Second Chances... What If ?

An engineer's question:"What if I had chosen to do a psychology major?"
He could've been a clinical psychologist.

A DJ's question: "What if I hadn't risked my career and stuck with being a commerce graduate?"
He would've worked in firms for accounting.

A home-maker's question: "What if I had gone ahead with my dream of playing international women's cricket?"
She might have gotten selected in the national squad, who knows, might have won a world cup too.

A convicted criminal's question: "What if I hadn't committed that crime?"
He would have not been facing prison time.

A doctor's question: "What if I hadn't stopped pursuing my research to cure cancer?"
He would have been relentlessly determined in his research and might have found a cure as well.

A politician's question: "What if I hadn't got the votes?"
He might have to wait another term to come in power.

A writer's question: "What if I hadn't got any publisher on board?"
His love to write might have been dead and probably would have become a journalist or a copy editor.

A crying mom's question: "What if I hadn't forced my child to study a lot?"
Her child might not have taken a decision to end its life under such pressure.

A failed investor's question: "What if I had chosed real estate and not stock market?"
Things might have been different, him owning more properties and being filthy rich.

All of us crave for second chances. All of us want to find out *WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF* at crossroads, some other decision was taken.We have that peculiar tendency to imagine the best and the worst parts of other side; compare it to the existing choice made; and finally subsume ourselves into daily routine thinking(either being happy or regretting) about that. During conversations as well, this scenario tops the talk where a friend/colleague/relative advices/suggests/imagines how they did something than otherwise expected.
"If I were in your shoes, I would've done it the better way."
"Why are you ranting about that NOW, you should have thought that before doing xyz"
"Well hello, You ought to make some sense, learn from me."
and stuff.

If the choice was NOT made by you, then probably you feel more addicted to explore that area, trying to solve the jigsaw; how you would have done it differently, how someone better (or you) could have saved the day and so on. The little girls who are kidnapped and later exploited, have a very natural tendency to think in the fashion that what their life would've turned out; if they were not thrown into the flesh trade business; growing up with parents like other lucky girls. They were denied a life they deserved to live, and demand for a justification from the higher power who bestows life and death to all.

People curse decisions that screw up big time. People thank the decisions that are made right. Be it due to circumstances, sheer luck, dedicated efforts, technical brilliance, before-hand analysis, out of the box thinking, or many factors associated to the same.
Sports, one such area where a call made on false understandings or wrong timing can make the whole difference whether the sportsperson ends up on the podium or not.
Stand-up comedy, jokes where no laughs are generated; and the comic has to change the course immediately or feel disheartened at the end on the failure of the act.

We long for happy endings. We aspire to make our decisions right. We are ambitious. We loathe failure or defeat. But one thing we forget amidst the rationalization or replacement of wrongs that happened to us. Unless the scientists make path-breaking discoveries on time-travel, work their brains out on parallel universes and solve the inter-linked bootstrap/predestination paradoxes and stuff; the truth is, there's no second chances. The concept of Second Chances is like The Missing Goat Story.
Here it goes: 2 boys decided to play a prank in their school. They rounded up 3 goats from nearby; labelled them 1, 2 and 4 on sides; and let them loose in the school building. Next morning, authorities smelled goat droppings and realized goats had tresspassed the premises. In the search operation, they found 3 goats labelled 1, 2 and 4. They were now worried. Where was the Goat no. 3? The whole week was spent in finding out the missing goat no. 3 as there was panic and frustration amongst teachers, staff, guards, helpers, etc. The 2 boys watched in joy because the goat no. 3 was never to be found; it never existed.
Similar to the school staff, it is us, who are always trying to find out the unknown problems we might be facing, because we assume that it is bound to happen. We try to find mistakes in our own resolve, look for the elusive goat no. 3 because, sometime or the other, we have been wrong in past; so we assume we will be wrong in the future as well.

Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motors once said, "Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them"
We have got to prove him wrong, if we want to be happy in life.
I am a happy person. I have been happy for quite sometime now and it has nothing to do with my under-flowing bank account or monotonous work schedule. The beautiful atmosphere I breathe these days is the sole reason behind this emotion. No, It’s not the weather – It’s the feeling!
The feeling that even if things go south, there will always be another time. Nope, not a second chance, but a new chance. A renewed energy. And the next time I enter a race, I ought to win it, coz I've learned from my mistakes in the previous ones.
Thomas Alva Edison, the 18th century science genius failed 9,999 times in creating the light bulb. A journalist asked him about this experience and he said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
And that, is the fighting spirit with which I sign off on this topic.

Luck vs Effort

A simple scenario. An easy task. A plain job. An uncomplicated examination. A rudimentary situation. An uncompounded fundamental. A painless chore. An elementary activity. Whenever we come across any stuff/piece/business/quest that we feel is a cakewalk, at that time we do not consider any factors that relate to the ease of the task.

Now swipe that with something that is mind-numbing, difficult to the core, impossible from the word go, sophisticated and a complicated responsibility, we start identifying bottlenecks to reason the improbability of the task at hand. And that's completely normal. Human beings are designed to reason. Human beings are designed to be selfish. In the end, if we succeed, it was our effort. If we fail, it was our luck that didn't work! Isn't it?
This is the point of view of majority of us, during the commonest times and it defines our perspective during trying times that we lay back on these 2 crucial factors (well, almost always). I am not saying that we rely on them every time, but, a general trend is to be cozy with that analysis. In my opinion, situations or their conclusions are not completely black and white as we think them to be. A Yes/No scenario is easier to be caught upto, but I prefer being in the gray area and sticking to logic rather than positioning my ideas on the basis of outcomes. Stuff happens! It doesn't mean it's the end of the world.

Coming back to our point, What really defines the success of an individual? Luck? Or Effort? Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the 20th century gave the world a very eloquent quote: "When the solution is simple, God is answering." At the very first instance, we feel *scientist believes in GOD? OMG, that's something new!* His underlying message, Einstein (being a pantheist and an agnostic) referred to "God" as a metaphor for the laws of physics. What's the best part, his statement appeals to every section of the society of believers/non-believers.

For all the religious people out there, it's a direct statement which focusses on luck of any situation (God is on your side, folks). For all the others, the focus should be on efforts you chip in, your perseverance and dedication in your work, the tenacity of practicality and implementation of laws (of physics, in this case). America's 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson stated: "I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it!"
In a sense, I very much agree with President Jefferson. But (aah, hear comes the counter).
Lets see this.
97% of the water available on the planet is salt water. From the rest 3%, only 33% of that can be used for drinking. According to this Human Development report of the UN, 1.2 billion people (appr 1/5th of humanity) lives in areas of water scarcity with about 43 nations affected in all. If you are lucky NOT to be born there, you'll get a regular water supply with basic amenities. For those people, everyday survival is a challenge. And at that time, no Einstein or Jefferson quote can be of any frigging use for them.
Ok, so this does showcase that luck is really a very big factor to success. So is effort not?

Let's see why it is equally necessary!
This is in 1980s. Ramji is a 40 year old businessman. He is smart, caring individual, has a stable income, good marriage, and a textbook definition of a successful life. Ramji's office is 30 minutes walk from his home via a mini-forest. Yes, he has an ambassador car but prefers walking which also caters to his health requirements and tranquility while admiring beauty of the nature during his journey. One fine day, returning back home, on the route equidistant from his home and office, he hears screams of a girl behind few trees. A closer audible sense makes him realize that the girl in question wants to escape from some ruffians trying to take advantage of her in the loneliness of the area. Here's Ramji, a fragile bodied mid-40s individual, who hears a girl crying for help. He tries to get a head-count of boys, and gets an idea that they are at least more than 2. There couldn't be any immediate help in the vicinity.

"Able-bodied youngsters who are in their prime of their age, who knows, they might be armed as well, they will be completely ruthless to whoever person that interferes in their dastardly act of quenching their lust. If I go there and try rescue her from them, who knows they might be successful in hurting the girl and killing me as well?" A logical approach would be to ignore the act, proceed back home and let the girl suffer whatever that's written in her destiny! Destiny, you heard it right. Ramji thought to console his conscious by pointing the incident to the girl's luck, rather than risking (or worse, losing) his life and anyway being unable to save the girl. Ramji had very little time to choose from luck (of the girl) vs effort (to go and try to save her).
He thought *even if I die saving her, at-least I won't regret I didn't try*. In case if the boys are too stupid and are just intensified at the moment, they might even get scared and run away from a sight of another person finding out what they are about to commit! He pumped himself up, gathered his gut, cracked up an idea of sorts.
Ramji collected few stones and twigs, started running towards that direction shouting "Leave the girl alone, run away boys, we are from the police. If you stay there and we catch you, none will be spared. Trust me, we will devastate the next 20 years of your life." Voila, that trick worked. There were 4 boys and all of them vanished like water getting evaporated at 100 degree Celsius temperature. The girl was on the ground bruised, tired of struggling, face on the other side, crying in relief. Reaching out to the girl, Ramji said, "Everything will be alright sister, you are safe now". As he turned to take a look at her face, horrors of the horror shook him. It was his daughter! Ramji was intrigued by the turn of events, the consternation on his face was quite visible. What if he had walked away from her? The thought itself sent chills down his spine. He thanked the lord above. His and his family's life returned to normalcy. Was it luck that saved the girl? Was it the courage and effort Ramji put in? The odds were staked against him, still he came out victorious.

If we carefully check out the angles involved, we can swing the factors to both sides. Believers in luck will say, "It was destiny, was bound to happen." Believers of effort would say, "It was his attempt, that made him save the day". You may be free to agree or disagree with any perspective, but one thing cannot be neglected. Fortune and endeavour go hand in hand. Both are equally important. Both of them are like the wheels of a bicycle, without which it cannot function properly. It's like salt and pepper, adequate and optimal amounts of both are required for a successful recipe.

Complete reliance on luck may prove dangerous as the person will always believe in destiny and will never work effectively. An individual without right circumstances and environment to flourish will never be able to succeed regardless of his/her tries and attempts. If you want to be successful, make the relevant trade-offs. When your inner self becomes the enabler, then the combination of hard work and luck becomes possible and happiness is achieved.
It's up to you and your brains whether you are an early bird or a second mouse :)

Any fool can have bad luck, the art consists in knowing how to exploit it. - Frank Wedekind