25th June 2013, is a day for me
to remember for it was the day, I met one of the most amazing person on this
planet. His name is Nik Halik. He addressed a large gathering in Chennai and I
was thoroughly inspired on hearing his life story and felt that I should share
atleast a glimpse of what he shared, with you all.
Nik is an Aussie born Greek. His
parents migrated from Greece to Australia, to make a living. His father was a
truck driver and his mother a school teacher. Nik was the last of the 4
siblings and his life was confined to a small room in his house till the age of
10, owing to some illness. During these years, he had no formal schooling. All
he read was his favourite comics Tin Tin and often kept referring to the Britannica
Encyclopedia. Nik,like most of the small children was very imaginative. He
often used to look at the moon through the window of his small room and used to
tell himself, one day I will go and walk there.
At the age of 8, Nik made a list
of 10 goals that he would achieve in his life time (all inspired by his favorite
hero, Tin Tin). His goals were'nt small. It was as big as his imagination. It
looked more like crazy ideas rather than goals to be achieved, but he decided
that he will pursue them all. His 10 goals were: to be a rock star, to be a
millionaire, to own houses in exotic locations in the world, to travel at least
100 countries, to run with the bulls in Spain, to climb the world's tallest
mountains, to go under the sea and have lunch
at the sunken ship Titanic, to be an astronaut, to live in a space station and
finally to walk in the moon.
At the age of 17, Nik left the
comfort of his home with just one suitcase, a guitar and one way flight ticket
to USA, in his quest to make his dreams come true. As one of his goals was to
become a Rock star, once he got there he joined a rock band and soon achieved
the status of a rock star.
In the meantime, he started
making smart investments in share market and real estates. He became one of the
youngest millionaires in the country and achieved yet another goal.
The next goal on his list was to
become an astronaut. Nik
had myopia and it was not
possible for someone with a
vision problem to enroll for the
space programme. So he
was looking for a way out. Those
were the days, when
there were no laser surgeries. He
came to know of a latest
yet complicated surgery, to
correct the vision problem.
The surgery was considered very
risky because in case the
surgery fails, the person will
lose his eye sight forever. Still his passion to be an astronaut made him to
take the risk.Nik underwent the surgery and luckily the surgery wassuccessful
and his vision problem was rectified. Next came the obstacle of his academic
qualification. It was not possible for him to embark into a
space programme in the USA, with his academic
background. So he approached the USSR and they said, if a
civilian has to enroll for the space programme, it would cost 3
million US dollars, which was non refundable in the
event of the person not passing the health checks. He
took a bold decision and went through it, facing all odds
and came out of it successfully. He finally went to
space.
Similarly, he went about
achieving each goal he had set at
the age of 8, one by one. Now at
the age of 44, with 8 goals down in the list, he has just 2 more to go. In
addition to the list of goals, Nik has been doing many amazing feats, which is
far beyond our imagination. It would not be an exaggeration to call him a “Real
life Superman”.
One exceptional quality of Nik
that differentiates him
from others was that he was never
willing to take NO for
an answer. He was so much
determined that he
negotiated his way through any
obstacle he faced. These
lines, said by Nik were what
impressed me the most. He
said “I made a list of
promises to a child within me and it is my duty to keep up the promises. I can
cheat the child by saying it is not practically possible, the systems are not
in favour, the law does not permit it or whatsoever, but my inner child will
die disappointed. I do not want that to happen. All our life, we live to please
others but if we do not live to fulfill our own passion, we will end our life
on a frustrating note.”
Nik likes to call himself a
Thrillionaire, because he loves to live his life filled with thrill. He says, “Many
people die at the age of 30 and get buried at 90” by
which he means by fearing to take chances in life, people live like a dead man.
His life philosophy is, “Live with passion and dare to dream,
make your life an epic extraordinary adventure”
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil Kannan
Article Dated Aug'13
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