Problems are to strengthen us

Problems are  predominantly originated from two distinctive sources.  One is from the consequences of our own bad decision,  action and reactions.  Other is from the Creator of universe, the God, to test our strength and characteristics.   Let us look at the problems from first origin.

Every action and reactions has its own consequences and no one can escape from it. Consequences are the results of our conscious, unconscious and subconscious action and reactions to a particular cause.  All actions incur reactions and all reactions incur effects that may be beneficial or harmful depends on the objectivity associated with the cause prior to action.  Most of us often confused with the consequences originated from our own bad decision and actions and think that these consequences are from external sources beyond our control, or from God.  Further, we do blame those external sources and circumstances; and seldom ready to accept our own mistakes believing that we are always right and could never go wrong. 

Once a stranger came to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) riding on a camel.  He left the camel without tying and ask permission to have some conversation with him.  Prophet asked him to tie the camel first.  The stranger told Prophet that ‘God will protect his camel.’  Prophet told to him to ‘first tie the camel and have the trust in God’.  This incident indicates that God don’t help ignorants and idiots.

We must understand that it is not God’s work to subdue us always in order to teach a lesson or two or punish us.  Certainly, God will punish us, but not the way we are expecting.  God will punish by leaving us to face the consequences of our own making and rarely would rescue us provided we are ready to pay certain price, not the bribing of money and other sacrifices that we do at temples, churches and mosques.  

The price that God expect from us is introspection, repentance, not repeating the same mistakes and more importantly by being intelligence.  Some cynical  would ask that what is the connection between intelligence and God by pointing to the rituals that we do mindlessly which is often based on blind belief with less visibility of rationale intelligentsia.  

Not all rituals are blindly imposed on us, but some are having its own scientific reasons if we decided to explore.  However, few have monopolised the belief business to monetise for their well being and subsequently made God as irrational and irrelevant to non believers and fearful to believers.  When people effectively mortgaged their own intelligence and start accepting whatever the so called intermediators has to say, then God certainly will become irrational, illogic and fearful.  Meanwhile, those who sell God would also create Demons to ensure that their private business is well protected using known, unknown and fear factors.  Eventually, we don’t realise the self inflicting punishments or habituated to ignore the consequences of our own making and attribute everything to God and external factors.  

  
Well, how about the second origination of problems that are created by God.  Why God is creating problems for us?  Is not God merciful and suppose to treat every one with compassion, comfort and mercy?

‘And we surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient’ - Al Quran 2:155

 ‘Or do you think that you will enter paradise while such (trail) has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you?  They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until (even their) messenger and those who believed with him said, “When is the help of Allah?” Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near’. - Al Quran 2:214

God give troubles to test our endurance, strengthen our characteristics, change our direction, protect us from dangers, and drive us towards perfection by using the knowledge and wisdom that was given or inspired to us through various sources and communications that he do with us.  Whenever we face difficulties, be it on our own making or tested by God, then there is a high chance that we have an opportunity to elevate our life by doing one or more of the below: 

Inspect or Retrospect:  When we encounter a problem or a disaster, we must first retrospect our own position in context to the problem.  It is an inside out strategy to counter the problem instead of looking for outside in.  Thinking from outside in would divert us from finding any flaws in us.  It is important to remove the flaws in us to strengthen our characteristics.  We will only know the strength of our own characteristics when we are thrown out to the problem or disaster.  Many would think that problems can be resolved, but difficult to recover from disasters.  One can recover and become successful from disasters provided they use the disaster to strengthen their characteristics.  

Thomas Alva Edison faces lots of disasters in his scientific research including the burning of his research wagon coach due to some chemical experiments.  But the worst one was the terrible tragedy of burning of his Invention Factory during some experiments along with thousands of research notes.  He had taken it on his stride and said to his fellow research assistants that ‘all our mistakes are erased now and let us start afresh’. 

Direction: When we watch our steps while we are walking, neither we go wrong nor will stumble in our journey.  But, the overconfidence, lack of proper home work and unaware of grey sequences are some of the fatal causes can precipitate to worst falls or blocking the path or an opportunity to retreat.  Many of us regret of walking in wrong direction despite of several warnings and unable to make a come back due to panic, fear and fatigue; and continue pursuing in wrong direction hoping of some luck will prevail somewhere down the tunnel, eventually invites bigger disaster, which may be irrecoverable.  The people who had given up their life and decided to live with failures and defeats only walks without proper direction.  

Often the question is have we taken the right decision? Are we in right direction?  One of the indications to understand the merit of our decisions is directly in proposition with the the kind of obstacles or ease that we would be experiencing while we purse them. 

Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motors is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in automobile history.  He invested all his savings including his wife’s jewellery and set up a research laboratory to produce piston rings for cars.  Out of 30,000 piston rings he had produced and sent to Toyota cars for examination, only fifty were considered for examination and out of which only three were passed.  

He did not give up and worked hard to bring the first motor cycle in 1949 and in 1958 he outsmarted 50 other motor cycle companies in Japan and 200 in other part of the world. In year 1968, he produced one million motor cycles in month and in mid 80s he already conquered 60% of world motor cycle market.

He famously said that ‘looking back of my work, I was doing nothing more than mistakes, blunders and serious omissions.  He also said: ‘Many people dream of success. I believe that success can be achieved only through repeated failure and self-analysis. Success is only one percent of your work, and the rest – bold overcoming of obstacles. If you are not afraid of them, success will come to you itself’. 

Correction:  Mankind learn lessons from its failures.  Failure is the best teacher that one can have.  There are no successes in life without failures.  Those who are afraid of failures shall never taste the success in life.  Parents must teach the value of failures by letting their children to be entrepreneurship in carrying out certain tasks right from young age under the close supervision of parents and teachers.  The more failure when someone incur, is actually building more steps towards success.  

Failures are not to displace us, but equipping with necessary tools to conquer the unconquered.  Failures also like chemicals which are likely to connect or attract with fellow chemicals to create successful compounds.  One can try various controllable combinations and nothing wrong, because it actually teach us the process of corrections to reach right combinations.  

Every failure in life is to ensure the right path and are achievable if we know how to use those resources in right spirit and perfection.  The secret lies in the manipulating of available resources.    

Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said that ‘take care of the five before five.  Health before sickness;  Wealth before poverty;  Free time before busy; Youth before old; and Life before death’.  

We should stop chasing the tail and aim to conquer the head, by not wasting the resources within and around us.  We rarely value what we have or ignore the resources around us, but looking for pasture elsewhere.   Problems in life would help us to check what we are chasing, may be improbable dreams, irreconcilable relationships, unachievable goals by wasting of resources.  Problems are also comes with a checklist to alter the course of our journey such as to stop, think, correct and drive us to make optimum use of the resources available with us.

A man who walk down the hills and found a wood cutter is sawing the tree and looks very tired.  The man asked the wood cutter ‘what are you doing?’

‘Don’t you see what I am doing doing.  I am sawing this tree for the past five hours.’ He responded with bit of frustration.

The man told him ‘take some break and sharpen your saw, I am sure it will go faster’

‘I don’t have time to take break’ the wood cutter responded.  (Thanks to Stephen Covey for giving this wonderful example).  This is how we live in life by failing to sharpen the saw that we have.  

Problems in life will help us to take a break, sharpen the saw and give us the sense of direction towards road to success.  If we cannot learn lessons from the problems then we are proclaimed idiots and no right to smell the success in life.

Protection: Do problems protect us?  Sounds crazy!  It sounds crazy, but it does.  Problems are in life as discussed above originated from two distinctive sources.  The consequences of our own making and beyond our control.  I have encountered an interesting problem that prevented me from venturing into a bigger financial investment, probably a disaster in India.

We have finalised renting of a three storey property in a bristling town in Tamil Nadu to open a grand textile showroom with an investment of upto 50 Crores Indian Rupees. This has been done after almost two years of analyses including geographical studies.  I did my home work for necessary investment including investors and partners with and without direct experiences in textile industry.  I was upbeat because it settles my years of long impediments of looking for a return to India and settle with family.

On November 8, 2016, the partners, building owner and myself were siting with a civil architect’s office finalising the rent, advance and required modifications in structure to include elevators, escalators, removing of transformers obstructing the pathways and preparation of agreement drafts, etc.

While we are leaving to home, we received a call from a friend of us informing the demonetisation announcement.  The subsequent events followed from the announcement have forced us to focus on continuation of existing business issues and mainly how to manage daily expenses at the wrath of limited cash availabilities and other banking issues.  Being an NRI, I did not face much difficulties except clearance of cargo from airport.  However, my likely partners and investors were fully occupied with their business issues such as mobilising the fund and ensuring that they don’t got up with illegal tenders of 500 and 1000 notes after the grace period.  

I had promptly decided to scrap the textile show room project, because it resonates the ordeal I faced during economic tsunami that I faced in 2008 that resulted in huge financial difficulties to me in UAE.  After two years, I found that it is blessing in disguise to me because the main partner who suppose to manage the showroom, due to his textile experience, is unworthy of being partnered with.  

The demonetisation problem have actually prevented me from investing in an unstable business environment along with revealing of the strength of partnerships.     

Perfection:  Every creation of God in our universe is perfect except the mankind.  The sky, sun, moon, stars, nature, trees, plants, grass, animals and are all perfectly functioning their roles and duties without any flaws except the mankind.  While we give due credits to scientists for their absolute prediction, but failing to understand that their prediction is possible due to the perfection of God who create them with absolute mathematical, scientific and creative skills.

God challenges the mankind to look at the sky and find any flaws in it. 

“(And) who created seven heavens in layers.  You do not see in the creation of the Most Merciful any inconsistency. So return (your) vision (to the sky); do you see any breaks? Then return (your) vision twice again. (Your) vision will return to you humbled while it is fatigued” - Al Quran 67: 3-4

 When every creation is flawless then why would the mankind is imperfection in its performances?  

The answer is simple. Mankind have the freedom to err.

Freedom is boon and bane for mankind.  It is boon because it allows the mankind to experiment its capability and increase its longitivtiy.  It is bane, because it abuses the freedom to free them from the truth and even challenges the truth.

When mankind misuse or abuses the freedom, they bound to become imperfect. Hence, mankind need to be controlled, corrected and coerced to become perfect by challenging with problems created from the Creator and or of our own making or with the combination of both.

Alternatively, problems are the real practices to advance once’s life.  When more practices can help a student to perform better ranks in exam, why more problems cannot bring maturity to mankind to advance their life to next level.  In fact, mankind’s growth is directly credited with the problems that they faces in all over the history.  

I don’t need to bring any external examples to prove the point that problems makes us perfect, because, every one of us having examples from our own precious life.  If anyone of you not having any examples in your life, you can try welcoming the problem to understand my context.