Company makes for character?

There is no end to the trouble that comes with aiming for being a person of good character. It is difficult to shed the bad in you. If you strive to do that by keeping off temptation, there will always be people who will make fun of you for not having the strength of mind to kill temptation in the mind. If you do manage to become a person of good character by eventually shedding the temptation to do evil, it is still not enough to continue being good. You need to keep away those who can tempt you back into evil.

It is all very well to say that you need the strength of character to abjure evil. But to most of us, the easier way to avoid evil is to keep yourself away from the temptation to do it. Like Tiru says here...

Mananalam nangudaiyaa rayinum saandrorkku inanalam yemap pudaiththu - Tirukkural

Though they be of good character, the wise know the need for good companionship to maintain strength of mind - Loose Translation

As a one-time smoker, I know that it helps to keep away from fellow-smokers in the process of quitting smoking. The successful end-result is to not be tempted EVEN when others smoke around you but to expect yourself to fight off such temptation from the very first day you try to quit...suffice to say that there MAY be someone who finds it possible but I do not expect to come across any such person in real life.

And then you may have quit comprehensively but it may still be best not to surround yourself with smokers all the time...most smokers who quit and then get back to smoking will testify that getting back into the company of smokers is what made them back-slide. Your will-power can stand so much temptation and no more. You tend to succumb to it.

Yes, the longer you withstand the temptation, the less likely it is that you back-slide. The process is helped by keeping OFF temptation, the destination is where you cease to feel tempted. To mistake the fact that you are still ON THE WAY and have not yet ARRIVED will lead to failing in pursuing the journey itself.

AND the journey is where Tiru helps. (You see, ALL philosophical advice is handy ONLY for the process. It is not like a philosophical destination is like a tourism destination where you need oodles of advice about what to do in Melbourne, say, now that you have arrived there. A philosophical destination is, like, Nirvana...all advice is about how to reach there; you are either not really expected to reach there OR it is supposed to be such bliss that you'll have no more questions left. So, there's no advice about destination only about process.) Tiru's advice is that, even if you are of good character, if you are wise, you will live in the company of the good, so that your goodness is strengthened. Otherwise...you know how it can go. It is very seldom, "Look out for yourself, let the rest of the world go to the dogs" sort of advice that taints you. It is more the 'In this world, you cannot be good and succeed'; 'Unless you do this, you'll not ever get into a position where you can do good to others.' and so on.

So, there. Choose your company wisely, even when you only seek to be known as a good man. It is not just that you'll be judged by the company you keep; it's also that your own character will get molded to suit the company you keep.

The importance of trying

You have all heard often enough about all journeys start with a single step. Before ever you start, you also need to make up your mind that you can do it. AND after starting you need to have the determination to persist with it. Whether it is journeys or projects or learning...it is important to make up your mind to do it; to start doing it; and to persevere to the finish.

Tiru, of course, has this to say about it...

Arumai udaiththendru asaavaamai vendum perumai muyarchchi tharum - Tirukkural

Don't lose heart considering the job at hand as too tough; your efforts will grant you the expertise to succeed - Loose Translation

The successful, when they come across a difficult project, do not sit on the hands and give up because it is too tough to do. They try to see how it can be done and start doing it. They may make mistakes, they may fail initially but they persist and...

Well, almost all learning that we do is empirical learning. Barring a very few geniuses, all of us learn by trial and error. We do something, learn from our mistakes, repeat the effort with the modifications wrought by such learning, and so on till we succeed. And the 'manual' that we create forms the template for the future. So, those who take on these hard jobs and persist, eventually develop the expertise to successfully complete those jobs. Like an Edison who persisted till he successfully made the electric bulb, they end up being lauded for their success.

To encounter a job and to give up considering the difficulties in the way of completing is the mark of the ordinary. Be it individuals, companies, societies or nations, success seldom crowns those who can list out all the reasons why projects are not doable. It is those who start off on it, fail to the chorus of all the others chanting 'I told you so', refine their efforts for the next attempt and so on...it is those who are lauded. Yes, there may be the lucky ones who find the solution at the first attempt. There may be the unlucky ones whose attempts are not crowned by success either because they run out of funds or because they fail to find the right way through or someone else beats them to the solution. But it IS from those who try that you get your successful people, not from those who give up.

Alas! Even Tiru is no use in finding me a way to success by lazing around! 

Get what you want?

There is this interesting quote that says 'When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it' or some such. Paulo Coelho, I believe, is credited with having written it in 'The Alchemist' or some such book. Made me think of the Universe as some sort of Blinkit which delivers what you ask for, you know. Just throw the wish out there and, presto, it gets delivered to you. (Not that it really happened to me. Been asking for those billions for lo these many years but...)

And, then, I discover that Tiru has said it way back in history. This one...

Ulliyadhu eidhal elidhuman matrunthaan ulliyadhu ullap perin - Tirukkural

He who seeks to achieve a goal shall find it easy if he focuses unremittingly on it - Loose Translation

Well, Tiru does not necessarily convert the Universe into a Blinkit for your wishes but he does say that if you seek to achieve a goal unremittingly, you will find it easy to achieve it. Tiru, of course, does not leave it at just wishing for something. He requires some effort from you...to focus continuously on the goal. So, yes, there is no Universe running around to deliver your Mungerilal ke haseen sapne (Alas, for me).

Does focus unremittingly on a goal suffice, then? I think what all of these guys are saying is not merely sit around on extended daydreams. If something is your goal, then you are expected to put in effort to get there. The thing about 'unremitting' focus is that you are not going to keep changing goals. Like work towards the IAS for a couple of months, switch around to learning AI, then think that becoming an actor is better and so on. So, if you pick a goal and stick to it, work towards it, you'll find it easy to achieve it.

You see, if you are working relentlessly towards one goal shit happens. Someone meets an expert in that area and remembers you; he puts you in touch. Another guy points you to a VC...things like that. THAT is how the Universe helps you, not by sending a cascade of gold coins down your chimney, if you have one. All these things happen only if you are relentlessly working on one thing; if you hop and skip and jump, these guys are unlikely to help you because they do not even know what sort of help you want!

So, yeah, in a way Tiru beat this Paulo Coelho chappie to it. AND it still requires you to do all the hard yards. Alas!

More inimical than enemies?

There is this thing about poet-philosophers. The poet tends to exaggeration to make his point. The philosopher delves into various facets of human nature. When you combine the two, you get things like, 'There is no worse enemy to success than impatience" and, later, "The worst enemy to success is anger" and so on. If you take it all literally, you get into debates about which characteristic is actually the worst. What you need to do, instead, is just understand that impatience is bad, anger is bad and leave it at that...unless you are making a living out of infructuous debates.

So, Tiru says this and you know how to take it...

Pallaar PagaikoLalir paththaduththa theemaiththe nallaar thodarkai vidal - Tirukkural

To lose the friendship of the wise is ten times as bad as gaining the enmity of many - Loose Translation

According to Tiru (and, possibly, almost anyone else), as a leader, you need to surround yourself with people who wish you well and have the ability to guide you properly in times of trouble. The difficulty is to get such a set of advisers whom YOU trust - those with goodwill may lack ability and/or have unconscious or conscious biases; those with ability AND goodwill may still have an ax to grind and so on. So, it IS very tough to get a good set of advisers around you.

Enemies are easily gained, in fact. I mean, you could gain a deadly enemy simply because you, unknowingly, smiled at HIS enemy; with a careless tweet; with a Like on Instagram...About the one thing that is sure is that most people seem to be walking around actively looking for a reason to get triggered. So, if you wake up in the morning with 'x' enemies and went back to sleep without any increase in that number, you must have been in a dark room silently meditating...and, even then, it is very likely that you added ten enemies because you did NOT acknowledge their posts on social media. So, many enemies are a given. You need not do ANYTHING to get them.

So, yes, if anything Tiru understates the issue. To lose those rare good advisers is a thousand times worse than gaining many enmities. Not just ten times. But, then, you have to excuse him. He did not live in the times of Social media!