Don’t
measure your Life in terms of success or defeat, asset value and brand value or
on what people – including the media – have to say. Nothing matters in the end;
except whether you lived each of the moments you were alive and except the
lives you touched!
This morning’s Economic Times had a story on Indian cricket’s most successful
captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Written by Ratna Bhushan and Ravi Teja Sharma,
the story (“Is Brand Dhoni on the wane?”)
seeks to analyze if Dhoni’s appeal as a brand endorser is under threat and if
it is worth betting on post the ban on Chennai Super Kings’ from the IPL.
Nothing wrong with the story per se given
that ET is a business paper and they
have the need to comment on subjects such as brand value and asset value. But
there’s a naïve perspective, in fact an avoidable opinion, that the story plays
up. It reads: “Dhoni was listed by Forbes in 2014 as the
world's fifth most valuable sportsperson brand, valued at $ 20 million. And
only last week, he was named as the world's ninth most marketable in a study by
London School of Marketing. But can this change? It can.” I
infer the statement to mean that if you thought Dhoni was invincible,
infallible, indispensable, think again; because his brand aura is waning with
his poor ODI performance as captain, with CSK in trouble and with his
retirement from Test cricket. My point is – whether any of the reasons Bhushan
and Sharma attribute to Dhoni’s dropping brand value are relevant or not, the
irrefutable truth about Life is that what goes up has to come down. Such is the
nature of Life. The question whether someone’s position in a given context (in
Dhoni’s case it is his supremacy in the game) can change or not is both
irrelevant and naïve at the same time. Of course, all Life is about change. And
nothing lasts forever – including the social definitions of success or failure.
Mercifully, the Dhoni we know is the man he is. He is
unlikely to be bothered by the ET
analysis.
Yet, I find so
many people grieving over what other people have to say about their lives. They
put on a mask and pretend to be living a Life to contend with social and peer
expectations than to live fuller, wholesome lives. They work overtime on how
they are perceived than how they simply are. So people suffer bad marriages
because they have to protect their social identities. They get stuck in lousy
careers because the money is more important than the quality of work they do.
They work overtime, often vainly, to look presentable and appear good on Page 3
or on TV, while within them they are rotting – feeling empty, lost and unwanted
by their immediate circle of friends and family. All of this is wasted,
misplaced effort that only accentuates personal suffering.
Remember this: your Life will mean nothing to you when you
are gone. You can’t take anything with you when your time here runs out – not
your money, not your assets, not your memories, not your family and definitely
not your rewards, recognitions, media stories and public opinion. What really
matters are two things – First, how did you live your Life? Did you live it
fully or did you merely exist? And second, did you do work that touched people’s
lives and made a difference? When you believe you lived all the moments of your
Life fully, when you believe you touched even one Life in your lifetime, then, you
can say your stay here has been meaningful. Only then you can say your lifetime
mattered. Else,
it was all fluff. Before you know it, it’s gone with the wind! Pooh!
So,
drop all pretentions. Get real. Let people say what they want to and let their opinions
be where they are. You simply carry on living – being who you are
and living the Life you love living!
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