Wings of Fire: An Autobiography (Digital Exclusive Edition)

by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

every human being is a specific element within the whole of the manifest divine Being. So why be afraid of difficulties, sufferings and problems? When troubles come, try to understand the relevance of your sufferings. Adversity always presents opportunities for introspection."

Important

there exists a divine power that can lift one up from confusion, misery, melancholy and failure, and guide one to one's true place. And once an individual severs his emotional and physical bondage, he is on the road to freedom, happiness and peace of mind. I

"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts."

"To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces— desire, belief, and expectation."

"He who knows others is learned, but the wise one is the one who knows himself. Learning without wisdom is of no use."

Desire, when it stems from the heart and spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep state. Each morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imaged will surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely, young man, upon this ageless promise as surely as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise... and of Spring.

once your mind stretches to a new level it never goes back to its original dimension.

"Seek the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

"Ask and you shall receive." It did not happen immediately, but it happened nevertheless.

Within the mind are all the resources required for successful living. Ideas are present in the consciousness, which when released and given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to successful events. God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us to tap and develop these powers.

What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line. You cannot expect a person to deliver results if you humiliate him, nor can you expect him to be creative if you abuse him or despise him. The line between firmness and harshness, between strong leadership and bullying, between discipline and vindictiveness is very fine, but it has to be drawn. Unfortunately, the only line prominently drawn in our country today is between the 'heroes' and the 'zeros'. On one side are a few hundred 'heroes' keeping nine hundred and fifty million people down on the other side. This situation has to be changed.

"Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger,"—those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

the kingdom of God is within you in the form of this power, to help achieve your goals and realise your dreams.

"He will bestow on you a light to walk in."

For all your days prepare And meet them ever alike When you are the anvil, bear - When you are the hammer, strike.

Beautiful hands are those that do Work that is earnest and brave and true Moment by moment The long day through.

If you want to leave your footprints On the sands of time Do not drag your feet.

Anyone who has taken up the responsibility to lead a team can be successful only if he is sufficiently independent, powerful and influential in his own right to become a person to reckon with. This is perhaps also the path to individual satisfaction in life, for freedom with responsibility is the only sound basis for personal happiness. What can one do to strengthen personal freedom? I would like to share with you two techniques I adopt in this regard. First, by building your own education and skills. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most important tool in your work. The more up-to-date the knowledge you possess, the freer you are. Knowledge cannot be taken away from anyone except by obsolescence.

The second way is to develop a passion for personal responsibility. The sovereign way to personal freedom is to help determine the forces that determine you. Be active! Take on responsibility! Work for the things you believe in. If you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others.

Performance dimensions are factors that lead to creation. They go beyond competencies such as the skills and knowledge of the individual. Performance dimensions are broader and deeper than what a person must know and be able to do in order to function well in his or her job. They include attitudes, values and character traits. They exist at various levels of the human personality. At the behavioural level—at the outermost ring of the tree—we can observe skills and measure knowledge. Social roles and self-image dimensions are found at the intermediate level. Motives and traits exist at the innermost or core level. If we can identify those performance dimensions which are most highly correlated with job success, we can put them together to form a blueprint for outstanding performance in both thought and action.

To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.

The difference between an energetic and a confused person is the difference in the way their minds handle their experiences. Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success. All of us carry some sort of a super-intelligence within us. Let it be stimulated to enable us to examine our deepest thoughts, desires, and beliefs.

Flow is a sensation we experience when we act with total involvement. During flow, action follows action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention on the part of the worker.

Flow is a by-product of controlled creativity. The first requirement is to work as hard as you can at something that presents a challenge and is approved by your heart. It may not be an overwhelming challenge, but one that stretches you a little, something that makes you realise that you are performing a task better today than you did yesterday, or the last time you tried to do it. Another prerequisite for being in flow is the availability of a significant span of uninterrupted time. In my experience, it is difficult to switch into the flow state in less than half an hour. And it is almost impossible if you are bedevilled by interruptions.

Happiness, satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.

"You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Some people stride towards whatever it is that they want in life; others shuffle their feet and never get started because they do not know what they want—and do not know how to find it either."

"What you imagine, is what will transpire. What you believe is what you will achieve,"

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.

four basic factors that I am convinced are involved in successful outcomes: goal-setting, positive thinking, visualizing, and believing.

'As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me'.

The key to my motivation has always been to look at how far I had still to go rather than how far I had come. After all, what is life but a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories, and amorphous defeats? The trouble is that we often merely analyse life instead of dealing with it. People dissect their failures for causes and effects, but seldom deal with them and gain experience to master them and thereby avoid their recurrence.

This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins.

In my experience, most people possess a strong inner drive for growth, competence, and self-actualization. The problem, however, has been the lack of a work environment that stimulates and permits them to give full expression to this drive. Leaders can create a high productivity level by providing the appropriate organizational structure and job design, and by acknowledging and appreciating hard work.

"Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended,"

"Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness,"

Problems are a part of life. Suffering is the essence of success.

God has not promised Skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways All our life through; God has not promised Sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain.

But God has promised Strength for the day, Rest for the labour Light for the way.

Everyone on this planet is sent forth by Him to cultivate all the creative potential within us and live at peace with our own choices. We differ in the way we make our choices and evolve our destiny. Life is a difficult game. You can win only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done.

As Pythagoras had said twenty-five centuries ago, "Above all things, reverence yourself."

am a well in this great land Looking at its millions of boys and girls To draw from me The inexhaustible divinity And spread His grace everywhere As does the water drawn from a well.

that ultimate satisfaction which can only be found in the life of the spirit. God's providence is your inheritance.