Chennai
28 August 2025

There is something irrevocably compelling in a sense of clarity. Not this hazy type of hope we whisper within momentary flashes, but a type which coheres into fixation—the type which focalizes a thousand daily actions, a million minuscule choices, all set irrevocably in absolute determination upon a single star. One of the best examples of this clarity is not within a bestseller list or a volume upon philosophy, but within ripples in the Olympic pool.

Summer 2016 came with a worldwide preoccupation about Rio de Janeiro: there were expectations for a repeat show by Michael Phelps in full swing. He was a legend in his own right: thirty-nine world records and twenty-one Olympic titles were evidence. Include five more in 2016 itself, and there wasn’t any longer anything left for him to prove. But lost in his dazzling limelight was a gentler story one which reveals a lot about fantasy, resolve, and audacity about aspirations.

That is his tale, Joseph Schooling, a young Singaporean swimmer whose 13-year-old self in 2008 nervously proceeded to a country club hoping for a meet-and-greet with his idol. When over walked Phelps, Schooling stood beside him for a photo shoot—a boy beside a giant. That would have had to be enough for anyone else. A souvenir. A memory. But for Schooling, it was when his life changed direction. That one photograph wasn’t just an autograph in digital format—it became a vision board seared into his mind.

Schooling crossed over to the United States for training under elite coaches. He trained year in year out without respite, in spite of odds, in spite of obscurity, and most notably, in spite of doubt. He wasn’t racing for the crowds. He was racing for the dream in his mind—the one where he touched the wall first. And at the 2016 Olympics 100-meter butterfly final, he proceeded exactly thus. He didn’t just beat Phelps. He went out early, touched the wall in 50.39 seconds, in an instant, rewritten the script.

Here’s what’s even more lovely about it: for a moment when he was finished, Schooling looked over at where Phelps was. There wasn’t a look of incredulity on his face, just quiet nodding—he had done exactly what he was there for. That’s what a 10X vision does, by the phrase coined by entrepreneur Dan Martell—it is a vision so specific, so real, so compelling in its grasp on you that it gets you out of bed.

It is not a tale about just swimming. It is about the UPSC candidate Indian student in a town with borrowed textbooks. It is about a Kathak dancer performing in Pune with dreams for Konark. It is about every young mind fearless enough to set its dream in high-definition sharpness.

Swami Vivekananda once said, “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.” That is what Schooling did. And it is a lesson profoundly based in Indian spiritual tradition. The ekāgra chitta—a one-pointed mind—is extolled in the Bhagavad Gita as a means towards greatness. Krishna tells Arjuna, “Vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana” (2.41), or “The resolute intellect is one-pointed.” Without such focus, the Gita warns, the mind is blown about like the breeze.

Vision alone is not enough. It must come with action. Chanakya, the ancient Indian statesman, directed there should not only be clarity but it should accompany hand in hand with strategy and strenuous activity: “A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.” Honesty and clarity are a good thing but should accompany pragmatism and plotting.

Let’s examine just one other example, this one coming out of the Western world. Oprah Winfrey was raised in poverty in rural Mississippi but had a keen-eyed vision when she was a young teenager. Beyond an abusive childhood as well as institutionalized oppression, she hoped for her life such that her voice would matter. As she would later put it, “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” That belief took her from a local radio station to becoming one of the most powerful media tycoons in the world.

Closer to home, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s own rise from Rameswaram’s narrow streets to Rashtrapati Bhavan is a testament itself to this same precept. He once wrote in his autobiography Wings of Fire: “You have to dream before your dreams can come true.” But what is more significant is that he never failed to ask young minds to dream with purpose—not any dream at all, but one which lifts up those around you, which reaches for excellence rather than mere individual pomp.

Why is it so essential? Because talent stumbles without it. Potential is wasted. Energy is divided. As a river is wasted in a delta, potential without direction dries up. But put it in a direction, a conduit, and it is a power which shall cut mountains in twain.

I heard once about a man who went into a stone quarry. He observed there were three men hammering away at stones. When a man inquired what they were doing, the first one replied, “Breaking rocks.” The second replied, “I’m making a living.” The third smiled and said, “I’m building a cathedral.” It was the same thing, but only one had a dream. That’s what a moment of clarity does—it makes everyday life sublime.

So if it is in your dreams you are going to write a book, start a company, cure patients, or reach the wall in front of your idol while in a symbolic race—get super specific about it. Write it down. See it every morning. Let it awaken your soul. Let it unsettle you. Let it make you take action with your feet.

As Joseph Schoolings of this world don’t win by default. They win because they are fearless in perceiving clearly, steadfast in performing, and fervent in believing. And when you do it too one day, someone else would tell your story as why they began their own.

Dr. Prahlada N.B
MBBS (JJMMC), MS (PGIMER, Chandigarh). 
MBA in Healthcare & Hospital Management (BITS, Pilani), 
Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Leadership and Innovation (MIT, USA)
Executive Programme in Strategic Management (IIM, Lucknow)
Senior Management Programme in Healthcare Management (IIM, Kozhikode)
Advanced Certificate in AI for Digital Health and Imaging Program (IISc, Bengaluru). 

Senior Professor and former Head, 
Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, Cochlear Implant Surgery. 
Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India. 

My Vision: I don’t want to be a genius.  I want to be a person with a bundle of experience. 

My Mission: Help others achieve their life’s objectives in my presence or absence!

My Values:  Creating value for others. 

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