Laudable ability?

As I have had reason to say, various human abilities are given pole position in different contexts by philosophers, especially if they are also poets. And, so, here we are with the most laudable ability of them all in today's post. Whether or not you agree is left to you.

Ah, no, no, no, I am NOT the poet-philosopher that I am referring to. Tiru is.

Enaiththitpam eidhiyak kannum vinaiththitpam vendaarai vendaadhu ulagu - Tirukkural

No matter what abilities you possess, the world shall not praise you if you do not seek determination in action - Loose Translation

I think I may have mentioned this before. That I read somewhere that 'Vision without execution is mere hallucination'. Yay! Tiru implied it way before. What is the point of having abilities if you will not apply them? And applying them would mean something only when you'll do the job to completion. You are the greatest engineer in the world, the greatest doctor or whatever not because you have the most degrees but because you put your knowledge to use AND you successfully complete the jobs you take up. THAT's when the world lauds you.

AND, again as I have had reason to say before, any job will come with its set of obstacles. You need to have the determination to forge ahead with your execution and complete the job satisfactorily. It is not just your intellectual capabilities that will take you to success. It is also your character. AND for THAT, you need to place that determination at par, if not above, the other abilities. Without that, you could always make the best plans on paper but the world will not appreciate you. A man with lesser intellectual abilities but with that determination to see through the execution will always earn more fame than the genius who will not leave his drawing board.

THAT is the difference between 'Mungerilal ke haseen sapne' and success. Determination in Execution.

Get good consultants?

There is no dearth of advisers in the world. Get onto social media and ask ANY question and you will find scores of people ready with advice. People never let pesky little things like lack of knowledge get in the way of giving advice to other people. There is, therefore, this difficulty in knowing whose advice to take.

Tiru has this to say...

Utra noi neekki uraa-amai murkaakkum petriyaar penikkolal - Tirukkural

Cherish the closeness of those who cure the present ill and ensure that you are defended from future ills - Loose Translation

You know, though, how it goes in organisations. You can only become a hero by putting out raging fires; whoever made a hero out of the guy whot put in place fire protection systems? In other words, you need to SAVE people from current danger. It's not much use, personally to you, to safeguard people from future danger. What sort of people, then, do you, as the leader, keep around yourself - the ones who wait for a fire to start before acting or the ones who anticipate fires and put in place safeguards to avoid them?

Tiru, of course, gives credit to he who solves current problems. But he also says that the same chappie, if he is also capable of anticipating and safeguarding against future problems, is worth keeping close to you and be respected for his advice.

Now THAT is a tough ask for most 'leaders'. I mean, if someone puts in place measures today and some six months down the line a problem is avoided, only HE will be saying that it was because of his precautions. Everyone else would have conveniently forgotten all about his efforts or will take the view that the problem would not have occured even without his efforts. You need to SEE the fire AND the chappie heroically putting it out in order to understand the value of his efforts. I mean, come on, if there is NO fire because of fire-retardant systems, how do you even know that there could have been one?

And THAT is why good leaders are very rare. For they have to have that ability.