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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Alhamdulillāhi Rabbil ‘Ālamīn. Salātu wa-s-salām ‘ala ashrafil anbiyā’ wal mursalīn, Muḥammadir Rasūlallāh sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihī, sal-lam ‘alā alayhi wa sallam, tasliman kathīran kathīran. Amma ba’du.
Yesterday we spoke about the four things that are necessary for success. I didn’t mention all four yesterday, but today I will just list them for you, and then we will do them one by one. One is: do hard things first. The most difficult things; do them first. Number two is: do the thing that you are passionate about. Do your goal in life; do that first. Third one is: think long term. Do it for decades—not for months, not for years. Minimum ten years. And four: write your story. Thinking five years ahead, thinking achieved, and start it down. So, Insha’allah, we’ll do this one by one.
So, “Do hard things first.” Yesterday I mentioned that to you. Today, Professor Graham Weaver of Stanford says, “Do your thing.” Do the thing that you are passionate about. Now, this is linked to the third point, which is “Do it for decades.” What he says—and which is so Insha’allah very true—is that success comes from focused attention and consistent effort on one thing for a long period of time. There’s no alternative to this. Focused attention on one thing, not multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is the biggest con job in the world. Multi-tasking destroys your efficiency faster than anything else. So, focused attention on one thing for a long period of time.
They asked him how long is “long.” He said at least ten years. And he says the guarantee is that something which you focus on for ten years, nobody can beat you. It’s an absolute guarantee of success. You focus on one thing for ten years; no one can do it better. But the key is that focused attention on that one thing for ten years.
Now, that is the reason why passion is important because only if you are passionate can you continue to focus your attention on that one thing for ten years. Ten years is a long time. If you are not passionate, you will get tired of it. You will get sick of it. You will lose interest. But if you are passionate, you will continue forever. There is no limit to that. And the reason why you can continue forever if you are passionate is because you enjoy the journey. You enjoy being there. Even though there is a goal—a final, so-called achieved goal—you are not really working for the goal. You are working because the journey itself is pleasant. You love doing it, right?
For example, if you say, “I want…” I am a photographer. Say, for example, you say, “I am a photographer,” and I want my photograph to be published as the cover picture on *National Geographic*. Right, this is my ultimate goal: cover picture on *National Geographic*. Now obviously it will take you a long time. It will take investment, good equipment, and you know, a long time. But the reason you will stick there is because you enjoy photography. You enjoy photography even if you are taking a bad photograph. You still enjoy being in the forest, being in the middle of wildlife, and so on and so forth. So you enjoy photography, right? Insha’allah, you work hard enough and you spend enough time; you will get a picture which will be on the cover of *National Geographic*. But even if you never get there, you had a very nice life. Plus, you will create enough stuff to give you an enormous amount of fame, even though your picture might not be on the cover of *National Geographic*.
Take another example. Take the people who go into Tablighi Jamaat. Right, I know one of my very close and dear friends is the chairman of a billion-dollar company. He goes into Jamat four months every year. People ask him, “How do you do that? You are the chairman running a whole corporation. How do you go into Jamat?” And for four months he is completely out of touch. He will not even answer phone calls. It is not as if he is running his company from a cell phone. He said, “I organize my work like this. I organize my work in a way where this is possible.”
So if you look at people who are dedicated to Tablighi, who go every year for one month at least—or one chill of what it is—they go. The Jamat says four months in a year, but people go four months even if not every year. They go every couple of years. The reason they are able to do that is because they love doing that work. They are not doing it for… actually, that is one of the things which I tell them when I speak to them: have a clear goal. If you are going out to Jamat, what is it you are going to accomplish? Right, have a clear goal. That they don’t have—that is a different issue. Point being: that people who go go because they love doing it. So that passion is very important, right?
In 1983, I wrote for myself my life goal, which was: I said to become a globally recognized leadership consultant. And then I worked for that from ’83 to ’94. So, eleven years. Eleven years I did not take one single day’s vacation—not even weekends. I worked every weekend learning how to train, learning how to design programs, learning how to be a leadership consultant. Also developing my own skills. In the course of that, I also did an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. So all of this for eleven years—no vacation, zero vacation. All my vacation leave (35 days per year) I used to spend doing this. Then I negotiated with the company; I took another fifteen days off, leave without pay, to travel all over India and learn how to run training programs. I slept in hotels where you wouldn’t kennel a dog. I travelled third-class train on a wooden plank.
Right, we did not have—we did not have one slice of bread more than what we needed at home. We had no television. We were living in the boondocks. We were living in the tea gardens. Beautiful location, but there is zero entertainment. So we had no television, no spare money for anything, no holidays. My wife used to go off to her parents’ place; I would take off. For eleven years. And not because I had a goal saying “1994 I will do this.” I didn’t. I was learning. Only in the last year (’93-’94) is when we decided to completely become independent. Which I set up shop in Bangalore. And I did it, Alhamdulillah. The rest is history. But the point I am saying is: I was able to do that because I was—and I continue to be—totally and completely passionate about leadership development. How to develop leadership? If you take the tips… they come to cut number the of no—but I don’t like them. So, what should I do? I’ll buy you an auto rickshaw. Go drive an auto rickshaw. I mean, it’s a senseless thing, no? You have spent twenty-something years studying something and getting a graduation and what-not, and going to university, and then a career in line with that, I don’t like. Then, what about me? Become a belly dancer. What am I going to tell you? Where is “like”? What does “like” have to do?
The thing is, the issue is, that’s why I didn’t use the word “like.” I’m not saying Rasūlullāh sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam liked being persecuted. Of course, he didn’t. Nobody likes being tortured. You accept it. You go through it. You have patience. You stand against it. You fight against it. Because you are passionate about the goal. And if to reach my goal, I have to go through these difficult times, I say, Alhamdulillah. I will do it. Because that goal is important enough for me.
So, “Do your thing.” Do what you are passionate about. Obviously, it goes without saying. You have to therefore identify what it is you are passionate about. When I do my life goal workshops, first thing I tell people: I say, write down your life goal. People are blank. “What is the life goal?” “I have no life goal.” You are—whatever age you are—you have no life goal. So, you are just living. You are breathing. You ge
Wake up in the morning, you go to sleep at night. During the day, you eat one time, two times, three times, whatever it is, and you do whatever. You go to sleep. And 24 hours have gone. If I ask you, what did you achieve? I don’t know. What were you trying to achieve when you got up in the morning? Nothing. Your mind was blank. You had no goal. Twenty-four hours have passed. This is the life of a buffalo. This is the life of a sheep. This is the life of an animal. It’s not the life of a human being. Right? Get up in the morning, eat some grass, go to sleep at night. This is the life of an animal. It’s not the life of a human being. The life of a human being is a life based on thoughtful action, not just action. That is the other problem in today’s world: mere activity. Just busy-ness. What are you doing? “I’m very busy.” Busy doing what? There is activity, right? And much of that activity is on the screen, scrolling. All day long. Sometimes I think about these boys who sit here, these watchmen. He has a job. It’s not a great job; frankly, if you ask me, it’s a lousy job. But it is a job. He gets some money. But it is also a lazy man’s job because there is nothing to do. He is just sitting on a chair. Now, if they had some sense—and I’ve told them, I’ve given them links and so on—if they had some sense, they would study. They would read. What are you doing? You know, go open the press button of the lift or something. Other than that, nothing else. So, study.
Now imagine that fellow. He is getting paid. He is getting paid for sitting on a chair. So today he is nothing. He is a watchman. If he lives like this, he will be nothing. But if he studies, he has got a beautiful job—a profession ideally made for studying and becoming someone. Because somebody is paying you to do nothing, yet you want a chair to sit in. What do you want? They all have phones. They all have internet connections. And today there are a zillion things you can study on the phone. To study. You just sit there, go to sleep, watch some nonsense on the phone, or engage in some chit-chat. The day is gone.
The point I am making is that if you are really serious about development, if you are serious about doing something with our lives, it is not difficult. It is very easy. But it requires focus. It requires consistent effort. Not a flash in the pan. People do that. You listen to one great journalist. Our Urdu channel is called Dhuwaan Daar Takreer. Dhuwaan is Dhuwaan. Nothing is seen. So listen to this great, fantastic broadcast. You get very motivated. Then you read the Quran all night. And you pray Tahajjud all night. And then next morning, you are flat out. And that’s the end of the story. That is no good. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came home once and said, “There was another lady there.” He introduced the other lady. And she said, “Ya Rasulullah, this is my friend, so-and-so.” And she prays all night. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Tell her that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala likes this deed which is done consistently, regularly, every day, even if it is small.” Praying all night is not something you can sustain. You can do it one day, two days. Alhamdulillah, we do it during Ithakaaf at the end of Ramadan. But the ten days of Ithakaaf? Then you need another month of recovery from jet lag. That’s what it does to you. Alhamdulillah, that’s good. We should do it also. I’m not against it. I’m just saying that this is not sustainable long-term. Sustainable long-term is something which is consistent. So, focused attention, consistent effort over a long period of time.
And Professor Graham says, at least ten years. Time passes; believe me, time passes so fast, it’s not funny. In 2019, I went to America. By 2026, I came back. Ten years gone. Yeah? Not ten years, seven years gone. We started this business in 2006 or something, or seven years ago. In 2019, I left. Fifteen years of service. I worked there for another six years—twenty-one years. Can you believe it? The question is: if you use that time thoughtfully, then you can achieve an enormous amount of things. But the same thing, if you don’t use it thoughtfully, day after day, we just go. And then, may Allah protect us, by the tail end of our lives, we sit and think about, “What did I do in my life?” It’s a very tragic situation. You do not want to be in that situation where you are reflecting back on your life, and there is no answer. What did I achieve? Nothing.
I ask Allahﷻ to help us to live thoughtfully, and to live consciously, and to live in a way which pleases Him, Jalla Jalaluhu. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.