To be successful ....

I define success as "staying happy". In order to be successful, or to stay happy, one has to be
1) Physically fit
2) Mentally fit

Physical fitness is to keep yourself away from disease, ailments and aging problems. Exercise helps you to keep the body fit, fight external disease-causing-agents, gives you the ability to self defend and keeps your body light.

Mental fitness simply means to keep your heart free from worries and keep your brain busy with creative ideas. An empty mind is a haven for devilish ideas. But remember that devilish ideas cannot co-exist with creative ideas. So inculcate the habit of filling your mind with solemn thoughts and you automatically push the bad ideas to the doorsteps. Meditation can help you attain mental fitness.

On the other hand, remember that "staying happy" is very different from "being happy" - former is to force yourself to be happy irrespective of what's happening to you or with you, where as later is when something happens to you and you get happiness as a result.

So understand that both physical fitness and mental fitness are needed to attain success in your life. People will follow you when you are attractive both physically and mentally. You will fall short of your goals when you lack either of these traits.

Good luck.

To reach the goal ........

If I want to reach my goal I have to
1) Stay healthy
2) Prioritize tasks
3) Practice discipline
4) Work hard

Health is of prime importance. To be a healthy person I have to exercise regularly. Rising early in the morning at 5.30 will give me at least an hour, between 6 and 7, to spend time on the track jogging and stretching. More importantly I get the fresh air, the glimpse of the nature, the onlooking red rising run, the childishly chirping birds and the sweet-sweating green grass, things that will only make my day even more beautiful. And of course, jogging cannot be possible (rain, physical ailment, etc) on some days, when I would do yoga or other home work. I can be at the top of my health if I can exercise 5 days a week and adhere to this cycle.

Prioritizing daily tasks is other important factor that will determine how soon I will reach the goal. I should be able to successfully divide time between personal and professional life. On a given week day, time between 8 and 5 would always be spent for professional life. Thus, I will have time between 6 and 10 for my personal activities. The fours hours should be diligently divided among family and friends, entertainment, home work, and personal development. I wish I could take at least 1 hour of this 4 hours to listen to radio (npr.com) and read a news paper. I plan to use weekends to do most of my personal development.

Discipline is a self explanatory subject. Of the 4 hours I have for my personal activities, I cannot afford to watch sitcoms on TV, spend hours on phone, or lay in the couch.

To achieve my goal, I will need to acquire knowledge- a lot of it - knowledge in the subject, knowledge about the industry, knowledge about the people, and knowledge about my abilities. Hard work in the form of reading books, analyzing ideas, writing computer programs, and writing articles about the progress of the project will decide where I go from now. I will experience physical as well as mental exhaustion, which will be the norm of the process. A mental preparation now will certainly help to actually live the process.

If I can control these four factors I can accomplish my goal before I am 35. I have to remember to stay healthy, divide time aptly between personal and professional life, not to get into trouble by practicing discipline and above all to work the hardest during this period to acquire all the required knowledge.

What's the goal? To have 1 million users, before I turn 35, for the company that I will start. (I am feeling a little jittery as I write this statement, but that's understood. Also a feeling of uneasiness quickly spread in my heart as I am opening it to a big audience, whom I do not know personally.)


Good luck.