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.)

Institutional Rot

The plight of Pakistan’s hockey players exposes a country obsessed with reputation at the cost of institutional decay.

Pakistan's latest embarrassment concerns its national hockey players, who were recently compelled to turn whistleblowers after administrative chaos left them stranded without accommodation during an official tour of Australia.


What began as a viral video of athletes standing on the streets of Sydney with their luggage quickly caused a political embarrassment in Islamabad—and revealed, once again, a country where mismanagement and corruption are not episodic failures but emblematic features of governance.


The scandal forced Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to order an inquiry into the Pakistan Hockey Federation (of which he himself is a patron of), after it emerged that funds had been released for hotel bookings that were never paid for. Players reportedly waited over 13 hours in transit, arrived at hotels with no reservations, and were left to wander the streets before makeshift arrangements were made


Pakistan’s national sport, once a source of global awe, had been reduced to a case study in how a state mismanages even its most basic obligations.


The details are humiliating. Players allegedly waited more than half a day at airports, arrived at hotels that had not been paid for, and were left to roam the streets before accommodation was scrambled together. The team, physically drained and mentally frayed, lost every match.


The eruption of the scandal had a whiff of black comedy to it. After publicly criticising the Pakistan Hockey Federation, the team captain promptly released another video claiming that everything was fine. But back in Lahore, he admitted the truth - the reassurance had been a lie, a “cover-up” designed in order to “maintain Pakistan’s reputation in India.”


That confession says more about the modern Pakistani state than any white paper or IMF report. A country whose economy is in tatters, whose institutions rot from within and whose writ barely extends beyond its own press conferences is still obsessively concerned about what Indians might think while exporting violence across the border with a straight face.


This reflex to suppress reality rather than confront it is Pakistan’s defining pathology. From airlines to energy utilities, from sports bodies to civil administration, dysfunction in Pakistan is the name of the system.


Sharif’s predictable response has been to order an inquiry and issue sombre statements. Pakistan is littered with the paperwork of past inquiries. What it lacks is enforcement. The same federations limp on and the same decay is repackaged as misfortune.


The collapse of hockey is especially telling. Pakistan once dominated the sport through discipline, organisation and depth. Its decline mirrors the erosion of state capacity itself. Administrators are now appointed through patronage, not competence while federations operate as fiefdoms. Athletes are expected to perform internationally while being treated domestically as inconveniences. That players were allegedly washing dishes before matches is emblematic of the decline.


What makes the episode darker is the logic that justified the lie. The truth, the captain said, would damage Pakistan’s reputation abroad. This anxiety about appearances runs deep. Pakistan’s elite remains fixated on how the country is perceived, while showing far less concern for how it actually functions.


That obsession has consequences well beyond sport. Instead of building institutions, the state polices narratives. Instead of fixing delivery, it manages denial. Failure is explained away as sabotage, conspiracy or misunderstanding. The result is a culture in which telling the truth becomes an act of disloyalty, and exposing mismanagement is treated as betrayal.


While fretting over reputational slights, Pakistan’s conduct routinely ensures reputational damage on a far grander scale. Its economy survives on bailouts. Its institutions stagger from crisis to crisis. Its public services barely function.


A country that cannot house its own athletes abroad but manages to shelter extremists at home cannot plausibly complain about misunderstanding or prejudice. Pakistan’s reputation is not harmed by viral videos or hostile neighbours; it is corroded by the persistent gap between what it claims to be and what it repeatedly does. 

 


Comments

bottom of page