Lessons learnt in Kindergarten: Bullying has a positive aspect

By: Mr. Eugene Ellis, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank

There is no secret ingredient to being successful in life.  Each of us will have our own story to tell.  By observing other successful people and from my own life story, one thing is definite, getting to the top is not only about achievements.  On the contrary, it is a life full of disappointments and challenges and to stay at the top, it requires double the effort of getting there.  What is important is the ability to bounce back from adversities, to come back stronger, and to believe in yourself.  Success does not come easy.  If you keep this in mind, combined with a bit of luck, you will move up the ladder of success.    

I was born and educated in India and started my school life when I was 2 ½ not because I was a child prodigy but because my mother just wanted me out of the house!  She now tells me that I was incorrigible and impossible to handle and that she needed the peace and tranquility which only descended when I was out of the house.  As the normal school starting age was above 4 years old, with me being just 2 ½ years old, I was always the smallest in my class.  This meant that I was bullied from the very start which continued right through my school life.  As a result, I learnt how to face physical and mental challenges at a very early age. I also learnt to back myself and not be intimidated by the size of my opponents because, as the popular saying goes, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”  Over time, the physical fighting morphed into tackling life’s day-to-day challenges where my grounding in fighting “above my weight” provided me with the ability to take on projects and jobs which, looking back now, paved the way for success in my career. 

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