top of page

By:

Asha Tripathi

14 April 2025 at 1:35:28 pm

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along...

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along with growth has come another silent challenge — the tendency to constantly observe, compare, and sometimes even compete with the journeys of others. But a crucial question arises: Is it necessary to track the growth of others in order to grow ourselves? From my personal experience of more than two decades as an entrepreneur, I have realised something very powerful — true growth begins the moment we stop looking sideways and start looking within. A Small Beginning I had a flourishing career of teaching abroad, but when I restarted my career after moving back to India, my beginning was extremely small. My very first assignment was a simple home tuition for a single student, and the amount I earned was meagre. There was nothing glamorous about it. No recognition, no large batches, no big earnings. Just one student and one opportunity. But instead of worrying about how others were doing, how many students they had, or how much they were earning, I made a conscious decision—my only focus would be on improving myself. I focused on teaching better, preparing better, and becoming more disciplined and consistent. And slowly, without even realising it, things began to grow. One student became two, two became a small group, and gradually, over the years, the work expanded beyond what I had initially imagined. Looking back today, I can confidently say that the growth did not happen because I competed with others. It happened because I competed with myself yesterday. Comparison Creates Noise When we keep watching others' journeys too closely, we unknowingly divert our own energy. Comparison creates unnecessary noise in our minds. It brings doubts, insecurities, and sometimes even negativity. Instead of walking our own path with clarity, we start questioning our speed, our direction, and our worth. True success grows through focus, not comparison. Every woman has her own story, her own pace, and her own struggles that others may never see. The path of one person can never be identical to another's. So comparing journeys is like comparing two different rivers flowing towards the same ocean — each with its own route, its own curves, and its own rhythm. As women, we already carry many responsibilities. We balance emotions, relationships, work, and society's expectations. In such a life, the last thing we need is the burden of comparison with one another. Instead, what we truly need is support for each other. When women encourage women, something extraordinary happens. Confidence grows. Opportunities multiply. Strength becomes collective rather than individual. There is enough space in the world for every woman to create her own identity. Each of us can build our own niche without stepping on someone else's path. Choose Encouragement Envy weakens us, but encouragement empowers us. Rather than questioning how someone else is progressing, we can ask a more meaningful question: "How can I grow a little better than I was yesterday?" Lift As You Rise Today, after twenty years of experience, the most valuable lesson I have learned is simple yet profound — focus on your own work with honesty and dedication, and success will quietly follow you. We, women, are capable, resilient, and creative. We do not need to pull each other down or compete in unhealthy ways. Instead, we can lift each other up while building our own dreams. Because when one woman rises, she does not rise alone. She inspires many others to believe that they can rise, too. And perhaps that is the most beautiful form of success. (The writer is a tutor based in Thane. Views personal.)

Beijing’s Invisible Hand

The failed prosecution of Englishmen Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry underscores how Chinese espionage exploits the gaps in Western legal and investigative frameworks to operate effectively in plain sight.

Christopher Berry (L) and Christopher Cash have been accused of passing secrets to China.
Christopher Berry (L) and Christopher Cash have been accused of passing secrets to China.

When Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, laments the collapse of a high-profile espionage prosecution, his frustration reflects a deeper anxiety within Western intelligence communities that China’s espionage machine - diffuse and increasingly sophisticated - has learned to play the long game. The dropped case of Christopher Cash, a parliamentary researcher and Christopher Berry, a former civil servant, who were accused of spying for Beijing, underscored the disquieting truth that the reach of Chinese intelligence has become both harder to prove and harder to contain.


This mirrors other high-profile cases. Australian authorities in 2023 charged multiple academics for covertly funnelling research to Chinese institutions, while U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly targeted tech specialists suspected of aiding China’s state-backed industrial espionage programs.


For decades, Western intelligence regarded Chinese espionage as a plodding, bureaucratic cousin to Russia’s more flamboyant operations. Soviet and later Russian tradecraft relied on ideology, disinformation and the occasional theatrical poisoning. The Chinese model has been more patient and systemic: the quiet harvesting of information through academic exchanges, cyber intrusions and the cultivation of influence networks that blur the line between diplomacy and espionage.


McCallum’s admission that MI5 had disrupted another China-related plot in the past week suggested how pervasive the threat has become. The number of state-based investigations in Britain is up by more than a third in a year. The tempo mirrors trends across Europe, Australia and the United States, where the contest with Beijing has evolved into a struggle not just for military or economic supremacy, but for informational dominance.


To grasp the modern scale of Chinese espionage is to understand its origins. When Deng Xiaoping declared in 1978 that China must “hide its strength and bide its time,” his dictum applied as much to intelligence as to diplomacy. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Ministry of State Security (MSS) built a vast network of collectors: students, scientists, and businesspeople who, knowingly or not, became conduits of technology transfer. In the age of globalization, espionage ceased to be confined to shadowy operatives, becoming industrial policy by other means.


The result has been an espionage ecosystem both disciplined and decentralized. Chinese intelligence does not depend on spectacular agents embedded in the heart of Western government. Instead, it relies on a mosaic of sources - cyber hacks on government servers, insider leaks within technology firms, data scraped from social media, and pressure on diaspora communities to inform or influence.


That makes it particularly difficult for prosecutors to build cases that meet the standard of proof in open court. In espionage, much of what is known cannot be said; much of what can be said cannot be proved. The collapse of the Cash and Berry trial exposes this paradox. Intelligence can disrupt, but the law must convict. Between the two lies a chasm that Beijing has learned to exploit.


The United States has tightened scrutiny of Chinese students and researchers. Australia has passed sweeping foreign-interference laws. Britain is following suit, with new national security legislation expanding the definition of espionage to include ‘preparatory acts’ of foreign interference. Yet the more governments harden their systems, the more Beijing presents these measures as proof of Western paranoia and hypocrisy.


For China, espionage is not merely about stealing secrets but about shaping narratives and perceptions. Its intelligence apparatus is now intertwined with influence operations targeting media, think tanks, and even local councils. The objective is not only to know what others think, but to shape what they think about China. Espionage, after all, is not an aberration in China’s rise but an integral feature of it.


If the Cold War was fought in shadows cast by ideology, the new one is fought in the half-light of information. China has mastered that terrain. The West, still bound by the transparency it cherishes, must learn to navigate it without losing its way.

Comments

bottom of page