IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING

"Impossible is Nothing"- that's what I saw Sachin Tendulkar screaming out as I passed an Adidas billboard down the road. At first instance, I didn't even notice it. But then, it struck me like lightning. Could this be real? Could impossible be nothing? And I was taken straight back to 1995....

I was sitting in my history classroom, and we were doing a chapter on Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was planning to invade a country and his commanding general came up to him and said, " Your highness, the enemy has an army twice our size, an infantry thrice our size and a history of being victorious in every single battle they've fought. It's impossible." Of course, the general was dead the next minute, but not before Napoleon had told him, " The word impossible does not exist in my dictionary."

A few days ago I was sitting with my colleagues and I asked them, " If given a choice, how many of you would agree to become the prime minister of India ?" A couple of hands shot up immediately, but the rest shook their heads silently. A very interesting thought came to my mind. I could figure out just two reasons for their refusal. The first, which I was hoping would be true, was that they chose not to become the prime minister. The second, of course, was that they all thought it was impossible for them....And I wished a gas station worker had thought Reliance was impossible....I wished a school drop-out had thought Microsoft was impossible....I wished man on the moon was impossible. Because impossible makes life so simple for me. Whenever I'm faced with a difficult situation, all I have to do is tell myself, "Its impossible, it just cannot be done."

But then a story came to my mind. The story of a musician who lived in the 18th century. He was born a normal boy but in his early twenties, a disease struck him which caused him to lose his hearing ability, gradually. It was almost like a death blow to him. No one was ready to believe that he could still create music. He went into a deep financial crisis and the only word he heard all around him was impossible. But he never gave up. He used a special rod attached to the soundboard on a piano that he could bite, the vibrations would then transfer from the piano to his jaw to increase his perception of sound. And he created music. There is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of one of his concerts, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience because hearing nothing, he had begun to weep. I'm referring to one of the greatest musicians mankind has ever seen. I'm talking about Beethoven. And I'm so thankful that Beethoven was possible.

There's so much Iv learnt from his story. The virtues of hard work, passion and most importantly belief come out so beautifully from his life. In fact these are traits which are common in all people who have made the impossible possible. Beethoven was passionate about his music, Bill gates was passionate about computers, Dhirubhai was passionate about success. They all faced obstacles from people who thought they were jerks. But they all believed in themselves and they all did the impossible. Its rightly said, "Courage does not mean the strength to go on, it is going on even when you don't have any strength left."


Its really funny actually. It is man who has created the word impossible and it is man himself who has continuously challenged and gone beyond the boundaries of impossible. As I stand in front of the Adidas billboard I ask myself, have I ever done the impossible, have I even tried doing the impossible? The answer that comes to me is NO. The no is not because I haven't worked hard enough, the no is not because I am not passionate enough, the no is not because I don't believe. The no is because I believe, Impossible is temporary, Impossible is potential, Impossible is nothing.