Obstacles to Success

Compiled By
Prof. (Dr.) Praveen Choudhary
Medical Superintendent, CBPACS, New Delhi

Most often we do blame others for our failure and it is also a great causative factor of our repeated
failure because we cannot correct the mistakes we have done in the euphoria that we are absolutely
correct. The moment we are unsuccessful, we attribute particular factor as the cause of our failure. In
failures, we don’t like to confess our own faults and weaknesses. Each person tries to hold himself
faultless and lay the blame upon somebody or something else or even on bad luck. The fact is that, all the
obstacles of success are due to our faulty mental thought patterns.
Negative attitude:
An individual is what he thinks and it is an attribute of mind. Positive thoughts result into faith;
whereas, negative thoughts result into fear. Former is the generator of success and latter is the generator
of failure. Negative attitude includes negative thinking and negative approach in every aspect of life. An
individual is remembered only for two things: the problems he solves or the ones he creates. The person
with negative approach never goes for solving the problems. Negative emotions such as doubt, fear,
worry, anger, hostility, self-pity and jealousy will drain away a person’s energy. Attitude is a decisive
factor in achieving something. Let us have an example. A person with positive thoughts will rejoice by
seeing rose because according to him thorns have beautiful roses. For a negative attitude person, roses
have thorns. Negative thinking doesn’t do any good, it just holds a person back from accomplishing the
things, he wants to do. The negative attitude that results from negative thinking process causes negative
outlook in all aspects of an individual’s life such as behaviour, physical actions, emotions as also negative
mindedness.
1. Mental factors: Pessimism, Fear (Fear of failure, Fear of being criticized, Fear of being rejected),
Depression, Stress, Jealousy and selfishness, Obliviousness (Absent mind), Indicisiveness, improvidence.
2. Behavioural factors: Scepticism, Rigidity, Ego, Cynicism, Escapism, Hesitation, Introvertedness,
Perfectionism.
3. Emotional factors: Panic disorders, Anger, Anxiety, Emotional outbreaks, Nostalgia, Feeling of
self-pitty, Quarrelsome nature (agitation and malice), Negative criticism, Overcradulousness.
4. Factors associated with actions: Procrastination and reluctance, Recklessness, Laziness,
Tectlessness, Inadequate and inadvertent action, Tedious tasks, Lack of familiarity with work,
Disproportionate risk taking, Misconduct, Barbarism.
5. Other factors: Non-disciplined friends, Comparison with others, Over expectations, Politics.
Mental factors:
Pessimism:
The pessimistic is one, who often feels about the failure before starting a task. A pessimistic has
retrogressive thoughts. He can easily be recognized by his languishing appearance. He remains in a state
of fear and perplexity every time on account of his low energy levels. Oscar wilde has given a definition
of a pessimist by saying, ‘A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity
knocks’. Life is like a wheel, which has many spokes for its support. In the same way, a person has many
supports in his life such as parents, wife, children, friends and other relatives etc. If one spoke breaks, it
doesn’t mean that the movement of life would stop. There is always an option of repairs. But in this
condition a pessimist is caught upon by grief; he will think life is worthless. He will break all the
remaining spokes due to isolation from the rest of supports. It is true that defeat at mental level is more
devastating than defeat at physical level. A pessimist cannot tolerate setbacks. He thinks that he has lost
everything and he will never be able to regain. He doesn’t have ‘bounce-back ability’. He doesn’t
appreciate gaining, if any, as he thinks he got it by chance. It is nothing but to downplay the ability of
self. He looks the negative side of an object and his mind is full of negative aspects of the things. He fears
facing crowds; hence, he seldom be a leader, orator, inventor etc. The pessimists are worst patients and it
is very difficult to manage the illness of such patients.
Fear:
Among all the fears, the most destructive and defeating fear is the fear of failure. It puts a brake on
the road of success. Fear can distort thinking pattern. There is a silent assumption before the fear of
failure that a person will be embarrassed or laughed at if he fails. Such type of apprehension is worthless.
In a competition, it is natural that all participants won’t win, the winner will be one but it doesn’t mean
that the others have failed. No! They are also winner; the losers are those, who don’t have participated in
the competition, those who never dared to try because they were afraid they wouldn’t make it.
You often encounter with a fear that people will criticize you if you do a task by your own method,
which is not mentioned in the texts or not practiced generally in the society. You feel embarrassed by the
criticism of people. It is true, if you working in a different manner instead of traditional, the people may
laugh upon you. But you need not to be worried. In the last, these people will follow the trend, you set.
The people laughed at the great scientists, thinkers and inventers. But these great people gave the society
and the critic very beautiful things. Criticism is a work of fools. He who cares of the fool is as good as a
fool.
If you are working in an organization where are the strict rules related to work patterns, boss
subordinates relationships and negotiations, then the fear of these restrictions will hinder you to do
something new. You may start to feel exhaustion at work. The moment you start working, you are
gripped by a fear of criticism by your colleagues and success runs away from you – boredom develops
because of the lake of adventure.
Fear of rejection is a cumulative fear of criticism and failure. If a person, junior to you, is able to turn the
tables on you and becomes your boss, you might develop a fear of rejection at further interview for
promotions. In the above context, you may find two kinds of people: first ones keep their grievances and
turn over a new leaf to get promotion while another one will develop apprehension and stress. Most
people fail because they don’t try and they don’t want to run the risk of being disappointed or being
rejected.
Depression:
The feeling of sadness and lack of enthusiasm may dog the people for long periods of time. This
sadness or low enthusiasm should not be taken in trivial manner; it may be a starting of depression. A
transient phase of bad mood may be due to some recent problems, but if mood remains sad without
effective cause, it should be taken care of effectively. Don’t ignore it by thinking that it is a normal
condition; it may be a manifestation of clinical depression. The difference between just sad thoughts and
depression is that the latter may affect sleep, appetite, concentration and memory as well.
Sleeplessness, anxiety, lack of energy, feeling of worthlessness, loss of interest in life may be
associated with depression. It requires a comprehensive treatment schedule. There is no harm in
consulting a psychiatrist for these problems. There are many factors that come out of the discussion and
they may be dealt as per the advice of the psychiatrist. There is a false perception among the people that
psychiatrists treat psychotic patients and they prescribe drugs that make a person addict to them. It is not
true. Psychiatrists are the persons who try to find out the cause behind the ailment and it can be treated
with counselling and without medicines. Depression can be treated if diagnosed properly.
 Depression is basically of two types. One is due to anxiety and stress related to the work. Another is
endogenous and sometimes it is difficult to find the cause. Unexplained anxiety and depression are
dangerous because without knowing cause, treatment is difficult. Depression is the outcome of many
mental illnesses. Speaking of depressions, they are self-imposed nights of the soul. Each depression
seems justified. It may be explicable but never justifiable. A depression closes the doors against all
movements of recovery and upliftment. It envelops a person in a wall of dark forebodings, overblown
dangers, frustration and defeatism. These depressions are known to have led to serious physical problems
like decreased immunity, mental complexes, endocrine disorders like diabetes and hypertension etc.
Stress:
Stress is an accompaniment in our life. In the daily routine, you have to face it, as it is natural and
inherent. Most of the occasions, stress is self-inducted. The people holding responsible positions are the
usual victims of stress. It results from the knotty problems such as the two contradictory demands by the
employees. Stress would lead to biochemical changes (secretion of the nor-adrenaline) in the body, which
eventually lead to several ailments like raised blood sugar level, high blood pressure, heart diseases and
GIT ailments. Psychosomatic illnesses, nervous breakdown, body ache, insomnia, irritability, asthenia,
anger and drug addiction are other associated ailments. The life looks worthless to the person who has
been continuously under stress. Anxiety destroys beauty, courage and knowledge. It would lead to the
decrease in an individual’s performance as well as the productivity of the organization.
Causes of stress at your work place:
1. Over expectation regarding the outcome from an employee irrespective of his eligibility,
capacity and technical skill.
2. Exertion or over work.
3. Compulsion of doing a particular job in a limited time frame.
4. Frequent changes or lack of changes in the nature of work.
5. Feeling of insecurity about the job.
6. Accident-prone job and health problems.
7. Unnecessary interference in the work.
8. Contradictory demands by the employees.
9. Lack of reward for a good job.
10. Financial insecurities such as lake of allowances for accidents and other insurance schemes.
11. Lack of admiration, according to the post.
12. Delay in solving the problems.
13. To report at several levels or to take the instructions from several levels.
14. Bad working place e.g. lack of proper light, adequate place and air. Heavy pollution.
15. Lack of the facilities, such as canteen and other relaxation measures.
16. Bias.
17. Non co-operative colleagues and the dirty politics.
18. Inadequate budget.
19. Irresponsible, unworthy and incredible assistants.
20. Frequent changes in the techniques.
21. Doing the job against your principles.
22. Unproportionate deadlines.

Jealousy and selfishness:

These are the chief sins, which make people think of themselves first and harm others. The selfish
person is one who thinks, “I will eat first, I will have more money than others and I will possess
everything.” The degree of selfishness marks the degree of failure everywhere. For a self-seeking man,
who is looking after his personal comforts and leading a lazy life – there is no room for him even in the
hell. Jealousy is the cause of all slavery and misery. It is the bane of nations. Jealousy generates negative
thoughts – the consequences are pessimism, depression and utter failure. The jealousy and selfish nature
downgrades the personality of an individual. A person can take the advantage initially by selfishness but
when other people will come to know about the nature of a selfish, no one will help him anyway.
Depriving of the good companions, selfish will lose many advantages. That is the failure.
Obliviousness/Absent mind:
One of the important causes of failure is the habit to forget. It may be a normal thing or it may be
associated with ill trained mind. The most important cause of this condition is to rely on your memory
irrespective of a lot of work you are doing at a time. In case of the ill trained mind, obliviousness is a
regular feature. Obliviousness is associated with the conditions like unplanned life-style, panic attitude,
ego problems, lack of interest in the job, stress factors at your work place, family tensions and other
neurasthenic conditions. These conditions often prevail over normal psychological etiology. The people
who lack self-discipline do often encounter this disgraceful situation. There is a simple example: while
going to the office in the morning, these people will make them late due to their habit of procrastination
or they delay themselves due to reluctance in leaving bed. They leave home in a hurry and forget the
important papers or meetings, while a person with self-discipline would leave the bed in time, finish daily
rhythm within time frame and won’t allow the brain to forget his essential documentation and meeting
schedule. Lack of attention or absent mind is cause of failure. Attention is an important to learn about a
topic. If you don’t pay attention to a lecture or note, you won’t be able to consider it. Attention is again
important while doing a work; otherwise, you could forget a few important things and your effort will
become worthless. You might have experienced on several occasions that your mind diverts while doing a
task and you lose the rhythm of your original work, in the class if your mind diverts, you won’t able to
listen to your teacher – it happens. So, it is important to have a full attention of mind, while thinking,
while planning and while doing any job.
Improvidence:
The people with improvidence can never work on a fool-proof planning, as their thinking pattern is
limited. The successful completion of a task depends upon the planning, right from the beginning till end.
These imprudent persons just think upon the benefit of a short term; they seldom care about long-term
increment in the growth. There is, at least, one difference between an improvident and the provident that
the former does only think about past events whereas the latter is inclined towards ‘three steps ahead’.
Every person has a few secrets of his progress. Don’t share them even with your best friends; otherwise,
you can get in trouble.
Indecisiveness:
It is better to take a decision either right or wrong rather than suffer from indecisiveness.
Indecisiveness is a slow poison, which ultimately proves fatal as it gives botheration to the soul. Don’t be
in a fix, go ahead and do what you want to do. A wavering person can never reach his destination, as his
work is not got the shape. Indecision is the worst decision. Utterly miserable conditions may occur in case
of indecisiveness.

Behavioral factors:
Scepticism:
It is inherently associated with negative-mindedness; suspicion due to low spirit. Some of you have
lived your whole lives in fear. You have been taught to be sceptical and suspicious. You believe it is
prudent to be cautious. In the process, you may actually have become addicted to a deep-rooted,
pessimistic mental attitude. A sceptic person never believes even in the true and practical things. He is
always suspicious of the things that are happening around him. He is suspicious of his friends, his
planning, his work and his outcome too. To get something, you have to believe that you will get whatever
you want, you have to believe in the success of that project you are working upon and only positive
thinking and believing would bring good results for you.
Ego:
Negative pride results into the arrogance. Lord Krishna in the holy book ‘Bhagavad-Gita’ has said
that to be proud of one’s intelligence is the greatest folly. It is because it hinders your acceptance in the
society and you are left alone. Ego problems block your healthy and constructive relationships with good
people who could make the difference between your disastrous failure and your glorious success. Ego is
associated with failure because it clouds the judgment. People are ‘I’ – oriented. Think, the most popular
spoken word in English language is the word ‘I’. The other popular words are are: Me, My and Mine.
You and Yours are less frequently used in comparison to I, Me and My. Pride is ostentation and it is the
great destructive force. Pride and esteem are entirely different things, former is negative ostentation and
latter is positive self-respect. There is a lot of difference between intelligence and pragmatism, for
intelligent never be a pragmatic and vice versa. Ego destroys your knowledge as you find you isolated
every time everywhere.
There is one more thing to be remembered that don’t keep your ego with the post you held. You are
better to be remembered as an individual. If you are remembered with the post, you will be lost with the
post. The post is temporary; personality is permanent. Ego is a great obstacle for consensus and consensus
is necessary for negotiations and arriving at a decision. Nobody is bothered to accept your forced
proposals; you can only convince a person by having a flexible approach. Success means to learn more
and more, for learning something from others requires flexibility and humility and these both entities are
utterly absent in a egoistic person.
Cynicism:
Cynicism is arrogance. It is the mental pattern of the elitist, who considers himself to be too
intelligent and too brilliant to be taken in. He is such a perceptive critic that his immediate defensive
reaction to any positive proposal is a negative objection. Cynicism is a great source of negative energy
and the cynics will create so many problems for the creative people. A single cynic can be a great cause
of failure for an organization, which has even a lot of creative people. As soon as a cynic finds a small
mistake, he will start to defame the concerned person and the success process hinders. Those who blame
others are generally miserable with helpless brains; they have brought their miseries through their own
mistakes and misgivings. But this doesn’t alter their position. It doesn’t serve them in any way. This
attempt to throw the blame upon others only weakens them more and more.
Escapism:
No doubt, this is a big cause of failure and obviously it is associated with low will-power. The
individuals having low will-power get scared when they face adverse conditions. Instead of facing the
problems, they choose easy way of escapism. These individuals turn opportunities into problems by not
solving or facing them. When our body faces a difficult situation, it reacts in two ways – it either fights or
frights under the influence of hormones. These conditions reflect in the behaviour too – the individual
either fights the situation or frights away from the situation. The latter is escapism. Primarily, these
people run away from very difficult situations but in the due course of time, they escape even from the
least frustrating situations. This becomes a tendency with that individual and is reflected in all his
behaviours.
Hesitation/Introvertedness:
It is also the result of low self-esteem. It is closely related to escapism tendency. It is true that every
person has this trait either more or less. The people with hesitation cannot argue effectively before other
persons. In their respective fields, they cannot get the desired results. Hesitation is common in the
introvert people. These people cannot communicate effectively. Extroverts have effective communication
skills. An introverted person doesn’t share his grievances and happiness among the people because he is
limited to himself. The best investment is to earn people, not merely money because good people are the
greatest asset.
Emotional factors:
Panic disorder:
Smoothness of a work done is directly proportional to peace of mind, the more peace you have in
your daily working, the more successful you will be. If you work in apprehension, the chances of
mistakes will be there, probably due to lack of confidence and lack of integrity of mind. Your speech will
become slurred at your performance before people, your boss and your students. Your hands will start
trembling as soon as you go for a manual work in this condition. You will feel frustrated, frightened and
you will finally fail. You might lose the chances of making friends, as you become apprehensive while
interacting with a person either of same or opposite sex. Don’t think about the final result, you should do
what you want to, with peace of your mind and you will see that results are amazing. Panics are more
prone to nervous breakdown.
Anger:
Anger can never solve your problems; there are the logic and reasoning that will do it. Anger starts
from the folly of a person and ends at remorse. Anger backs you and surely backs you because you lose
the chances of consensus and you quit in a state of rage whatever you have earned and you have to start
again from the very beginning. When the mind is calm and collected, its whole energy is spent doing
good work. The man who becomes angry never does a quality work. The man who gives way to anger,
hatred or any other passion, cannot work in effective way. He only breaks himself to pieces and does
nothing practical. Anger is more harmful than other negative things because in anger both the parties have
impact, the one who is doing and other against which first one is angry. You know that there is a spirit of
antagonism between snake and mongoose, fire and water, day and night and life and death. The same
exists in love and hate, where there is hate; love will not be there.
Emotional outbreaks:
Before going in to the details I would like to clarify the ‘emotions’. There are two types of emotions:
Attractive and repulsive. The attractive emotions are love, admiration, aspiration, sympathy, joy,
veneration, pride etc. while the repulsive emotions are hatred, anger, fear, sorrow, jealousy, disgust and
shame etc. The uncontrolled repulsive emotions will never allow you to fulfil your dreams. The more
such types of emotions are under control, the healthier becomes one’s personality. It is associated with the
indiscrimination because our discrimination serves as an effective instrument of self-development by
controlling the emotions and raising the higher ‘self’ from the hold of lower mind.
Nostalgia:
At several occasions you have to stay away from your family either due to higher studies or business
trips. On these occasions, you may feel homesickness. It provokes reluctance to complete the job
effectively. The students, who completed their schooling at their home, often experience this condition,
when they will go for the higher studies away from their home. They find themselves emotionally weak
and it reduces their performance. Moreover, they have to face the questionnaires from their seniors.
Owing to raging, they get frustrated and many of them discontinue their study and come back to their
home. For these conditions, the attachment of the members of family is all-responsible. If the children are
of strong emotion, they will never be afraid of this condition and they will continue.
Feeling of self-pitty:
Feeling inferior is somewhat different from being inferior. In fact nothing is like being inferior. A
person may be inferior to others in traits not in overall personality. Feeling inferior makes a person
inferior certainly. There are several causes for a person to feel self-pity. The important ones are: feeling of
inferiority, comparison with his colleagues in terms of economy and post, repeated failures, lack of
resources, failure in love affair and so many others. Self-pity may also be associated with penury or
poverty. Although poverty is a partial obstacle, yet sometimes it becomes terribly oppressive. These
people are having less natural opportunities in comparison to financially independent persons. A poor
person may trade his freedom for bread.
Quarrelsome nature (Agitation and malice):
A few people have the nature to unnecessarily involve in quarrelling against others. Stress, anger,
anxiety, frustration are the causes but it lies in the nature of some people. Such people have fewer friends.
They cannot make new acquaintances owing to their quarrelsome nature. It has been mentioned in the
ancient great books that Goddess of wealth refrain from such persons. It is practically true because calm
persons can only do business. Irritated persons can only degrade their business. Brawling nature is an
obstacle to get the success. Everyone will try to escape from you to avoid your irritable behaviour.
Negative criticism:
Negative critics are meant for only leg pulling and faultfinding. Critics are found to be standing on
each side of the road of success. If you are a successful person, you will surely encounter these negative
critics. The reason for criticizing other people is to modify their behaviour. We want other people’s
attitude or behaviours to change, as they are wrong. If you criticize people for being stupid, foolish, they
will not respect you. If you criticize people’s acts not their intelligence, they will change their acts and
still have respect for themselves and for you.
Over-cradulousness:
A person, who readily believes in whatever is told to him, might be the victim of cheating. There are
two types of persons: one, who readily believes in a person, meets him and the second ones those who are
taking time to finalize their views about that person. The former or the over credulous will accept very
quickly a person while the latter will suspect the new person; he might be a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.
Believe in a person after critically analyzing him, observe him doing common actions and, if possible, by
knowing his past history. The major problem now a day is that people try to get secrets of a successful
person, successful business and run away after cheating. The easiest way to overcome these problems is
not to believe in whatever told to you, not to believe in a person readily without analyzing him.
Factors associated with actions:
Procrastination and reluctance:
A few people have the habit of delaying the work unnecessarily. Incomplete task is just like a spark.
Procrastination is never beneficial; luck favours those who strive very hard. Pending decisions on
different matters are work culture of government organizations. Corporate culture and professional
attitude don’t permit such work culture. Procrastination is like slow poison and it destroy you if you don’t
refrain from this habit. The man, who clears systematically off his work that belongs to each day as it
comes, not only avoids mental burden of unperformed duties, but also the only man who knows true
leisure. For at the end of the day, he can spend what time remains in recreations and enjoyment with a
clear conscience, knowing he is well ahead with his work. You might have noticed the effect of this habit
in several offices and organizations where files keep unmoved for a long time and no secretarial or
ministerial staff is interested to take the action. Procrastination results into lethargy and your activeness
goes on decreasing with time and you start to lose, not only in the office but also in every aspect of your
life, as in due course of time, it consolidates your habit to procrastinate. Procrastination is in the human
behaviour. It might be associated with laziness of an individual, lack of discipline in an organization and
corruption. Latter is seen in the public service sector, particularly in government offices. At first, a person
starts the practice of procrastination at his work place and finally it is assimilated in all his behaviour.
Whatever work culture the boss of an organization adopts, subordinates follow the same. If boss wants
quick clearance of pendind work, no one in the office will shirk work. If the table of boss is full of
pending files, how can promptness be expected from subordinates? The work can become tedious if you
are reluctant, lazy or pessimistic about it. It might be due to the dilatoriness of the proposed work;
otherwise no work is tedious. Boredom comes in the way and you become the victim of ‘lose-lose
situation’.
Recklessness:
If you do a task in a state of carelessness, you will seldom get success. Piddle will always lead to
utter failure. If you are not doing work according to curriculum, you will surely face the problems and
work cannot get the shape. Anyone can throw dust in the eyes of the people who work recklessly.
Recklessness is associated with undisciplined mind – it has been mentioned in ‘Bhagavad-Gita’ that
undisciplined mind acts as our enemy whereas a trained mind acts as our friend. The people who become
able to train their mind to obey them are able to do nicely whatever they want to do whereas the people,
who don’t have control over their mind, will face problems while doing a task. As long as an individual is
entangled with the undisciplined mind, his personality might not really develop. Lack of discipline is
associated with recklessness; all other associated factors like lack of proper planning, lack of attention and
dedication are due to indiscipline. A self-disciplined person does all his work with great attention and full
heart.
Laziness:
An empty mind is the devil’s workshop. Laziness can be compared to a dragon, which is ultimately
swallows any one who comes in the grip. You might have experienced several times that you cancel your
several important meetings in the morning due to the laziness while you are in the bed. Laziness and
discipline are the opposite to each other and both are seldom present in a single individual. Some young
men shirk work or anything that requires effort or labour. A few people can entertain the idea that they are
of no use in the world or that they are ruining themselves by their laziness. The lazy person, who doesn’t
work, loses the power of enjoyment. His life is a holiday and he has no interval of leisure for relaxation.
The lazy persons have never done anything in the world. Events sweep past and leave them slumbering
and helpless. What is often called indolence is, in fact, the unconscious consciousness of incapacity.
Tectlessness:
Your knowledge is worthless until and unless you have tactics. ‘Charaka’, the famous physician of
ancient India, compared in his book that the physician having tactics while diagnosing and treating
diseases is far better than the physician, who has more knowledge but shows no importance to tactics.
You can easily feel the importance of tactic in your daily work, meetings, negotiations and other business-
related matters. A tactic will come out of these with more benefits in comparison of other people. A tactic
can improvise according to the situation and fulfil the need while a person with good knowledge will face
difficulty if adequate facilities are not there. A tactic will succeed in making good relationships, in hiding
his mistakes during oration or conversations, in projecting his qualities before his boss and people and
you know that these are essential things to be a winner. In spite of good knowledge, you fail due to lack
of tactics several times.
Inadequate and inadvertent action:
The people who don’t attempt the desired task with full heart will never get the results. The
incomplete work is like a flame that can change in to fire in due course of time. The inadequate and
inadvertent actions are the results of our faulty mental pattern. The inadequate and inadvertent actions
bring simple to complicated while a proper and adequate action does just opposite. Although no work as
such is irksome, yet mind may think so. If your mind is not taking interest in it, you cannot go ahead to
complete it. It might happen in the conditions when you aren’t well versed in the project, you are working
because you will find difficulty frequently. Lack of familiarity with work is a temporary obstacle
because doing is learning. By doing the particular task, several times you would go towards the
perfection. Sometimes, the failure doesn’t result from a lack of talent or effort, but is due to the lack of
familiarity to the task!
Disproportionate risk-taking:
Although risk-taking is the generator of success, yet disproportionate risk-taking is not advisable. It
denotes that you are working upon a job about which you don’t know well. In place of it, I prefer
calculated risk taking because in this, you have more chances of winning. If you invest your earnings in
the planning, you don’t know adequately, there are chances of sinking of your money. If you throw away
money abruptly, you will soon be the streets. Be cautious while taking any kind of risks – go through the
project, plan or work instead of falling in blindly. If you study it whole there are chances of your winning,
even though you think you are at risk.
Misconduct/Barbarism:
Misconduct will create hatred for you in the mind of your boss and it positively influences your
achievements. A junior is supposed to respect his seniors, so that the senior will give him the
opportunities as well as he may get the benefit of experiences of his boss. Every vicious act or thought
will rebound, every act of hatred, which you do, is stored up, and will, one day, come back to you with
tremendous power in the form of some misery. If you project hatred and jealousy, they will rebound on to
you with compound interest. No power can avert them, when once you have put them in motion; you will
have to bear them. Scurrilous remarks are more harmful than an enemy, fire, poison and fatal diseases. It
has been said by many great persons that the trauma produced by tongue is more lethal in comparison to
sword. Addison has said that if you can conquer your tongue only, you are sure to conquer your whole
body and mind. Don’t blame others; take the whole responsibility on yourself. You are responsible for
what you are, and whatever you wish yourself to be; you have the power to make yourself. What you are
now, has been the result of your own past actions. It certainly follows that whatever you wish to be in
future can be produced by your present actions, so you have to know how to behave and act. For each and
every action there is a reaction, so as you behave the people will react in the same way. If you show the
love emotion, the people will love you, if you hate, the people will hate you and if you practice barbarism,
you will get in turn the rejection and finally failure.
Other factors of failure:
Non-disciplined companions:
If you are working in an office, your companions who shirk work will surely obstruct you. Some of
your colleagues may have corruption in their work pattern. They cannot do anything without accepting
bribes, surely they will want you to follow the same suit and if you don’t do the same, they will obstruct
you. The better way to overcome this is to leave the job, as you may not be able to change the work
culture if those people are in majority. If, suppose, for the sake of job security you do continue the job
you will find you in a state of stress and other mental anomalies and it will hinder success to come to you.
Often, seeing your friends and colleagues doing their job motivates you. If your friend gets up late in the
morning, you may follow the same pattern. If your friend drinks or smokes, it may affect you and if he is
indisciplined, you may be indisciplined. In every aspect you compete with your colleagues. If your
colleagues are hard working then it may provoke you to do some kind of extra effort in order to over-ride
them. It will be good for you but if you grasp negative and devastating habits; they will destroy you.
Comparison:
Each one of us is blessed with certain talents and gifts that make us one-of-a-kind individuals. Some
people are great dancers, while others cannot tap their feet to the beat. Some of us have a talent for art,
while others have trouble drawing a stick figure. Some of us are great athletes, while others can hardly
walk on a straight line without stumbling. It is a futile exercise to compare oneself to others because
everyone among us has a few special qualities, which might not be in others.
Over-expectations:
You might get failure when your imaginations are out of focus. The cause is simply an exaggerated
expectation and we don’t prepare ourselves to face the worst. Expectations are not our right, our right is
making efforts, our right is hard work, our right is work with honesty, and we will get the same as we
sow. Don’t go in the phantasm; be precise. Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations and small needs
and you will surely succeed. It has been said by Lord Krishna that you only have the right to do work and
you are not supposed to think about the outcome.
Dirty politics:
Gentlemen can never cope with politics – it is meant for a chameleon. It is dangerous to dabble in the
politics. The politicians have their price and most of them can be chloroformed with the gifts, greed and
grafts. Its cause is simple – Power corrupts, power always corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Power can adversely affect the character of a person.