Stories of Courage – Part 3 – Living a Life of Courage

Reading time ~7 minutes

Over the past two weeks, we looked at two stories about courage. In Part 1, we talked about Julia Butterfly Hill, who live in a Tree for two years of her life in order to protect it. Going further, in Part 2, we talked about the Vietnamese monk, Thich Quang Duc, who gave the ultimate sacrifice by immolating himself for the greater Buddhist cause.

If you have been a regular reader, you would have noticed by now that courage has been a recurring theme in so many of my prior blogs. If we peel off the surface, you will agree that the underlying virtue has always been “courage”.

Take for instance the story about Alan Mulally, who had the courage to quit a thriving job at Boeing Corp to save the Ford Motor Company. Or the Kid from Australia who had to courage to stay in the competition despite overwhelming odds. Or Thomas Edison, when at age 67 he had the courage to rebuild after a fire gutted down his life’s work. Or Lokmanya Tilak, as he used the six years at Mandalay prison to write the Gita Rahasya.

Ultimately, courage is a pre-requisite for humans to evolve and to achieve greatness in their lives. And rightly so. As Aristotle has said “Courage is the first virtue that makes all other virtues possible”

But how does one become courageous?

In Bahubali 2 – The Conclusion, Amarendra Bahubali gives a pep talk to Kumar Verma (who’s shown to be a coward), that “Time permits an opportunity even for cowards to be courageous/ brave”. And like magic, Kumar Verma is able to gather immense courage to fight off the enemy.

Unfortunately, it may not always happen that way.

Courage builds over time. Layer upon layer of small courageous acts helps people progress, making them better. Bit by bit, over time, people evolve into an improved version of themselves, and eventually, the courageous acts get written down in history for others to read or write about. And when we read such stories, we wonder how people become so courageous!

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A lot of things are needed in order for people to be courageous. However, in my view, three things clearly stand out from amongst the rest. Let’s explore these three ingredients today.

Ingredient #1 – FACE YOUR FEARS

Facing your fears is so important that it comes right at the top. In fact, courage is defined to mean “the ability to do something that frightens oneself”

Was Julia Butterfly Hill not scared? Of course she was. Alone, in the trees, facing intimidation from the Lumber company bullies.  She knew that she had to face her fear. How she responded to the fear was in her hands, and she chose to fight back. That was the only way.

During Apartheid, Nelson Mandela was sent to prison. Over there, he made it clear to the racist guards on Day One that he would only respond if they referred to him as Mandela or Mr. Mandela. He says he put his foot down and insisted on being respected. Was he not scared? Of-course he was. But he said, “It was a fight for my dignity; and I was willing to pay any price for it”.

Surely, doing things that scare you is not easy. For example, standing up to a bully in school (despite being physically weak yourself) is an act of courage. But if you don’t do so, the bully will wield control over you. On the other hand, if you show some courage, maybe even face a punch or two, you may get a bruised eye, but the entire school will know that you’re the one who had the guts to stand up to the bully. No sooner than that happens, the power shifts from the bully over to you. It is always better to get a bruised eye, rather than to suffer for months or even years intimidated by the bully!

Unless you are ready to confront your existing fear, you will crumble in the face of future challenges. But if you have the courage to face the present fear, it strengthens you to face what comes next. As Marcus Aurelius has said “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” 

The essayist Nassim Taleb has said: “If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”

Erika Cheung (at age 22) was fresh from Berkeley with a degree in molecular and cell biology when she started working at Theranos. As the start-up biotech firm, Theranos had purportedly invented groundbreaking technology, which promised to make blood tests more affordable. However, soon into her job, Cheung started noticing anomalies and the deceit with which business was carried out. When Cheung and another colleague raised their concerns internally, they faced intense bullying and sinister pressure from the top management. Even after she quit her job, she was followed, served with legal papers (for supposedly revealing ‘trade secrets’). Theranos even knew when she moved her residence, even thought she had not told anyone (including her parents) about it. Cheung persisted and alerted the regulatory authorities, which led to Theranos’ fall. Cheung later said, “Being followed was terrifying. You become totally paranoid and scared to be alone. The hardest part was facing down the constant anxiety and conquering your fear.”

Ingredient #2 – ALIGN YOUR PURPOSE

Facing your fear is possible only when you are clear with why you are doing it. A clear purpose is thus necessary. Usually, the purpose is greater than oneself.

For Julia Butterfly Hill, the purpose was to save the trees. To save her dear ‘Luna’, she found the courage to stay atop Luna for two years. Similarly, for Quang Duc, bringing the spotlight to the Buddhist cause to gain religious equality was extremely important.

As we look at history, any act of courage we see always has an underlying purpose which is bigger than the individual himself. If we look at Tanaji Malusare, and his famous quote “आधी लगीन कोंढाण्याचे मग लगीन रायबाचे” (First we’ll conquer Kondhana, and then I’ll get my son married), or the sacrifice of Baji Prabhu Deshpande, the purpose was to protect Shivaji Maharaj and the dream of Swaraj that he had planted in the minds of his people.

Swami Vivekananda had the courage to go all the way to the distant United States in the Parliament of World religions in the year 1893 to spread the essence of Hinduism. He faced immense hardships during his travels, but the overarching purpose gave him the courage to face it all with a smile.

As Viktor Frankl has said: “He who has a WHY to live, can bear with almost any HOW.”

Ingredient #3 – BE WILLING FOR THE SACRIFICE

An act of courage is not possible without the corresponding capacity for sacrifice. Courage always wants to know what you are willing to pay. On many occasions, the cost may be steep. But it is the only way. Just wishing for good things to happen, without yourself being willing to sacrifice happens only in dreams.

In today’s capitalist economy, the primary purpose is to make money. Everything else is secondary to it. But the management at CVS Pharmacy (in the United States) had the courage to stand by their philosophy. It had the courage to face the ire of its shareholders for foregoing sales worth almost $ 2 billion, when in the year 2014, it decided to stop selling cigarettes at all its locations throughout the United States. The company said its vision was to be a health company; and selling cigarettes would not align to that vision. That’s courage.

However, not all companies can be so courageous. Thus, the Ancient One from Marvel’s Dr Strange cannot remain a male monk from Tibet (to remain true to the comics), but rather becomes a ‘white’ female. This helps Marvel get the viewers from the authoritarian regime like China.

Similarly, as recently as in Feb-2022, Enes Kanter Freedom, the NBA player was traded from Boston Celtics to Houston Rockets but got waived from the team. Now he is without a team after playing at NBA professionally for over a decade. His crime? He has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and its human rights violations in Tibet, Hong Kong and the genocide committed on the Uyghur Muslims. The reason? NBA has a lucrative contract with China to televise basketball games there, and they risk losing that money if Kanter Freedom is allowed to play (Kanter Freedom’s games when he played for the Boston Celtics previously were not permitted to be televised in China because of Kanter Freedom’s views).

However, Kanter Freedom says he’s made a choice, and will not back down even if it means sacrificing his playing career!

FINAL THOUGHTS

You do not need to be a soldier, or a champion, a political activist or a social worker to demonstrate courage. Each one of us (myself included) needs courage to become the person we aspire to be. For instance, you may need a dose of courage today:

As for me, it is only courage that’s helping me to write blogs; and make myself vulnerable to critique. However, it is the only way!

I’d like to close by quoting the serenity Prayer, or the Prayer of Courage (as I like to call it), which has been written by Reinhold Niebuhr. It goes like this:

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^{Cover photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash}