There were 200 boys in our hostel. Some of us were doing FSC in math, some in biology, some were studying economics and some were doing simple FA, we all lived together but there was a big difference in our activities. Some of us played sports; they used to run, played volleyball, cricket or hockey or were badminton players. Some of us sang, some did acting, painting and poetry and there were some who did nothing. Some of us were very hardworking, they read day and night, some were average, read a little and wandered around a bit. And some were like me; lazy, bored and zero interested. They only did one thing, and that is they didn’t do anything at all; they didn’t study, they didn’t do sports and they didn’t take part in any literary activity. Just lived like animals, sleeping, waking up, eating, gossiping, watching movies, smoking cigarettes and taking money from parents in the name of books, clothes, mess and sometimes fees. I look back today and find that hostel is a whole case study, It was a nursery with a variety of the seedlings and those seedlings flourished and became crops. You may have heard this phrase a thousand times, you will reap what you sow. When I look back, I find this phrase incomplete. Just as we sow a seed and reap a thousand grains or stalks, similarly we have to reap the fruit of a right or wrong decision a thousand times in life. If one has to sow one seed and reap one seed, it will not be a bad deal at all. Life is also like a field, by sowing one, man has to reap a thousand times and sometimes more than that. That hostel was also a similar nursery, where different kinds of seed were sown and then those seeds became crops and it was harvested a thousand times.
The journey of life continued. Those of us who were studying mathematics became engineers. Students of biology became doctors, B. pharmacists and professors. Students of arts also became adjusted in their respective fields; among them, some became lawyers, some became judges and some became civil servants after passing competitive examinations. Those of us who had a habit of hard work became more successful in their field. Those who were tactful went abroad, got into business or joined politics and the people who were zero interest were left behind in the race of life. They also became criminals; their houses were broken; they went bankrupt again and again; they got sick very early in their youth and they fell in life and continued to suffer.
I was one of them but Allah had mercy on me, I somehow managed to do MA and Allah Almighty gave me the result of hard work one day. He took my hand and said, to survive in this world there is only one way and that is, to work hard, just keep going and you will reach the destination. When I started working hard, I found out that technique is necessary along with hard work. Unless you work with technique, you will not make progress. Now the next question was how to get to the technique? It was found that this is not possible without learning. Unless you develop the ability to learn within yourself, you will not reach that technique. Now the question was, how does learning happen? It was discovered that it is a by-product of training. It (training) is the third and last stage of learning. The first destination is talking; people tell you. The second destination is teaching; people tell you only what you need. And then you reach at the third level, where you start applying what you have learned and this is called training. So unless you train, you don’t learn, and unless you learn, you don’t know the technique, and unless you learn the technique, you can’t be more successful. A donkey can be a good donkey through hard work but if he wants to be a horse, then he has to learn horse techniques, then his DNA will start to change. This is the difference between a stray dog and a pet dog. We keep a pet dog with us at home, why? Because it learns the technique of living with us while a stray dog dies in the streets due to lack of training. When I came to understand this point, I went after the trainings. I would take the course of what I did not know, I would take it’s tuition or I would sit down with an expert every day and that is how I learned. You may be surprised to know that I had regular tuition for reading Diwan-e-Ghalib (Poetry Collection of Ghalib). I used to go to Mr. Hafiz every day and read and understand a ghazal from him every day. In the same way I also read Alchemist with tuition. When I decided to get into the field of self-help or life coaching, I would buy major trainer courses from the US and England. It was cassette era, be it Jim Rohn, be it Chris Gardner, be it Jack Kanefield or be it Brain Tracy, all of their speeches and courses were available in cassettes. I used to buy these cassettes and listen to them all day long. These cassettes were also playing in the car. Life gave me the opportunity and when the resources for practical courses became available, I took full advantage of this facility too. Today the world has changed; now there is no need to go abroad for any course; you can even learn nuclear technology online. So I take full advantage of this opportunity too. My old friends, classmates and hostel mates are amazed at my obsession with learning, unable to understand how the incompetent and useless person from school, college and university got ahead in practical life. Whenever they meet, they ask Dude, what did you do, how did you change, you didn’t know the difference between Material and Maternal, you used to read Habib bank as Jaib bank and at university you used to put oil on your head, how did you change yourself? I laugh and answer that this the grace of Allah. He held my hand and told me that every secret of the world is in the human mind. Man is an engineer, a doctor, a soldier, a bureaucrat, or a banker by the brain, the brain is the businessman and the brain is the beggar. The human brain is hardware, whatever software you upload into it, it will make you like it. They laugh and say, “Dude, you are again talking irrelevant.” Then, I ask them, suppose you are an engineer and you want to be a doctor, what will you do? You will obviously study medicine, as if you would take out the engineering software and upload the medical software there and in a few years you will be treating or operating on patients instead of building bridges. What would you do if you thought I should do business after that? You will replace the medical software with the business software and thus you will become a businessman in a few years and now if you want to become a sportsman you will upload the sports application in your mind and sports, wellness and fitness will also become easier for you. So the greatest asset of a human being is his mind, his brain, if it is working and if you are incompetent then replace your incompetent software with intelligence software; if you are lazy then get rid of it and upload the software of hard work. If you are sick then start taking the name of Allah and upload the software of health in your mind, your whole personality will change. Human brain is a strange world, if we put Islam in it then it becomes Muslim; if we put Christianity, it becomes Christian; if we put Judaism, it becomes Jew; if we put Buddhism, it becomes Buddhist. If we make it Sunni, it becomes Sunni and if we make it Shia, it becomes Shia. All these are software and these software make and break our personality.
My friends don’t agree with me but let me tell you a formula of alchemy; “learning is earning,” you will reap what you learn, and this is what you earn. This is the learning that makes the person in the front seat the driver, and in the back seat the master. So keep learning, no obstacle in the world will stop you and this is the biggest lesson of my life.
[Courtesy Daily Express]