Smriti Irani once candidly reflected on navigating different career trajectories in politics and as a television actor. “I have been poor. Long and short of it. My father used to sell books on the street, my mother used to be a housekeeper at a hotel and give tuitions also. In this city also, I got Kyunkii… when I had the last Rs 200 in my pocket. So, if you have ever been poor, there is no better training than that. I promised myself I would not be poor. I am the first girl in my father’s family to work,” said Irani in a snippet posted on her Instagram.

In the post captioned — “Nothing drives you to work harder than knowing what it’s like to have nothing,” — the former cabinet minister added, “For me, every opportunity is a Godsend.”

Reflecting on Smriti Irani’s words, Delnna Rrajesh, psychotherapist and relationship breakthrough coach, said one must not romanticise poverty: “There is nothing inherently enabling about deprivation.”

“Financial hardship can restrict access to nutrition, education, healthcare, safety and opportunity. The chronic uncertainty associated with not having enough can create tremendous stress. For some people, scarcity can leave psychological traces even after their financial circumstances improve: anxiety around money, difficulty spending even when they can afford to, fear of losing everything, overwork or an intense need for financial security,” reflected Delnna.

So poverty itself is not the lesson. “The lesson lies in what some people manage to develop while refusing to be defined by it,” said Delnna.

What does success look like for you?

When resources are limited, resourcefulness can become a survival skill. “You learn the difference between wanting something and needing it. You learn to stretch what you have. You may become more comfortable postponing gratification because there was once no alternative. Opportunities acquire value because they were never assumed to be available. Work can carry a different meaning when you have witnessed what financial dependence feels like,” described Delnna.

 

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This is why healing our relationship with hardship requires more than overcoming it materially. Eventually, we must ask whether the past is still informing us or controlling us. “Human beings develop their sense of possibility partly through what the world repeatedly reflects back to them. When a child is surrounded by adults who assume she can become a scientist, entrepreneur, sportsperson, artist, politician or leader, possibility becomes psychologically available to her. When ambition is repeatedly discouraged, she may eventually begin censoring her own aspirations before anybody else has to,” Delnna told indianexpress.com.

That is how external limitations become internal ceilings. “This is where stories of people who rise beyond difficult beginnings become valuable, provided we interpret them carefully. Resilience should inspire compassion, not become a weapon with which we judge those who are still struggling,” said Delnna.