There is always hope, where there is a stout heart and a willingness to strive, learn, teach and share.

First step: Understanding people!

Observe things around you. Analyse people from all walks of life, and how people re-act to situations. 

• What they like and desire most? What they don’t like and avoid? 
• What they are willing to work for and strive for? 
• What they find easy to do and what they struggle with? 

Second step: Learning from the best:

If you are aware of people’s behaviour, you will be able to see how the successful do things. And what held the poor back from being successful too. 

• If you’ve been a sports person, who’ll know how important working as a team and collaboration is.  
• What is to be a coach and managing people and the philosophy of interaction between people! 
• It teaches you how to encourage people and build bridges between people and various departments or groups.  

Third step: Thirst for knowledge:

If you’ve haven’t had any proper education, this shouldn’t stop you from seeking knowledge. 

• Keep note books and fill them up with things you have learnt. Each note book: to cover one theme topic. This becomes your own personal library and can be used for revision! 
• Remember research includes testing and trying out things for yourself. In the process you learn new skills and techniques. 
• If you're 'spoon-fed' info, you don’t learn so much. We learn a lot more from experiencing something for ourselves. 

Third step: teaching others:

I once heard of someone who didn’t have much money, but still took music lessons (once a week). This is how he afforded to pay for his music lessons: 

• He only had enough money for his first lesson. 
• Then after each lesson he went home and taught their neighbour’s children (for the other four days of the week). 
• He would teach what he had just learnt. He charged each child a small fee. When adding up their fees together, he had enough for his own next lesson and a little over for his food and boarding. 
• But while teaching the others, he got practice in. It was like doing revision on his lessons. If there was a problem, he could go back to his expensive teacher and ask advice.  
• Having experienced what is like to teach, he could appreciate what his teacher had to handle. That made him value his teacher more and what he was learning. 
• Conclusion: He was striving and working hard to earn his living and become successful. 

Fourth step: Challenging changes:

Taking up challenges and having to make changes in our lives teaches us how to cope, take risks, and overcome fear.  

• The more experiences you have to undergo, the stronger you are, and learn how to handle things no matter what you have to face. 
• Your courage and how you handled your experiences inspires others. And naturally you stand out as a leader, because you were willing to tuck in and do what was necessary, even against great odds. 

Fifth step: The sharing law!

Having learnt so much, it’s your obligation now to share what you have learnt.  

• It’s the law of the universe! The more you give, the more that comes back to you. 

It’s like when you water the garden, somehow you always get wet too!!