Author and legal advisor to the UN (Human Rights), Rajesh Talwar whose The Judiciary on Trial was reviewed by Khushwant Singh and used as the lead story in his column ‘With Malice Towards One and All,’ where he praised it fulsomely and recommended that ‘it deserved to be widely read’ is back with a new book THE MANTRA AND MEANING OF SUCCESS (BRIDGING BORDERS) that tells the meaning of success and provides guidance or mantras that will help an aspirant on the road to success in the context of your environment. The book predominantly discusses in the Indian context, tips to attain success using four different theories on success and how people can learn to enjoy their success.
MOVING THE GOAL POSTS: MONEY, POWER AND FAME
Power and money do lure famous people. There are scores of instances of celebrities, such as cricketers or actors, who cash in their celebrity status to pursue power or money or both.
On the other hand, there is also the interesting phenomenon that you may start by wishing to pursue money and then later feel drawn to fame or power. Or it could happen that you acquire power in the first instance and then feel drawn to money and fame.
Once you become famous you will soon realise two things about it – aside from the loss of privacy. It is an elusive animal; it cannot be relied upon to stay with you. You are a great singer for a few years, then some new kid comes along and people seem to forget you. Or it could be that you become a leading actress in Bollywood but realise that your fame will fade with age. (This may be less true of actors in Bollywood, who have a longer shelf life, so to speak: Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, etc.) If you are an actress, once your hair starts to grey or wrinkles start to appear (and make-up can no longer hide them), you will either have to start doing supporting actress roles – not the main lead anymore – or go into another related line such as film production or direction (as actress Kangana Ranaut has been thinking of doing). Yesteryear bollywood superstar Meenakshi Seshadri recently posted a selfie of herself waiting in a queue for a few hours to get her driving licence, somewhere in the US. ‘No one recognises me here,’ she lamented.
The same is true for a cricketer. Once you enter your thirties, the clock starts ticking. If you leave the country, you will be forgotten even more easily. It all depends on the nature of your profession. If you are in the world of glamour as a model or an actress, youth is your biggest asset. During my time as a young lawyer, a joke used to go around the courts:
What’s the difference between a hooker and a lawyer? A prostitute
makes her money in her youth; a lawyer, once he’s grey-haired and
wrinkled.
It’s part of the reason why there have been some cricketers who have sold their souls for a few crores and agreed to participate in match fixing. This is not to justify their alleged involvement in any way, but merely a way to better understand their inner reasoning and motivations.
Money, all famous people start to realise sooner or later, is a more reliable friend than fame (or power, for that matter).
(Extracted from THE MANTRA and MEANING of SUCCESS with permissions from the author and Bridging Borders)
