Try, Try and Try again

?Try, Try and Try Again… and then please move on

As the adage goes, yes I phrase it as an adage, though it is but a motivational quote, a pick-me-up pep talk if you must, 'try, try and try again and one day you shall succeed'.

I don't have a problem with the first part, but the second part of this adage comes with no assurance. If someone has quoted you this motivational statement in all earnest she is not to blame, at least not in most cases.

The fellow who coined this adage was, in my opinion, possibly related it to climbing a summit, or learning how to ride a horse, maybe. Motivating a mountaineer with this adage would make sense because the 'try, try, and try' can go in a spool for as long as you want, and then, voila! one day the motivated would find himself on top of the mountain, no matter how late.

Like all things human, and Indian, we tend to affix aphorisms to almost everything. I am sure the 'try, try and try' guru did not mean to encourage an amateur soldier to keep going on until he succeeds, surely there won't be a fourth time for an amateur soldier on the battlefield. 'Live to fight another day' is another maxim that would probably do well if remembered when trying again and again. Learning to retreat is also equally important. 

Trying to extrapolate the 'try, try and try...' adage to affix on virtually anything is riddled with danger. For example, if one was to act on this principle in a business environment, as incidentally I did, you run the risk of draining capital and risk financial ruin.

Doing something over and over again, and expecting different results has been termed insane by Albert Einstein. 

So does that mean the 'try, try and try...' author meant that we keep trying things 'differently' and then we will succeed at some point in time. But then, isn't that the law of nature. If four fellows were doing the same task, ceteris paribus, aren't all going to complete the task if time was not a factor. Fellow one would finish up in an hour because he is experienced. Fellow two would do it in two hours because he was less experienced but intuitive. Fellow three, not at all experienced, tried, failed, and then tried to emulate the first two and finished his task in a couple of days. Fellow four, the disciple of the 'try, try and try' guru, after failing to achieve on his own ran some reverse engineering on the other three folks and successfully completed his task in a week.

Success is likely to be guaranteed if one keeps trying by altering the methods or using different tools or by changing directions. But then is that success attributed to the 'try, try and try...' adage? Haven't the fourth fellow done something differently? Effectively giving up on the original course and taken a new path.

In om shanti om Shahrukh Khan's profoundly said, "Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho, to puri kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai."  It sure is an apogee to the 'try, try and try...' fellow because SRK proclaimed merely setting your heart to the target. 

 I think what SRK really meant was, 'if you set your heart onto something, you can achieve it. Your efforts would yield results and it would seem the cosmos, too, is helping you, in more ways than one.' But that doesn't sound very melodramatic, so let's pass on this one.

To take from Naval Ravikant, "if you haven't already got it, that means you haven't wanted it enough." Roughly, he meant, you have to sacrifice a lot to achieve what you want. So if you haven't already got it, that means enough sacrifices haven't been made yet. I guess this makes a lot more sense but then again, the 'try, try and try...' routine does not stick with him. He's a strong proponent of hustle. (if you hear his podcast on four kinds of 'luck', then you know what I am referring to the fourth kind - one you achieve success by continuous scrambling a.k.a. hustle).

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Having tried quite a few times, and failing to achieve any positive results, I decided to chart a new course to go after what I want. And then I thought while I am at it, why not set a new goal. So it effectively means I gave up on something and am going after something else now.

I have innumerable people to thank for, those who worked, helped, guided, advised, and partnered with me over the last ten years of Flywheel. Most have been patient and trusting. 

One regret that I have while failing to achieve my objective, was that the journey changed me in an unseemly manner. It made me do things out of my character and not how I was raised.

I'd like to believe what Shah Rukh Khan said on a somewhat optimistic note, in om shanti om, 'hamari filmo ki tarah, hamari zindagi mein bhi end tak sab kuch thik hi ho jaata hai.'

So with a new goal, I take a new route to achieve it. 

I have known Varuna for about twenty years. Vivek Juneja has been kind enough to provide me with an opportunity to be part of the phenomenal growth story of Varuna Integrated Logistics Pvt. Ltd.

I will update you all more about this, soon.