It Clicked

A year back, I had a guest at my home, a young very successful industrialist in Kerala, a long time acquaintance. Our discussions went on uninterrupted for a few hours. We talked about his present business, his future plans and present problems. In between he shared the story of a Kerala billionaire, who in 1985 was jailed in an Arab country for a crime he was not responsible for. He said, “It took six months for the government to realize his innocence and it took another six months for the authorities to clear his papers and release him. He lost his job there and returned to India quite disappointed; but he was not lost. He began a poultry farm and it clicked. Later he stepped into another business and that too clicked.” He summed up this live story of a successful industrialist who now owns assets worth at least ten billion Indian Rupees. All that he planned ‘clicked’. This guy also told me the inner secrets of this ‘clicking’ experience, which this billionaire himself personally shared with him. At every juncture, he said that there were sad episodes of total collapse, which he did not let the public know. A sort of plague washed off his entire chicken, at a time when he was making the best out of it. In the next venture, his entire stock was put on hold, due to an organized attempt to ruin him. The guy said that at every juncture, this business man had severe problems to face. 

I picked up the word ‘clicked’ which he repeated frequently and asked him if his business also falls under ‘clicked’ category. The answer he gave me was surprising. He said that he used this word only in the very sense in which people usually interprets success. He said that he does not believe in this aspect of an unknown for or against destiny deciding ghost exercising its’ choice in every entrepreneur’s career. All the way this young man was sharing about utilizing situations at its best and experiencing the manifestation of his dreams at every development, good or bad. He said that his experience on obstructions also is more or the less same. I asked him how he could come to such a positive attitude in his life. He said that it took long time to get it established within and now it is very hard to take it out. He said that unless there was a fabricated allegation, the billionaire in the story would have would have been a gulf returned now; unless there was the chicken plague, he would have ended up as a Hatcher; unless there was a man to betray him, he would have ended up as a commodity dealer. The guy continued with his bright eyes; he said that success always appears side by side with blocks and deadlocks and it is with thrill and pleasure that he faces every obstruction and he was never disappointed. 

Joseph Mattappally