At the Age of Twenty-Seven

When you’re frantically searching for a bank job at twenty-seven, someone your own age is already sitting as manager of that very bank. While your career hasn’t even begun, others are driving expensive cars bought with their own money, cruising past you. Corporate promotions aren’t always about appearances—times are changing, and so are the concepts. If you work merely to collect a salary, that’s all you’ll ever get. The question is: why does this happen? How do the best achieve their best? A few things make the difference. Let me share one or two.

First comes the matter of hard work. Those who are ahead of you work harder than you do. Accept this truth. You cannot simultaneously enjoy the pleasure of sleep and the joy of witnessing dawn. Hard work alone doesn’t guarantee everything—if it did, donkeys would rule the forest. It’s not just about working hard; it’s about being rewarded for that work. Only your results are rewarded, not your efforts. How can you get that extra mile ahead without putting in those extra hours? Everyone has the same twenty-four hours in a day. I’ve seen my friend working outsourcing gigs late into the night while others sleep. Naturally, he reaps the extra benefits of staying awake!

What extra you do determines what extra you’ll receive. Without doing something different, you won’t get anything different. Bill Gates didn’t become Bill Gates overnight. Simply dropping out of university won’t make you Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg. Getting a 2.74 CGPA in undergraduate studies like me won’t automatically make you top the BCS or IBA admission tests.

Read the book ‘Outliers.’ Great people have great preparation behind them. Reading Nazrul’s essays reveals how extensively self-educated he was. Working at a bakery alone doesn’t make one Nazrul. Nor does skipping school and college automatically turn you into Rabindranath. Not everyone working at a bookbinding shop can become Michael Faraday—most spend their entire lives just binding books.

Don’t worry about what people said during your student life. The boy in our batch who couldn’t even program now owns a software firm. The one nobody ever dreamed about now teaches thousands to dream. The one who had no thoughts about career went to America for a PhD before anyone else. The boy who failed every exam with great enthusiasm is now a successful businessman. Don’t let others decide what you can or cannot do.

Didn’t get into a public university? Studying at a private one? Or at National University? Everyone’s saying your life is over? I say, hey! Your life hasn’t even started yet. Who are others to determine how far you’ll go? Is it their life or yours? Why must you become a doctor or engineer? And if you do study medicine, why must you practice medicine? I know a doctor who earns six to seven lakh taka monthly through photography. Wherever you study, your progress depends entirely on you.

Life won’t sustain itself on just “Oh shit!”, “Sorry, baby!”, chatting and dating. Imagine your position without the person you depend on. The car you take to university, the one you use for outings—is it bought with your own money? What sense does it make to show off with that? One day you’ll have to step onto the world’s path. Start doing now what you’ll need to do then. To achieve greatness in life, you must read some good books, watch some good movies, listen to some good music, visit some good places, speak with some good people, do some good work.

Life isn’t meant to be frittered away in mere laughter and frivolity. When you finally face life head-on, you’ll find the ground slipping from beneath your feet, the sky crashing down on your head. Skill development requires time. These things don’t happen overnight or in a flash. “What should I do to write like you?” “I want results like yours. What must I do?” I hear these questions often. I reply, “You’ll have to work impossibly hard. No shortcuts. Sorry!” The response comes: “But I don’t enjoy studying. What can I do?” I answer this differently. When you were in school and college, while your first-rank friend had his face buried in books at his study table, you were standing in front of the girls’ school. Now the time has come for him to stand there while you sit at the study table.

If you indulge life when it needs discipline, you won’t be able to enjoy life when it’s time for enjoyment—this is natural. Accept it. If you can’t accept it, turn around. Now is the time!

To become great, you must associate with great people, move in their circles, listen to their words. In this regard, choosing friends during university becomes quite crucial. Your subconscious mind influences you through your friends’ actions. Unknowingly, we associate with people inferior to us because it makes us feel superior. This tendency is suicidal. When you don’t see anyone around you achieving greatness, the desire for greatness never awakens.

Another mistake many make: mixing with wealthy people’s children and starting to consider themselves wealthy. People are influenced by their friends. In a barren forest, even the jackal becomes king. Do you want to be the jackal-king or the lion-king? Decide first.

Knowing how to be humble is a great art. Many undergraduate students lack this quality. You still have nothing to be proud of; to the world, you’re merely a nobody. Without humility, learning is impossible. One learns from a guru by sitting at the guru’s feet. Nowadays, teachers don’t strive to be respected, and students are forgetting to show respect. Accept that you are small. This very mindset will keep you ahead. There’s no glory in disrespecting great people. Respect people for your own benefit.

Postscript.

(This remains my most popular piece of writing to date. By the time I saved this piece, it had accumulated countless likes, comments, and shares across various websites, Facebook groups, pages, walls, and posts. The piece has been read at least four to five million times. It has been photocopied and distributed among employees of numerous organizations. Of all my writings that people have stolen and claimed as their own, this one has been plagiarized the most. Many have published this piece under their own names on various websites, blogs, and even in national dailies. Best wishes to the plagiarists.

At friends’ requests, I’ve titled and preserved this piece. Perhaps it will prove useful to some. So many of my writings have been lost. This piece was typed hastily on my old keypad phone while sitting in the office. As part of our PATC training, we trainees had visited a government office. When the department head there began boasting about how and when he had conquered elephants, horses, and rescued the nation, everyone was pretending to be attentive listeners, while I was typing this piece on my phone’s keypad. It took about twenty to twenty-five minutes to write. (He asked me once or twice, “Are you busy with some other work?” “No sir, I’m typing the magnetic portions of your speech on my mobile.” My kind colleagues also spoke in my support. “Yes sir, it’s his habit. When he likes a speech, he writes it down.” Hearing this, the sir’s laughter! “He he… oh no! What am I saying that’s so great! But if you like it, you can write it down.” “Thank you, sir!” After that, I noticed the sir’s words became even more irritating! Completely robotic, measured speech!)

Had I been able to sit at home with time and write on a laptop, I might have written something longer and better. I never imagined this piece would become so intertwined with so many people’s lives! Seeing my friends’ response, I now feel the piece shouldn’t have been written in such haste—it would have been better with more time.

That day I posted the piece immediately after writing it in the office. I’m providing the link to my original post below. You can learn much from the comments there as well.

(My previous account no longer exists. Some sick, twisted, envious people filed false reports against that account and had it shut down. That account had at least four hundred and fifty notes, countless important posts, thousands of photos, nearly two and a half lakh followers. By doing this, they found great peace and also confirmed their ticket to heaven through this ‘good deed’!)

Let me say something about the audio clip of this piece. Among the audio clips in RJ Salman’s voice, this piece has been listened to the most. In the clip, Salman bhai has read my writing beautifully.

Listen to the clip, share it with everyone. Many have told me that when they don’t feel like studying, when they feel sleepy, when they want to give up, listening to these words in RJ Salman’s voice helps them overcome all the lethargy of body and mind and start again! This starting again is what matters most!

Here’s the link…