We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand
A short real-life story on why attitude matters.
My maternal grandfather is one of the most successful people I know in business and life.
Recently, I went to meet him to watch an IPL cricket match together. While watching the match, he asked me to show him how to forward a WhatsApp message (You have to press the message for a second and an option pops up to forward) and it took me almost no time to show him how to do that.
With age, his health had not been the best and he was suffering from this disease called Ataxia where his hands shake a lot as one of the symptoms. What was really simple for me, was proving to be very challenging for him.
He kept pressing the message but because his hand was shaking the ‘forward’ button would not show. He asked me to show him again, and I did and then again he tried, multiple times.
This continued for about 10 mins — I kept showing him, he kept trying with multiple fingers and alternating hands. But the continuous trembling state of his hands didn’t let him succeed.
He then asked me to get back to watching the match. At that point, I felt a little bad that one of my greatest role models was trying so hard to do something so simple and yet failing simply because of his age.
About 20 minutes later, he suddenly got excited and had a tiny smile on his face. While I was watching the match, he had kept trying, and after maybe 100+ tries he had succeeded. He had been able to hold the message for the 1 second with his trembling hands and get the forward option to show.
His attitude of never giving up, not succumbing to his age/health, not willing to accept failure and keep trying helped him succeed.
