My Life: An Illustrated Biography: An Illustrated Autobiography

by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

‘Let not thy winged days be spent in vain. When once gone, no gold can buy them back.’

I realized that if something is at stake, the human mind gets ignited and the working capacity gets enhanced manifold.

I learnt that dreams should be those that keep us awake, they are ideas that become actions that lead to change.

‘Do not make rocketry your profession, your livelihood—make it your religion, your mission.’

There are two lessons that have remained with me from this episode. The first is about having the resilience and courage to get up after a setback and carry on with the task. And the second is about the role of a leader in managing failure. A leader should give the credit of the success to the team members. But when failure comes, leaders should absorb the failures and protect the team members. I learnt this important lesson in failure management not from any text books but by observing Professor Dhawan’s leadership style.

‘You are beautifully clothed in your success.’ Even today I remember those words and I don’t own more than three sets of suits and five or six shirts.

My years at I.S.R.O. and in the developing of SLV-3 taught me so many things—that problems will come with any endeavour. Your assignment could be to build a rocket or to do a school project, but the trick is to tell yourself that you are the captain of your problems and never let the problems become the captain; defeat the problem and succeed. Once you tell yourself: ‘I can solve this and I will do it well’, there is nothing that can stop you from doing so.

Weapons cannot buy peace, but they can help us to not repeat history.

I had only one formula for my team to follow—goal-setting, positive thinking, visualizing and believing.

have a message of Courage for you. COURAGE TO GIVE Courage to think different, Courage to invent, Courage to discover the impossible, Courage to travel on an unexplored path, Courage to share knowledge Courage to remove pain Courage to reach the unreached Courage to combat problems And succeed, Are the unique qualities of youth. As the youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my missions. May God bless you. Jai Hind.

Aim in Life Behind every successful venture and every inspiring career you will find an unflinching aim that was set early in life. Having an aim in life gives purpose to every action and orientation to every result. Acquire Knowledge Having an aim in life is incomplete until you are able to acquire the right knowledge needed to accomplish that aim. It is your duty to make the best use of the resources, people and networks provided to you at your schools and colleges to acquire the optimal knowledge needed to propel you towards your goal. Knowledge will give you greatness, and will help you accomplish difficult missions in life. Work Hard In order to achieve great aims one needs to work relentlessly towards the goal. Constant effort with application of proper knowledge can help overcome difficulties and to scale great heights. Managing Failure Difficult missions will bring difficult challenges which may sometimes produce temporary setbacks. The test of a human being is in accepting the failure and going on trying until he or she succeeds. Managing failure is the essence of leadership. Task that Leads to Bliss Take up whatever challenge that comes your way but also find that one task that gives you bliss. Let me explain. When we launched the first indigenous satellite launch vehicle SLV-3 in 1980, it gave me a lot of happiness. When Agni reached the target at 2,000 km in 1989, it gave me a different kind of happiness. When our team successfully tested the nuclear weapon in ...