This historically authentic story is often mentioned to highlight the importance of hard work, consistency and perseverance. The famous warrior and king of his time, Amir Taimoor once went through the worst times of his life. He lost his throne and with this all his loyal companions also left him alone to face all the hardships. His enemy not only removed him from his post but also chased him to catch and kill. One day, when he was running away from the enemy soldiers and was looking for a place to hide that he saw the ruins of a house. He hid there and waited until the danger was over.
In the house, he made a very interesting observation. He saw that an ant was trying to climb up on a wall. When it climbed a bit, it slipped from the steep wall down to the place where it had started. But it never gave up and started the effort with the renewed energy and passion. In the same manner, it fell down a number of times but every time it used to rise up and started climbing again.
When it fell down for a number of occasions, it learned on how to climb up the wall in a more skilled manner. This made the difficulties of the climb comparatively less and with every new experience, it gained more and more acquaintance about the different curves and positions of the wall. This repeated experience also made the ant to adopt such tactics that were necessary to climb on any such surface and avoid such moves that could stop its upward climb or make it fall down.
In the end, the ant easily climbed up on the wall and continued its journey. This observation made the great warrior to think that he also needed to make incessant efforts to regain his title and throne. With this, the disappointment that had made him lose his hope and quit his dream of achieving success, vanished away and he once again felt the same energy and enthusiasm that later on acquired him his kingdom and fame. It is the reason why he is not only regarded as one of the most successful and brave warriors of his time but also as a person who was able to discover and utilize his unique and noble personal qualities.
In the field of education, the more one studies, the more he acquires knowledge and becomes the expert of his field. When students reach to a certain point in the course of their education (say final years of University), they feel tired of it and thus decide to quit education after completing the university. This decision is taken to find a job and support family as well. .
But this is the case when a routine achievement is made with normal efforts. In order to make this achievement extraordinary, extraordinary effort is required and this can only be achieved by continuing the effort with consistency and dedication.
Present times world famous educationists and writers of academic books like Professor Kotler (Marketing), Peter Drucker (Management), Herbert A. Simon (Economics and Social Sciences) and many more gained their deep knowledge and international fame with their consistent efforts of a number of decades.
In such achievement, the factor that keeps you motivated to make more and more efforts and show dedication is the feeling of non-satisfaction. When you reach to a certain point of achievement and feel that you have achieved something and then you don’t feel any desire to make achievements, you compromise with your present condition and don’t bother yourself to make any more effort. But if you don’t get satisfied with your present achievement and dream of doing better achievements, then you never cease your efforts and thus this journey towards success continues. This keeps a fire of desire burning, enticing the person to make further efforts.
Most of the giant multinational organizations of the world like Toyota, Siemens, Philips, Coca Cola, General Electric and many more did not came to their present established position in a short span of time. They started from a small setup with very limited resources but when they attained certain success, they did not look back and they did not sit down either but they always looked forward for more success and achievements. If the company became the biggest company of the city, it dreamed of becoming the biggest company of the country and then the region and in the end, of the whole world. But again, the factor that contributed in their achievements was their consistency and dreaming big.
For any such work, first step is the most important. A person, who wants to make a successful organization or do any other remarkable work, should take the first step ignoring the fear of failure. In the beginning, facing difficulty is like a universal rule and everyone had to face this.
The best example of it has been depicted by an Urdu poet Ehsan Danish in one of his famous poems titled as, “The First Drop of Rain”. In this, he narrates that every creature on the earth was thirsty and were looking for rain. Water drops assembled in form of clouds and were about to fall down that they saw the vast land beneath them that was dry and ready to absorb all of the raindrops. Every drop was nervous as they were too tiny comparing to the vast, wide and dry earth where a lot many animals and humans were waiting for the blessed rain.
No drop was ready to take the initiative and thus the good work was yet to be started. Then a drop realized the importance of its flight and function and tried to break the ice and dropped down. This broke the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty and all the raindrops started pouring, one after the other, and soon there was the shower of confidence.
A water drop constantly dripping on a stone at last succeeds in making a hole in it. Consistency can turn the things seemingly impossible into possible.
The direction of Islam in this regard is also full of logic.
It says that instead of doing any bombastic deed or virtue for a number of times, it is better to continue a good work constantly, no matter how small it is. A good work thus done constantly becomes the part of one’s personality and he feels no difficulty in following this good path. Same rule applies for a vicious act like telling lies which becomes the part of one’s personality if repeated constantly. When a person commits a sin, he feels himself too much guilty but with every repetition of this sin, feeling guilt gradually decreases and a time comes when one becomes too much adroit in openly committing the said sin.
There are many stones to be conquered and at the same time, there are many tiny drops that are afraid of taking the first step. One will succeed who will take first step and then continue the journey with consistency.