Everybody in the world says, beat the sunrise, your energy levels will be at a different level. If you can rise first and only then the sun rises, you cannot be tired in the entire day. Everybody, from religion to the recent motivational speakers, and everybody is telling, beat the sunrise. The number of people who rise before the sun… Majority or minority?

Another question that’s coming is… Off late coming from a lot of college going students, especially when they go to live in the hostel. When everybody does certain things and I alone don’t do, I’m not getting accepted in a peer group. So, what should I do? I am feeling a little lonely… If I do the stuff they do, then I’m getting accepted. But it’s affecting me because that’s not how I want to be. If I don’t do it, then I am losing the entire peer group and I’m feeling left out in the entire process, so what should I do?

I think we’ll have to learn to recognise that some of you will be alone in a crowd, all through your life. That’s a natural aspect of a leadership trait. You’ll relate with everybody, but you also know that everybody is not relating with you in the same wavelength, somewhere there is… Because the more and more you hold yourself to moral standards, the more and more you are going to be talked about. Not necessarily talked to, but you are going to be talked about.

At some stage all of us have to learn to walk alone in a crowd. It is not that the world does not want to understand you, it is that the world cannot understand you. And that means you are in a beautiful space. That’s the first requisite that you are thinking ahead of the world or you are thinking different from the world. When I say world, I’m not talking 7.25 billion.

All of us have that small worlds around us. You are looking at something in certain ways that the others are not able to look. You don’t have to be a rebel for that. You are just a path breaker; you are just a trailblazer. You are just trusting an intuition, a premonition of yours which cannot be logically validated. Why you are thinking the way you are thinking? But you feel, you’ll go ahead and do it.

Sometime later the world will come… When I gave up my software consultancy to do this, I was in that state. I found myself in that state. Because nobody was able to understand, why will you give up an expertise to start something which you don’t even know whether you are capable of?

Why will you give up an existing business to start something that you don’t even know whether you’ll succeed or not? And the easiest solution that is taught – why don’t you do both? You continue this and you also do that. Like every person who is not confident of succeeding as an entrepreneur, every person who is employed will say – I’m going to start something part time with one partner so that I can continue to be in the job and once that… Athu evanume ithu varaikkum stabilize pannathe kidayathu (No one has ever stabilised that). It never happens. If you are not ready to take a plunge, you’ll never take a plunge. It can never happen. So, we’re all going to find ourselves in this situation.

So as a student when you set yourself to certain moral standards, by which you want to live your life. And it doesn’t have peer acceptance, you have to walk alone in a crowd. And that’s not a bad place to be in. That’s a beautiful place to be in.

That’s a very beautiful place to be in. You should actually feel proud. I’ll ask differently, I want response from all of you. The number of… and think and answer, don’t give me an answer what I will like. The number of people who exercise on a daily basis, is that the minority or the number of people who don’t exercise at all or don’t exercise regularly, that’s the majority. Which is the majority? Which is the minority? You tell me right now. People who exercise on a daily basis is the minority. Thank you.

The number of people who are able to love with no hatred, is that the minority. Or there are people who love a few but they cannot stop hating others. Which is the minority, which is the majority? Haan… Love without hatred is the minority, okay.

Amongst HDB infinitheists, 500 of you, it’s a very embarrassing thing, but let’s ask. Those of them, HDB to HDB without missing a single day, who meditate on a daily basis, sit in a non-doing on daily basis…majority or minority? Minority… Absolutely.

Everybody in the world says, beat the sunrise, your energy levels will be at a different level. If you can rise first and only then the sun rises, you cannot be tired in the entire day. Everybody, from religion to the recent motivational speakers, and everybody is telling, beat the sunrise. The number of people who rise before the sun… Majority or minority? Minority.

The number of people who can say that I’ve never got into an intoxicating habit. Never got into an intoxicating habit, I’ve stayed away… Majority / Minority? Minority.

The number of people who have started a business and actually scaled it, not people who have started a business and sustained it. That they have grown it from lakhs to crores to crores to millions and millions to billions… People who have really grown the business, scaled it… Started in one place, went into multiple locations. Started in one place, started multiple branches, started with one business, started multiple verticals… serial entrepreneurs. So, entrepreneurs who have really scaled what they have started… Majority or minority? Minority.

So, life is telling you something…If you ever find yourself in minority, you are in the right place. Don’t complain about it. Any time you find… And the best minority is find yourself alone… Very minority… Highly minority.

So, life is telling you something if you ever find yourself in a minority don’t complain about it. So, if you ever find yourself in minority, don’t complain about it. You are in the right place and the best minority to find yourself is, you find yourself alone sometimes. It’s okay, you are absolutely in the right direction of your life. You’ll miss them, it’s okay.

There are, that levels, as Vivekananda so beautifully explained, the world will first laugh at you and for the very reason the world laughs at you, it will accept you later. And for the very reason the world first laughed at you and accepted you later, for the very reason the world will admire you one day. And everybody has to go through these three stages. Exactly what Vivekananda said, anybody who is living a life ahead of his time will first be laughed at, then accepted and finally admired. All for the same reason.

I know when I said every programme will start on time. People laughed at that as even a possibility. Then they reluctantly accepted. Now my introduction too starts like this. Because for the same reason the world will admire you. Somebody discusses spirituality and sex and marriage and relationship and making money, same guy…

It’s okay to find yourself alone. Continue to stand like this, it’s only a question of time, the very world that laughed at you, will grow to accept you and that very world will start looking up to you. For that same reason, not even for some other reason.

When Gandhi came and said, without even thinking against the Britishers we can get the Britishers… they laughed at him. Then they thought okay, etho work agathu polirukuthe (it seems, something is working). Accept… And today the whole world writes books about him for the same reason.

Why only wrong things alone everybody says… everything in life must be tried. Getting a gold medal also can be tried, no? Becoming a school people leader also can be tried. Why for wrong alone everybody is told, everything in life must be tried. Try being a champion, try being the best outgoing student.  Try being a leader of the school. Try doing social service at that age that, adults look up to you, for the way you live your life.

Try living a life of ruthless, unapologetic honesty. That also can be tried. So next time when you do anything like this and the world laughs at you. Tell yourself – stage one, two more stages and the world will admire me for the same reason. So never feel ashamed of being in the minority, you are in the right place.

Just close your eyes and be with yourself, let these two things seep into you. How proud I should feel to be in the minority. How proud should I feel sometimes when I find myself alone to the standards that I have set for myself.

Anybody who lives a life ahead of his time will first be laughed at, then accepted and eventually for the very same reason, will be admired and looked up to…