in turmoil due to the inability to cope with fame and change of emotions and become prey to their own success. Today, reality TV programs have become a part of life and such programs bring out the best as well as worst in talents. While some programs have mentors and coaches to support the winners, most others conduct programs for commercial benefits with no support mechanism, thus damaging talents.
Child artistes who become overnight stars are prime victims of negative launches and pay a hefty price, as they are not groomed to handle adverse pressure and change of emotions. It’s clear that to successfully build a brand it takes an average period of 3-5 years, and any talents that skyrocket into a brand or title within the first 0-3 years is considered a launched brand. The first few years are critical as it is during these periods that one understands discipline, challenges, failures, pain, winning, team spirit while revolving around the cycle of building a brand. Too often launched talents enjoy early success and once the hype is reduced, fall into a level of uncertainty and lose themselves in the process of becoming victims of success depression. When establishing a brand during the first five years, learn to be humble by developing credibility and presence during the process. When brands are launched without a foundation to support and sustain, it generally leads to a traumatising experience.
Time and time again we see successful talents being recognised publicly and after a few years go into exile, while some others become victims of their own success by getting into confrontations, drugs, alcoholism, uncontrollable desires, bankruptcy and suicide.
Positive launch
Savji Dholakia is a Surat-based diamond merchant and billionaire businessman who famously made his son do odd jobs to learn the value of money. He is famed for giving large bonuses and special gifts to his key employees during festive seasons. In contrast, he got his son to survive on his own. He wanted him to learn life skills of earning his own income the hard way by sending him to another district to look for a job without using his father’s identity. His son had to work his way from the bottom-up and present himself as a poor boy, which led him to secure a job in a call centre, a shoe shop, and McDonald’s.
Even though his father could have easily enrolled him on the management team of his empire, he refused to do so to teach the priceless lesson of building character and independence from scratch. When launched brands are taught the hard way of life early in their career, they start to appreciate others and treat all with respect and dignity.
Example: Justin Bieber, Bashar al Assad, Rahul Roy, Lasith Malinga, Inzamam Ul Haq, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, etc. While some launched brands succeeded to their environment, many fail to sustain and drift away. The danger of being launched too early too fast without proper support and foundation could create long-term emotional and psychological challenges. Many reality stars, social media influences, child actors, celebrity and rich kids fall into this dilemma unconsciously.
How to sustain early success
The secret to managing a launched brand for the long-haul is by making them feel humble and appreciate what life has given them. Many launched brands with early success let their superego take centre-stage by demanding respect rather the earning it and lose their identity after a while making them feel empty.
Below are a few modes to sustain a launched brand:
Designed
From the four categories, individuals who designed their passion or purpose into a brand or craft can be regarded as the toughest, since they have discovered their mission or core-expertise during the second phase of their life with significantly higher commitments and baggage. Most often than not, individuals who designed their brand are those who went through life based on conformity, settling for a job, or title, until they discovered there is a deeper meaning to life and then they pursue their next phase.
How does one design one’s passion into a brand identity?
The most important element is to believe that each person is unique and possesses the aptitude to get to the next level by participating in the five-year journey. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky fried chicken at the age of 66 after being rejected over one thousand times, Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa at the age of 73 after being imprisoned for 27 years, Geoffrey Bawa switched careers at age 38 from a reluctant lawyer to becoming an iconic international architect and landscape gardener while Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States of America at the age of 47 after humble beginnings.
In fact, 25-45 can be regarded as the best years of a person’s life where they could maximize their talent and discover themselves by making wise choices. Unfortunately, most people get lost during this period as they settle for a job or common frameworks which they least enjoy, resulting in a drop in creativity and imagination each day. The key to establishing yourself is to continue working on one’s passion or collaborating with a larger purpose as much as possible. Most designed brands that are seen in the public eye are regarded as an overnight success, yet with deeper exploration, one realises that each person has participated in their own unique process and converted into an identity.
The author believes that a period of five years is essential to build a personal identity and 10 years to design a craft. Success has no shortcuts and is as similar to growing a tree and takes years of nurturing to bear the fruits. Therefore, if anyone wishes to create their identity and build a reputation, the worst time to plant a seed is now and the best time is five years ago, but at least you can start now.
Therefore, if anyone wishes to create their identity and build a reputation, the worst time to plant a seed is now and the best time is five years ago but at least you can start now.
The book ‘Discover the winner in you’ is filled with fascinating insights and wisdom to the reader and serves as a road map for individuals to participate in their own unique success journey.
Individuals who were nurtured into top brands
Talents that discovered their identity
Most designed brands that are seen in the public eye are regarded as an overnight success, yet with deeper exploration, one realises that each person has participated in their own unique process and converted into an identity
(Farill Farook is an entrepreneur turned speaker, coach, educator and Business Psychologist. He is presently working as a Career Development Officer at a leading school in Colombo. Farill was awarded the prestigious Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the year (TOYP) award for the category Moral and/or environmental leadership organised by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) for his contribution to inspiring youth and future leaders. In addition, he is also a special grant from the US government to conduct Leadership, Public Speaking and English education programs partnering with the American Center Colombo. As a professional speaker, he conducts programs on leadership psychology, effective communication and intrinsic motivation and have conducted
programs locally and internationally.)
(Discover the winner in you is available on Amazon (https://amzn.to/2stgDfP) and to order a copy contact/text 0775767723 or mail [email protected]. This book will be a roadmap for many individuals especially the youth or millennial who seek clarity and purpose towards invent, reinvent their identity.)
