What is your excuse?
His young eyes twinkled brightly every time he looked up into the sky and saw an airplane fly. He didn’t fascinate travelling in it but flying that big beast of an airplane. From the remote town he was growing up in and the grim financial conditions his family was in, that aspiration appeared nothing more than a dream. Nevertheless, he kept dreaming. Sheer hard work made him an aeronautical engineer. Very soon after, at age 23, there he was at the selection ground for Indian Air Force Pilots. With a thumping heart, he eagerly waited for the announcement of the results. He came 9th, which wasn’t bad, just that only the first 8 were selected. His world fell apart; years of persistence towards a dream were shattered by a margin, and a weak, dejected mind screamed to give up on hope and life. It was then he spotted the Sivananda Ashram from the mountain cliff of Rishikesh, where he was standing. His inner voice guided him to go, and his foot followed the command blindly. Swami Sivananda told him, “Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become a Pilot. What you want to become is also not revealed now, but it is predetermined.” They spoke at length. He found an unusual calmness engulfing him and a new hope taking shape. The boy left with unwavering determination and went on to pursue a different path.
Years later, that young boy who dreamed to fly and kept working at what life destined for him, grew up to become the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the Eleventh President of the largest democracy in the world, and we fondly call him DR APJ Abdul Kalam!
Sir Kalam didn’t stop there. He approached the Chief of Air Staff and expressed a lingering desire: to experience flying. The Air Chief readily agreed. After undergoing six months of flight training, Dr Kalam flew a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet a dream fulfilled, albeit decades later and in an unexpected way.
This story is a masterclass in resilience the ability to bend but not break. Failure did not deter
Dr Kalam. In fact, it refined his focus and pushed him toward even greater achievements. He turned rejection into redirection. As he once said, “Man needs difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy success.”
In a world obsessed with instant success, Dr Kalam’s life teaches us the value of persistence. Success isn’t always about reaching your goal in one shot it’s about not giving up even when the goal seems distant.
Whether you’re a student striving for academic excellence, a professional facing a career roadblock, or someone working on a personal goal remember, setbacks are not full stops. They are commas, moments of pause that prepare you for a stronger comeback.
When in doubt, let me remind you to remember what Swami Sivananda told Dr Kalam, “Defeat the defeatist tendency”!