THE VOICE OF THE GREAT

EVOLUTION OF A UNIQUE YOU

Every youth wants to be unique, that is, YOU! But the world all around you, is doing its best, day and night, to make you just "everybody else".

Being like everybody else is convenient at the first glance, but not satisfying in the long vision.

The challenge, therefore, my young friends, is that you have to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can ever imagine fighting; and never stopping fighting until you arrive at your destined place, that is, a unique you! Being unique will require excellence; let us understand what excellence in more detail is.

Excellence is a self-imposed self-directed life-long process. Excellence is not by accident. It is a process, where an individual, organization or nation, continuously strives to better oneself. The performance standards are set by themselves, they work on their dreams with focus and are prepared to take calculated risks and do not get deterred by failures as they move towards their dreams. Then they step up their dreams as they tend to reach the original targets. They strive to work to their potential, in the process, they increase their performance thereby multiplying further their potential and this is an unending life-cycle phenomenon. They are not in competition with anyone else, but themselves. That is the culture of excellence. Let me share an important experience from the life of the father of the nation.

- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, IIT Madras, 2010