Learning How to Fly: Life Lessons for the Youth

by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Whom does the telephone remind you of? Alexander Graham Bell.

I have met 21.5 million youth in a decade’s time. From these meetings and interactions such as this one, I learnt that every youth wants to be unique. You can only be YOU! But the world all around you is doing its best, day and night, to make you just like everybody else. At home, you are asked by your parents to be like the neighbours’ children and score good marks like them. When you go to school, your teachers say, ‘Why can’t you be among the top five in the class?’ Wherever you go, they are saying, ‘You have to be somebody else or like everybody else.’ But young friends, I know that all of you would like to be the unique yourself.

The challenge, my young friends, is that you have to fight the hardest battle, and never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place. What will be the tools with which you will fight this battle? They are: have a great aim in life, continuously acquire the knowledge, work hard and persevere to realize the great achievement.

Creativity Learning gives creativity, Creativity leads to thinking, Thinking provides knowledge, Knowledge makes you great.

When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you.

The way in which Professor Srinivasan reviewed the work, it really injected an understanding of the value of time by each team member and brought out the best from the team. I realized that if something important is at stake, the human mind gets ignited and the working capacity gets enhanced manifold. That’s exactly what happened. This is one of the techniques of building talent.

1.Yesterday: natural resources defined power Today: knowledge is power Institutions should empower themselves with knowledge 2.Yesterday: hierarchy was the model Today: synergy is the mandate Institutions that enable the intersection of multiple faculties will achieve their mission goals

Yesterday: leaders commanded and controlled Today: leaders empower and coach Institutions should be sensitive to the needs of sustainable development 4.Yesterday: shareholders came first Today: customers come first

Yesterday: employees took orders Today: teams make decisions Institutions need to promote team spirit 6.Yesterday: seniority signified status Today: creativity drives status Institutions will be judged by how they promote innovation and creativity

Yesterday: value was an extra

Today: value is everything

Institutions need to inculcate value addition...

Yesterday: everyone was a...

Today: everyone is a...

Institutions must value feedback and take acti...

Creativity comes from beautiful minds. It can be anywhere and in any part of the world. It may start from a fisherman’s hamlet, or a farmer’s household, or a dairy farm, or cattle breeding centre, or it could emanate from classrooms, or labs or industries, or R&D centres.

The important aspect of creativity

is seeing the same thing as everybody else, but thinking of something different. Innovation and creativity ultimately results into the culture of excellence.

What is excellence? Friends, you all belong to the youth community, which should be filled with a culture of excellence. Excellence does not come by accident. It is a process, where an individual or organization or nation continuously strives to better oneself.

When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are, Anything your heart desires, Will come to you.

Finally I would like to ask you, what would you like to be remembered for? You have to evolve yourself and shape your life. Write your dreams down on a piece of paper.

That page may be a very important page in the book of human history. You will be remembered for creating that one page in the history of the nation—whether that page is the page of invention, the page of innovation, or the page of discovery, or the page of creating societal change, or a page of removing poverty or the page of finding new technologies for humankind.

He said: ‘Our aim in founding the State was not the disproportionate happiness of any one class, but the greatest happiness of the whole.’ This was said 2,400 years ago.

Similarly, around the same period Tamil poet Saint

Thiruvalluvar said, ‘The important elements that constitute a nation are: being disease free; high earning capacity; high productivity; harmonious living and strong defence’. How can all the...

Righteousness Where there is righteousness in the heart, There is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, There is an order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, There is peace in the world.

Learn these words

The ignited minds of the youth is the most powerful resource on the Earth. I am convinced that the power of the youth, if properly directed, will bring about transformed humanity by meeting its challenges and bring peace and prosperity.

While talking about good deeds, I am reminded of the advice given to Mahatma Gandhi by his mother. She said, ‘Son, in your entire lifetime, if you can save or better someone’s life, your birth as a human being and your life is a success.’

‘In the world today, we have a problem of distrust and unhappiness that transforms into violence. But in this monastery we believe that when you remove “I” and “me” from the mind, you will eliminate ego; if you get rid of the ego, hatred towards fellow human beings will vanish; if the hatred goes out of the mind, the violence in thinking and action will disappear; if violence in our mind is taken away, peace springs in human minds.’

But the difficult part for the individual is how to remove the ethos of ‘I’ and ‘me’. For this, we need education and values to be inculcated from a young age.

Set of belief

Dear friends, if you ask me, how my life has been enriched for the last eighty-three years, I have to convey to all of you one message. The message is like this. When I reached the age of seventeen, I had one great companion. That companion was nothing but great books. Throughout my life, books enriched me. I would suggest and recommend all of you to read the following books: • Light from Many Lamps by Lillian Eichler • Empires of the Mind by Denis Waitley • Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar • Everyday Greatness by Steven R. Covey

The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi

When I think of my childhood days, I am reminded of Shri Sivasubramania Iyer who taught me when I was studying in the fifth grade at the age of ten. Whenever my teacher entered into the classroom, we all saw in him a teacher radiating knowledge. He was a great teacher in our school. All of us loved to attend his class and hear him. One day, he was teaching about the flight of bird. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail and the body structure with the head. He explained how birds lift and fly. He also explained to us how they change direction while flying. For nearly twenty-five minutes he gave the lecture with lots of information on lift, drag, how the birds fly in a formation. At the end of the class, he wanted to know whether we had understood how the birds fly. I said I did not understand. When I said this, the teacher asked the other students whether they understood or not. Many students said that they also did not understand. Our response did not upset him, since he was a committed teacher.

Spiritual Home Let us imagine a small family home with father, mother, a son and a daughter, or two sons or two daughters. In this home, both parents earn. I visualize in this little home, a little home library with at least ten great books and in this home parents inculcate the reading habit among their children by reading books during breakfast or during dinner. The whole family gets together for at least one meal so that they communicate and discuss freely. When they are all together on the dining table, the mother or the father takes a book from the home library narrates a story of ethics and moral values, and where the children participate in the discussion and offer their comments. Such a reading habit triggers the child to read the book in detail and collect more information on such stories. They put the lessons they learn thus in practice in their day-to-day life. Some children may also go to the school and discuss such instances with other children and so a larger community is benefitted. This is how the seeding of reading habits can be inculcated among the young minds. In addition, I visualize a little prayer room where every morning or night the whole family, including children prays and offers their thanks to the Almighty for receiving blessings. This family time will become the time when knowledge and value systems are inculcated in children. Such children will carry out their responsibilities with a spirit of excellence, dedication and self esteem.

From today onwards, I will make my mother happy, If my mother is happy, my home is happy, If my home is happy, the society will be happy, If societies are happy, the state will be happy, If state is happy, the nation will be happy.

A Transparent Home As I said, we belong to a society of 200 million families. The first step towards creating a transparent society comes from a transparent home. There is a crying need in the nation to develop a transparent society, a corruption free society. Dear young members, I have a mission for the youth of the nation, that is the daughter or son of the family. Every one of you will know that corruption emanates from a few homes. It is estimated that 30 per cent of our Indian homes are corrupt. That means approximately 60 million houses may not be transparent. In such a situation, children should appreciate their father if he is fully transparent. At the same time, if he is not, children should use their love and affection and have the courage to say no to such practices. My conscience says, compared to any law against corruption, definitely this movement of the youth against corruption will be extremely effective. How many of you young friends will offer yourself to be a participant of such a great mission of making the home transparent?

Managing the Journey of Life These are the best days of your lives, when you are learning to grow wings and learning to fly.

When you set upon difficult missions, it will bring difficult challenges which may sometimes produce temporary setbacks. The test of a human being is in accepting the failure and to keep trying until he or she succeeds. Managing failures is a quality which is the essence of

leadership. Let me now tell you an experience in this regard from my professional life.

When I think of Professor Satish Dhawan, many incidents come to my mind. I would like to share with you again, one important incident, which is a valuable lesson to the younger generation. I was the project director of the first experimental launch of SLV-3. On 10 August 1979, the vehicle took off beautifully at T-0 and the first stage gave predicted performance. The second stage was initiated, but within a few seconds, we witnessed the vehicle in a tumbling motion and we lost the flight to the Bay of Bengal. It was 8 a.m. in the morning. The whole team in spite of working all day and night for several days, got busy in collecting the data and trying to establish the reason for the flight failure. Meanwhile, I was called by Professor Satish Dhawan to attend a press conference. Before the press conference, he told me that he was going to handle the situation and I should be present with many of the senior scientists and technologists. The press conference room was overflowing with media-persons. There was gloom, many questions were posed, some very powerful, thoughtful and also criticisms. There, Professor Satish Dhawan, announced, ‘Friends, today we had the experimental launch of SLV-3 to put the Rohini satellite in the orbit. It was a partial success. It is our first mission of proving multiple technologies in a launch vehicle. We have proved many technologies in this launch but still we have to prove some more. We have tumbled but not fallen flat. Above all, I realize my...

Use this in my life

The second mission of SLV-3 took place on 18 July 1980. It was six-thirty in the morning. The whole nation’s attention was trained on SHAR launch complex in Sriharikota, now named after Professor Satish Dhawan as a great tribute to him. The mission teams were busy during the countdown, carefully watching the flight sequence. At T-0 the vehicle took off and we witnessed a textbook trajectory. After nearly 600 seconds of the flight, I realized every stage had given the required velocity including the fourth stage. I made an announcement, ‘Mission director calling all stations. The SLV-3 has given the required velocity and right altitude to put Rohini satellite in the orbit. Our down range stations and global stations will get the orbit of the satellite within an hour.’ There was thunderous applause from all the stations and from the visitors’ gallery.

The most important thing happened then. Professor Satish Dhawan asked me to handle the press conf...

There are two messages I would like to convey here. First is about the resilience and courage to pick ourselves up and work towards a resurgence after a setback. Second is about the role of a leader in managing failure. The leader should give the credit of the success to the team members. When failure comes the leaders should absorb the failures and protect the team members. I could not get this beautiful e...

Always remember that these are the best days of your lives, when you are learning to grow wings and learning to fly. Don’t let these precious days go in vain.

We need to realize that we are as young as our faith and as old as our doubts. We are also as young as our self-confidence and as old as our fears. We are as young as our hopes and as old as our despairs. We will develop faith, self-confidence and hope.

I have mentioned the idea of ‘What worked yesterday, will not work today’. We need to constantly evaluate the changing realities of the world around us and innovate and adapt. I have mentioned the following aspects of leadership: • Leadership should empower itself with knowledge. • Leadership will enable in the intersection of multiple faculties in order to achieve mission goals.

Leadership will enrich itself through an understanding of the needs of sustainable development. • Leadership should inculcate sensitivity to the needs of all the stakeholders. • Leadership has to promote team spirit. • Leadership will be judged by innovation and how it has promoted creativity. • Leadership will constantly evolve and become more competitive with knowledge, management and technology. • Leadership will inculcate value addition at every level. • Leadership will value feedback and take action based on that. • Leaders will work with integrity and succeed with integrity and act as promoters of such a culture in their subordinates.

Leaders must have a vision. • Leaders must have passion to realize the vision. • Leaders must be able to travel into an unexplored path. • Leaders must know how to manage success and failure. • Leaders must have the courage to take decisions. • Leaders should have nobility in management. • Leaders should be transparent in every action. • Leaders must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.

Be the Unique You History has proven that those who dare to imagine the impossible are the ones who break all human limitations.