10 useful tips to avoid greatness in life

Not everybody reaches a position of significance. So if you don’t believe that you have it in yourself, this article is not for you. However for those destined for achieving greatness, this article may prove as a useful guide.

 

#1 Ignore your talents – It is absolutely true that people become popular by luck and circumstances, however still most people opt for working on their talents and develop unique skills, these people are well known for e.g. Lata Mangeshkar, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, A R Rehman, Marilyn Monroe etc.

#2 Forget your conscience – We have enough philanthropists, NGO workers, social activists and the world can do without another one. I strongly advise that you mind your own business and let people suffer and live their own fate. For reference popular names in this field are Mother Teresa, Florence nightingale etc.

#3 Do not make tonnes of money – Some people have a knack of making money so fast that it seems that they are actually printing currency in their backyard. So if you start making money faster than you can count it, find a way to lose it. People who didn’t follow this advice are Warren Buffet, Ambanis, LN Mittal etc.

#4 Bury your unique and brilliant idea – Millions of people around the world somehow stumble upon an idea which is so unique that nothing can stop its success. Then in place of ridiculing the idea over a drink (advisable) they actually try and succeed. For e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Mohd. Yunus, Steve Jobs and all our great scientists like Einstein, Newton, Hawkings etc.

#5 Do not write a Book – Stupidest thing you can do is write a brilliant book which haunts you for rest of your life. Your whole life revolves around greatness of that book and you always try and live upto it. Some of the crazy people who wrote a wonderful book are Chetan Bhagat, Eric Segal, Robin Sharma etc.

#6 Avoid life changing events – Some people take things very seriously. So if you get caught up in an event which tries changing your perspectives towards life, laugh and ignore the same. Apparently MK Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Ashoka etc could not ignore the event.

#7 Kill your political ambitions and leadership skills – I know there is a dearth of leaders, but this is no reason why you should jump into the grind and emerge as a saviour. Keep banking on somebody else to do it. Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, JL Nehru, Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi etc seems so natural at their leadership style, it seems they were born with it.

#8 Avoid important positions – People keep working towards heading a company, heading a bank, heading conglomerates throughout their lives. Such a waste. They think that they can actually make a difference and they actually do. For e.g. Ben Bernanke, Kofi Annan etc

#9 Avoid religion & philosophy – You may be born into a religion or may have opted one, but you may certainly opt not for following it so much or discussing your philosophy so much that you start reforming people’s lives. For safety sake, I am not naming any religious gurus. Philosophers include Ayn Rand, Bertrand Russell, Nietzsche, Aldous Huxley etc.

#10 Avoid any kind of Sports and Games – My mother kept telling me that it’s important that I study hard and playing sports is such a waste of time.  But maybe some moms were not so concerned or some people were not so obedient. Names of Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt, Lance Armstrong, David Beckham come to my mind.

 

As I said, it remains your choice to heed to my advice. After all remember what Winston Churchill said – “Good and great are seldom in the same man.”