Suraj's Blog [Sharing Knowledge & Inspiration]

It happened one day at Chicago’s Airport.

A young lady was waiting in the departure lounge for the boarding announcement of her delayed flight. It was a Friday evening, and she was looking forward to getting home, and to the dinner date with her boyfriend. Just a wee bit impatient with the delay, she walked across to a kiosk and bought herself a pack of her favorite cookies—almond and raisin specials!

Spotting a seat adjacent to a convenient table-like space, she quickly settled in and pulled out her laptop, hoping to finish the presentation she had been working on. She took one bite of the cookie, then another … the cookie was quickly gone! As she reached out for a second cookie, she was taken aback to find that the man on the next seat was helping himself to one too, without even the courtesy of ‘May I please …’!
What a weird man, she thought to herself, biting into another cookie. She tried to focus on her work but was quickly distracted by the sight of that shirt sleeve reaching out yet again and grabbing another cookie!

Was he being friendly? Was he being a bully? Was he a thief? A million angry thoughts crossed her mind, and she was tempted to pull the pack of cookies away and give a piece of her mind to the man. She held herself back but only just. She threw him one of those glazed looks that seemed to combine scorn, anger and disgust. The man only smiled.

And this went on. She’d take a cookie, and so would he. Until it was down to the last cookie. As she eyed it, the man quickly grabbed it, split it into two and gave her a half. She took the cookie and was about to stand up, yell and create a scene when she heard the announcement of her flight being ready for departure. She got up, grabbed her bags and headed off towards the boarding gate, still angry, very angry with the man who stole her cookies.

She got into the aircraft, found her way to her window seat and to get her mind off the wretched guy, she decided to immerse herself in a book. ‘Better to lose myself in a world of make-believe rather than think of real-world demons!’ And she reached into her handbag to pull out her reading glasses …

Guess what she found in her handbag? Her pack of cookies. The almond-and-raisin specials! ‘Oh no!’ she sighed.

Those two words escaped her lips as she sank into her seat. And as she realized what had really transpired, she felt terrible. She had been eating the other guy’s cookies! And she’d been so rude to him. And she’d thought he was such a terrible guy. And the man—no, that gentleman, she corrected herself—had smiled through it all, even as a stranger ate his cookies.

She got up instinctively to see if the man was on the same flight, so she could at least apologies for her behavior and thank him for the cookies. But he was nowhere in sight.

You may think this is a nice little story about a remarkable coincidence involving other people in a faraway land. No! What happened that evening in Chicago between a man, a woman and a pack of cookies happens to you and me, to all of us, all the time. With cookies, or without.

We go through our lives feeling that other people are taking advantage of us, of our talents, stealing our cookies. We seldom pause to think about how we depend on others, on their support, their cookies.

Not just that. Often, the cookies we think of as our own actually belong to others. We worry, we fume when we see someone else get credit for what we think of as ‘our achievements’. And yet we happily bask in the glory of recognition for achievements that were clearly the result of other people’s support. No problems with that!

Joint ventures and business partnerships are witnesses to several such moments of stolen cookies. Each side feels the other side is stealing its cookies. Success, however, lies in thinking like that man at Airport. Share those cookies, and keep smiling.


The world is full of cows and dogs. More dogs, fewer cows. Cows are the givers. They give their milk, not only to their own calves but also to strangers, to humans. They share happily with everyone, not just their own. Dogs are the takers. Wherever they are, they claim territorial rights. Go near them and they growl, they threaten, they fight for the bone, they fight to claim space that doesn’t belong to them. They want those cookies, others’ cookies.

The next time you feel someone else is eating your cookies, just smile.

There will be times when you are like that man, and you’ll find someone else eating your cookies.
Never mind. Be a cow. Give. Smile.

There will also be times when you’ll be like that young lady, eating someone else's cookies, mistaking them for your own. Don’t growl. Don’t be rude. Just smile.
Clearly, it’s a good idea to go through life with a smile.

Remember, there will always be another pack of cookies waiting for you somewhere.

We all go through our lives feeling that other people are taking advantage of us, of our talents, stealing our cookies. We seldom pause to think about how we depend on others, their support, their cookies. Often, the cookies we think of as our own actually belong to someone else.

Károly Takács and the Winner’s Mindset

The next time you watch your favourite sport on TV, or read about the stars of the game, it might be a
good idea to participate in a little sport yourself. Try this. Get inside the minds of the sportsmen. Get
into their shoes. Take a peek inside the psyches of all those sporting heroes. The record breakers as
well as the favourites who lose out. Also the person who drops a catch or misses a penalty. And the
sportsman who perhaps missed out due to an unfortunate injury, and is watching the game on TV at
home. Think of what must be going through their minds. This could be a fascinating game.
Sport is a terrific metaphor for life, and there are several sporting stories that inspire and motivate
us. But perhaps none more so than the tale of Károly Takács. You may not have heard of him, but his
life story is worth a listen.


Károly was a sergeant in the Hungarian army. In 1938, the twenty-eight-year-old was the country’s
top pistol shooter, having won most major national and international championships. He was—by a
mile—the favourite to win gold at the 1940 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Then, disaster struck.

At an army training session, a hand grenade accidentally exploded in Károly’s hand. And blew it
away. His shooting hand. Not only did his entire Olympic dream crash, he also lost a limb.

‘Why me?’ Károly could have been excused for asking the question most of us would have asked.
You would understand it too if he wallowed in self-pity, an understandable reaction for someone
after such a tragic turn of events. You would sympathize with him if he were to become a recluse, a
living example of how fate can devastate the best-laid plans.

Oh no, not Károly. He was made of sterner stuff.

Instead of focusing on what he had lost—his right hand, his potentially gold medal-winning
shooting hand—he chose to focus on what he still had. He had mental strength, the mindset of a
winner, the determination to succeed and yes, a healthy left hand. A left hand which, he thought, he
could train and transform into the world’s best shooting hand.

After a month in hospital, Károly went out and, away from the glare of the world, began practising
to shoot with his left hand. Despite the pain his body still reeled under, despite the strain the left hand
had to undergo to also do all that the right hand had earlier done, he stayed focused on his goal: to
make his left hand the best shooting hand in the world.

One year later, Károly resurfaced at the national shooting championship in Hungary. His colleagues
were delighted to see him. They complimented him on his courage, and his fabulous gesture of coming

over to see them shoot. But they were taken aback when Károly told them that he wasn’t there to see
them shoot; he was there to compete with them.

And compete he did. In fact, Károly won the championship. Just one year after losing his right
hand. He won with his left hand.

Károly’s decision to practise quietly, away from scrutiny, was significant. It is easy for people to
ridicule you for dreaming big. It is also very easy for you to stay afloat in your misery for a sympathy
wave laps at you from all over.

Unfortunately for Károly, his Olympic dream remained unrealized for a while, as two successive
Games were cancelled due to the world war.

In 1948, the Olympics came to London. Károly was chosen to represent Hungary in the pistol
shooting event. And he won gold. Shooting with his left hand.

Imagine being a gold medal favourite, losing your shooting hand in an accident, yet picking yourself
up from the shattered mess, training your left hand to shoot as well or better, and going on to win the
Olympic gold.

Four years later. Helsinki Olympics. Pistol shooting event. Who won gold? No surprises here.
Károly Takács.

That is the stuff champions are made of.
We all have moments in our lives when we seem so close to glory but suddenly lose everything.
When it seems that the world is conspiring to destroy us. Our dreams get shattered. We feel
vanquished. Crushed. Beaten. Defeated. And we cry aloud, ‘Why me?’
When that happens, think of Károly. In fact, think like him. Don’t worry about what you’ve lost.
Focus on what you still have. Your inner strength. Your mental toughness. No one can take these
away.

Don’t lose yourself to self-pity. Pick yourself up quickly. Momentum is key. Károly was back on
the practice range a month after the accident. When you are down, think like a boxer: if you are
knocked down, you need to stand up in ten seconds or less. One extra second, and it’s all over.
Set yourself a goal and focus on achieving it. A goal helps channelize the mind and body to work
on what needs to be achieved, rather than looking back and worrying about past losses, about what
might have been. When your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, it’s not easy to wish them away.
You need a positive thought—a goal—to replace and banish negative thoughts.

Winning a gold medal in pistol shooting is less about the hand, more about the mind. Life’s like
that. Winning is less about skills, more about attitude. Skills can be acquired, as Károly demonstrated
with his left hand.

When you watch the next game of cricket or football, when you see the winners there, remember to
win something for yourself too.


Remember the Károly Takács mindset. The winner’s mindset!

In 1963, some behavioural scientists performed an experiment with the graduating class of Harvard Business School. They asked the students if they had written down goals for themselves. Their goals for life. For the future. On paper. A mere 3 per cent of the class had actually written down goals. Yes. Just 3 per cent. Well, twenty-five years later, the scientists again got in touch with the class of ’63. To find out how they had done in their careers. And in their lives.

And guess what?

They found that the net worth of the 3 per cent of the class that had written down goals was MORE
than the net worth of the rest of that batch. Not just that; the 3 per cent who written-down-goal
seemed to be happier, doing what they wanted and leading far more fulfilling lives.

Incredible. But, I believe, it’s true. And it could be true for all of us.
What are your goals? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to be, have, do? In life. At
work. In relationships. Whatever it be, write it down. Now. Just write it down. Not later, not
tomorrow—now!

And commit yourself to action. Commit yourself to doing what it takes to achieve your goals. Take
action. Make sure that everything you do is taking you closer to your goals. (If it isn’t, don’t do it.)
And finally, take a step today. However small it may be, but take that first step today. If you want to
lose weight, walk that 45-minute walk—today! If you want to be the best salesperson, make that extra sales call—today!

You’ll see the difference. As the Nike guys would say, just do it.
It takes just three steps.

Step one: Write down your goals.
Step two: Make a commitment to action, to doing what it takes.
Step three: Take the first step. Today!

Come on, make a beginning. You owe it to yourself. And you have nothing to lose.