The Secret of Success

him nothing is impossible. When you have hands to hold things, when you have feet to walk with, when you have a tongue to speak, really, you have all that you want in this world. And because everything else can be obtained by material means, there is nothing that is beyond one’s reach. The Handicap that Helped Mahatma Gandhi's world renown as a spiritual leader tends to obscure the fact that he was by nature a very shy person. Those who are unacquainted with the details of his rise to leadership are generally surprised to learn that in his early career, he had often been reduced to silence by sheer nervousness. Once when he was a student in London, he was asked to make a speech at a meeting of a vegetarian society which he had joined. He stood up to speak, but was unable to express himself. Finally, he muttered a few words of thanks and sat down. On another occasion, when he was invited to speak on vegetarianism, he set his thoughts down on paper, but was not even able to read out what he had written. It was left to someone else to perform that service for him. After passing his law examinations in London, he started his practice in Bombay, but on his very first appearance in court, he was so nervous that he could not plead his client's case and had to ask his client to choose another lawyer. But, as Gandhiji writes, this apparent disadvantage turned to his advantage: "My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself a certificate that a thoughtless word has hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen."