In a world, where cut-throat competition and increasingly higher standards are becoming a way of life, achieving excellence and success in not easy. Although achieving success has never been an easy task, these are the times when dreams of success seem far more unrealistic or difficult that what they actually are. However, today the mantra one must adopt for the attainment of success is ‘teamwork and unity’.
Image source; brianniece.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Unity-logo-unity-32506259-1344-1000.jpg
When one works in a team, the pressure is distributed and attainment of success seems relatively easier. Success seems to come nearer and appears more realistic. Encouraging one another in a team gives additional strength to achieve the goal. As a popular saying goes “you are one when you are one and you are ten if you are with another four”.
This applies to all walks of life, all professions and at all times. Though all the fingers are not alike, the power of a fist which brings the five fingers together is immense. The diversity in a group has a very positive multiplying effect on the strength of unity. This is the fact behind India emerging as a powerful nation economically and politically. This is why the Indian cricket team is being ranked among the top teams in the world. And this is precisely the reason behind the Indian corporate and the individual booking slots in the top lost of world’s famous publications.
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The world has witnessed the weakening of Russia with the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR. An equal match to the US in the bipolar world has now been reduced to just ‘one’ among the developed nations, losing out on crucial power fronts in the world political scenario. It has also seen how the European Union has emerged an economic super-power through common policy and common currency. We can also hope to see the emulation of this success of the Asian countries through a common currency, a proposal brought by our Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram recently, though it might take some time to materialize.
Another recent classical examples of victory through unity is the restoration of democracy in Nepal. After four long years, Nepalease Parliament once again echoed with sounds of victory of the might of the common people. King Gyanendra’s autocratic rule, which began after the bloodshed in the royal family, came to an end, when seven major political parties of the country joined hands and played a crucial role in turning the discontent of the people into a movement against the tyranny of the monarch. People refused to be cowed down by bullets and batons and many scarified. Curfews were clamped to quell protest organized by the parities but the demonstrators remained undaunted. Ultimately the king had to bow down before the unity of the people.
Away from the political world and stepping into the corporate and economic world, we find the ‘cooperation’ in the buzz word, i.e., cooperation coupled with competition. This form of unity is helping our corporate scale news heights and carve their own niche in this extremely competitive world. Another form of increasing competency is ‘mergers’, where the merged entity is often much more powerful than the two individual entities taken separately. Speaking contemporarily, it is really heartening to hear that the two developing nations, India and Pakistan, often see firing controversial political statements against each other, are on the economic front, going to file a joint application for patenting ‘Basmati‘ rice, one of our own and very special agricultural products. Also, India and China, being looked upon as the next generation economic super powers and the top investment destinations, are increasingly working towards economic co-operation to share each other’s success.
Coming to sports, the significant rise in the performance of the Indian cricket team after the re-organisation, reiterates the fact that setting aside group politics is half the job done. They were the biggest obstacles to the performance of the entire team. The rest was accomplished through encouraging true talent, putting focused efforts and above all, realizing the fact that the team is above an individual.
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Unity has always been the strength. Not only in intellectual human thought, this truth has been applicable even in the animal world from the ages. One can seldom see an elephant or a deer roaming alone in jungle. The sense of security they get moving as a herd is extremely important for their very survival. Similarly, hundreds of ants together can kill a venomous snake. We often see gees flying in a ‘V’ pattern. This pattern is a classic case study in the management world. The observation of this case study can be briefed as below.
The flight of a whole flock increases the efficiency of each goose by 71 percent. It is interpreted that if a team works in a focused manner in the same direction, the efficiency of the team increase and the destination is reached faster and the goal is attained sooner.
Often the leading goose in the flock changes. After flying for a while, and backseat and another takes its place. Thus, leadership is shared and the hardest problems and tasks are achieved by gathering abilities and combining, resources of all the individual in the group.
When a goose gets or tired and is compelled to leave the flock, few other gees follow it and stay by its side. Staying beside each other matters, especially in times of difficulties and great challenges.
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Thus ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ is a universal truth and has always stood the test of time. In the animal world or in the human world, in sports or in business unity is the best mantra to achieve success, Our enemies take advantage of us only when they notice cracks and fissures in our solidarity. A mile can be covered with the smile if we are united, but a molehill would become insurmountable as a mountain if we dive. Unity is strength and brings success while division is weakness that brings downfall.
Its holds true not only in the context of smaller group like a family or a clan, but also in case of larger groups like the society or nation as a whole. It is this regard that our great nation presents a unique instance of essential unity in spite of myriad diversities. While its diversities give it a multifaceted, kaleidoscopic and pluralistic outlook, its unity keeps them together as an integrated whole. Since time immemorial, India has kept its unity intact by attaching prime significance to the motto of peaceful co-existence among people belonging to different cultural backgrounds, following different beliefs and speaking different language. And this underlying spirit of unity has earned our nation a distinct place of pride among the comity of nations throughout the globe.
by Ms. Anjani Pallavi Chitti