We all have come across hardships in our life in one form or another. I bet everyone had the “privilege” of falling into something or have encountered something, which might have made life miserable at some point of time. The real question is – how many of us have taken those hardships and worked hard to convert them to opportunities?
Let’s look at an “astronomical” example – remember Apollo 13? It was the third manned lunar-landing mission to the Moon. The mission faced failure half-way of the planned trip. The lunar module was never meant to fly, but smart thinking by the engineers on the ground, and the astronauts above – the lunar module was made to fly!
It seemed that NASA faced their toughest challenge ever, but they worked hard to create a window of opportunity for the astronauts to come home – safe and sound. The mission was coined as a “successful failure”. Hardship, Hard work, opportunity – the string of the same thread.
Sometimes opportunities don’t know when and how to knock on your door. Sometimes it does, but then we are too busy to hear the knock, and sometimes we don’t welcome it! Recognizing an opportunity at any given point requires positive thinking or looking through things, which otherwise may seem normal.
It is only when our backs are pushed against the walls; we tend to explore the possibility of retaliation against the negative forces, and create opportunity to get out of the mess.
Some people face lot of hardships and gradually get immune to them. Through sheer hard work they create opportunities as they go along. Some believe that hardships are just part of the game – a bigger game called “LIFE”.
So, can we convert the hardships into opportunities? I think we can. The keyword is HARD WORK. Every hardship creates an opening – we see or we don’t.
Personal experience…during the year of 2001-2002 the “Dot-com” bubble bust was a major blow for the technology workers (including me). People who earned $200/hour came tumbling down to $35/hour – many lost jobs.
I could have packed up my bags and could have gone back to “greener” pastures, but I decided to stay back and work through it. It was tough – not impossible. No whining; No Crying – just faced it. I believed it to be a fading phase, and it was. The hardships, which I faced, made me think twice about my career path. I chose a different path; embedded management skills to my technical background. That decision gave an instant boost and surge to my career.
Today, I am happy with I did and what I do.
Sometimes, I look back and think – what would have happened, if I had quit? 
Don’t know. Don’t care. Past is forgotten and future is worth living!
So, today’s word is “Hardships” and formula for success (at least mine!) is “Hardships + Hard work = Opportunities”? Oh, You BET!
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