4 Pillars of Abundant Life

Fourteen or fifteen years back, I was asked to take a workshop with midlevel managers of one of the biggest and most popular malls of Mumbai. I chose success as the subject of that workshop. I began with this question: “Is there anyone in the room who doesn’t want to be successful?” Of course, no hands were raised! Then I asked each one of them what success meant to them. One said it would mean being the CEO of that mall. Another said to own a penthouse in South Mumbai. Yet another said for him it was to have a weekend home in Goa. One of them wanted to own a custom-built sports car. One manager wanted to own her own marketing company, and yet another, a chain of retail stores and so on.

After we had done that exercise, I told them that everything they had wanted depended on having more money, position, and power. Did that mean that everyone who has more money or power is happy? After some healthy discussion, all of them agreed that money or power couldn’t guarantee happiness. And that though all of them wanted something seemingly different, ultimately whatever they wanted was for that feeling of happiness! And then I asked them, “Would I be wrong if I say being successful means being happy for all of you?” All of them nodded and smiled!

For more than two decades, I have been sharing these thoughts of mine with family and friends and in corporate workshops. Finally, I have decided to put some of these thoughts in the form of a book—with the hope that it would motivate and help others to lead abundant lives! If your goal is to get rich quick, this is not the book for you. But if you want to lead a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life with least struggle and heartburn—anytime, anywhere—this book has the potential to change your life!

It is so simple to be happy. It is so simple to be joyous. It is simple to lead abundant lives. To be happy and blissful is our very nature!

But we get so lost or rather caught up in our environment, in the frantic nervous energy all around us, that we completely forget what our initial desires, needs, plans, and aspirations were.

We are running, but we have forgotten why and what our intended goal was! The environment all around us is like that, and it is so difficult to get untangled from this mad, mad web, this madness matrix!

We are led to believe that we will be happy when we get that big job. We are led to believe that we will be happy when we move into that big house and get that big car. We think we will be happy when we get the partner or the spouse of our dreams, and we keep chasing the mirage! This is a never-ending marathon in which the bulk of humanity is lost and struggling. What is saddening is that it is so very simple to be successful. Most of humanity is driven by or is running after money, power, and sex. But these can never ever give us abundant lives.

Abundant life is when we have optimum health, wealth, relationships, work we love, peace, and joy.

Most of the things that we think will bring us happiness depend on having more money—the bigger house, the bigger car, exotic vacations, good education, and so on. And that is the root cause of our unhappiness and the reason we feel so unfulfilled and unsuccessful at times!

Money isn’t a bad thing. It is not bad as long as we use it as a tool. Problem starts when we start to worship money and make it our god. Yes, lack of money and poverty are not exciting! I often heard my father say,

“Poverty is a sin!”

It is true that lack of money can be extremely challenging and it can suck, but still, it is not the god we make it out to be!

Money is inert. It is neither good nor bad. And it has no energy of its own. It picks up our energy.

If we are the happy kinds, more money will give us more happiness. If we are the unhappy kind, more money will give us more unhappiness. There are hundreds of stories of the superrich and the famous committing suicides or ending up in mental asylums.

A happy manager is a happier general manager and the happiest CEO! An unhappy manager is an unhappier general manager and the unhappiest CEO!

It is so true that all the so-called successful people are not always happy, but every happy person is always successful! Because whatever we want to do or possess or achieve is for this feeling of happiness!

In the last three decades or so, I have learned much from my own struggles, love for my family and friends, and watching their struggles and their successes and failures. What I have learned is that all of us can easily create our own House of Abundance and that this house is supported on four pillars…..