The Secret of Success

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS D r. C. V. Raman (Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, 1888–1970) was one of India’s most renowned scientists. In 1930, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics—the first Asian ever to do so in the field of science. From that point on, he gained worldwide recognition. His scientific discovery, the Raman Effect, is now counted among the established principles of science. Raman was born into a humble family. His father worked as a school teacher earning just ten rupees a month. In such difficult conditions, Raman, through extraordinary hard work, earned his place in the world of knowledge. He described his journey to success in these words: “A long history of frustration, disappointment, struggle and every kind of tribulation.” When someone tried to belittle his achievement by saying that he had reached his discovery merely by chance— as, they claimed, many other scientists had—Raman responded seriously: “The idea that a scientific discovery can be made by accident is ruled out by the fact that the accident, if it is one, never occurs except to the right man.” Summing up the lesson of his final years of research, Dr. Raman expressed it in these words: “The right man, right thinking, right instruments, and right results.”