Success is coveted by all. However, only when success is well earned, it lasts. A bumpy road to success is desirable because the same hurdles which make success a difficult process, would prevent a person from a complete fall if the person starts slipping. Consider the example of a horse pulling a cart up along a hilly track. After the horse-driven cart reaches the top, the animal is freed and the cart is allowed to fall. The cart will not come down all the way. It would get stuck in one of the bumps on the way. Had the road been smooth, the cart would have a complete fall, because there would be nothing on the way to prevent it from falling. Hence the proposition of a smooth rise has the risk of an equally 'smooth' fall.
Here's an analogy from science: When a ferro-magnetic material is magnetised by an applied magnetic field, the magnetisation rises first in a linear way and then saturates. The rise takes place because the increase in the magnetic field surmounts the obstacles on the path of magnetisation by providing extra energy to the system.
However, after reaching the maximum saturated value, if the direction of the field is reversed and brought back to zero, the magnetisation does not become zero: it has a remnant value. The obstacles - dislocations, in the language of science - which made the rise of magnetisation difficult, would prevent the magnetisation coming to zero, when the field becomes zero. Difficulties arising out of obstacles, although at first sight appear to be discouraging, make success more stable.
Another characteristic of a successful person is steadfastness. Frequent changes of mind don't lead to success. Steadfastness arises when mental fluctuations are averaged to zero. The Bhagavad Gita says sthitaprajna, characterised by steadfastness in wisdom, can alone achieve happiness and success. Rapid fluctuations, either by external impact or by a non-steady mind, would result in loss of wisdom, and bring failure. A small boy who is asked by his drill teacher to follow his to-and-fro motion can do it if the teacher changes his direction slowly and infrequently. However, if the frequency of the motion of the drill teacher increases, the boy cannot follow the teacher.
A dielectric substance is a system that gets electrically polarised when acted upon by an electric voltage. If the voltage were an AC one, the polarisation would follow the external vol-tage until the frequency of the voltage fluctuation reaches a threshold value. Beyond this threshold, the polarisation cannot follow the external voltage and consequently experiences a loss. The same thing also happens in an electric conductor, causing a loss and subsequent breakdown of the current if the frequency of the supplied voltage exceeds a threshold.
All these depend on the environment. If there is flexibility, the loss could be made less effective compared to the situation when the environment is rigid. Flexibility implies freedom of action. More the freedom, greater the achievement, provided you are reso-lute in steadfastness of purpose. If the success is externally induced, its degree depends on the steadiness of the impact of the external driving force. There is a craze among some young people to enter record books by performing superlative feats. Their over-enthusiasm would dissipate their energy at the time of need. If you look at the lives of the greats, you would hardly find anyone who showed extraordinary performance at a tender age. The writer teaches physics at Berhampur University.