Few days back, on a busy traffic signal in Lahore, I got a chance to distribute brochures for our program ‘Money Matters’. It was a new and amazing experience with many lessons to learn and a lot of leads to think about. Here I am sharing some key lessons that everyone, who wants to be successful, should learn from this.

People are conformists. When I was distributing brochures, I would go to cars, knock the windows to hand over a brochure to the person on driving seat. In a row, if first person refused to take the brochure, the whole line behind him did the same.

Have you ever seen sheep wandering around? They also do the same. If the first sheep takes right turn, the whole crowd will follow him. What is this? This behavior is called ‘conformity’. Humans have a great tendency to avoid risks and to follow the tested roads and common trends. They don’t have the courage to stand out and prove that they are different. When we allow ourselves to conform to what our friends, family or society asks of us, we lose the ability to grow into our own persons. If you want to be successful, dare to be different. Being different is being happy with who and what we are and want to be.

And when it is said to them, “Follow what Allah has revealed,” they say, “Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing.” Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?

Second lesson which I want to share is about having a positive attitude. While distributing brochures, a moment came when most of the people were not turning their window glasses down for my brochure. Why? Because it was a hot day and I was heavily sweating. My inner feelings reflected through my body language. All of a sudden, some young guy in a car cracked a joke and I started smiling. At that moment, with that smiley face, when I moved towards next cars, I found people more receptive.

Remember! If you are travelling on ‘The Road to Success’, you need to be spirited, strong and courageous to handle all the hardships that are part of it. People will judge you, criticize you and reject you, embrace it with a smiling face. Your boss has a rough attitude towards you, your colleagues make fun of you, your customers are not responding to your product the way you want them to, your relatives and friends are disrespectful to you, you are at a point in life where you can’t fulfill your family demands, never lose hope. Be optimistic and always think positive, it will generate and attract more positive energy towards you. Try to bring out learning opportunities in every problem. After few years when you look back, you will be grateful to Allah (SWT) for all these troubles because they would have contributed a lot in your growth and development.

“For indeed, with hardship comes ease.”