SUCCESS = CAPACITY TO APOLOGIZE

On the night of April 25, 2007, I was traveling from London to Mumbai in India’s one of the leading, privately owned airlines. I was quite tired, as earlier in the day I was in Copenhagen, and had forgotten to had my lunch, added to this was frustrating terminal transfer at the London’s Heathrow Airport. I wanted to eat something and sleep as soon as I can! While the food was being served, I was watching “Lage Raho Munnabhai” on the aircrafts entertainment system. Bappu was advising Munna, that he should apologize for any mistakes if he commit and at the same time forgive those who commit mistakes. I have just begun to enjoy the movie, but I was equally very hungry. Cabin crew who were serving food pass by me, without serving me anything. I thought she had forgotten or missed, so I called her twice, but she kept on ignoring. It was quite insulting, and I was fuming. Added to this was cabin in-charge was so busy that she could not respond to my call for nearly 30 minutes. I was utterly frustrated. By now my test buds have lost interest in having any food, physically as well psychologically, I felt terribly let down.

Cabin in-charge came in after a while, and kneeled down and very gracefully said ‘Sorry, Mr. Chavan! I understand there has been some goof-up by my cabin crew, and I am extremely sorry for the same. Though, I was fuming, and wanted to vent out my anger, her approach was so very natural that I restrained from venting my feelings out except expressed my displeasure, as this was happening to me for second consecutive time on this sector. I found her apology together with explanation so very sincere that; I was compelled to leave the incident behind. It is at that moment I realized that true and sincere apology do have tremendous power, that it can turn uncomfortable, disadvantageous situation to the best of ones benefit. Thus, true and sincere apology can in fact lead one to success. What would determine your success is your capability to seek sincere and true apology from the bottom of your heart.

However, most of the time, we are so biased with our own view points, that we never realize in quick succession of time that we had committed mistake. Thus, at times when we realize it is too late to seek an apology, and thus we never apologize for mistake that we do. But we forget that this behavior of ours not only discredit us, but also impact negatively on the sphere on our influence, potential support from those sincerely wish to help us. Thus, I often believe that quicker you apologize is better in the interest of damage control. In fact, it is in this sense that “Success is directly proportional to the degree of innocence to seek the apology”, when one commit the mistake. Thus,

SUCCESS = APOLOGISE WHEN YOU REALIZE THE MISTAKE!