Goan Success Stories

By Mr. Plastino D'Costa

Wendell Rodricks, residing in Colvale a remote village of Goa, over the years have been successfully making a mark in the main stream of world fashion industry. Recently he has been signed to be represented in Paris, the world fashion capital, for the Wendell Rodricks label. This means the Wendell Rodricks ‘Made in Goa’ label is poised to take-off worldwide on the fashion racks in the spring/summer of 2008. Big deal this, even with the limited knowledge we might possess on the subject of fashion. Yet Goans seem to have not realized the impact of his achievements. A Goan man is making a mark in worldwide fashion and we seem to be largely ignorant of what this might lead to. Even the Indian media gives more coverage to his accomplishments compared to our own.

Remo Fernandes, living in Siolim not far away from Colvale, started writing music when most music professionals in Goa were satisfied singing other people music. Today Remo writes his own music, lyrics and composes his own musical arrangements at his home studio. Remo has been India’s leading and highest selling rock musician and has been awarded gold discs in this category, not to mention the success he has achieved in the Hindi pop and film music and still maintaining his identity. This is actually a tribute to all those Goan musicians of the past, who have worked in the Hindi film background music industry but sadly their achievements also remained in the background. Yet we Goans seem to downplay Remo’s achievements, even the Government of Goa wakes up only after realizing that the Indian Government has already conferred on him the Padmashri at the hands of the President of India.

Carafina Pereira, over 20 years back along with her husband opens a small food stall in Betalbatim near the tourist dominated beach belt of South Goa, and with lot of dedication makes this small joint into one of the best restaurants of Goa. Most Indian celebrities frequently patronize this restaurant popularly called as ‘Martins Corner’. Yet most Goans shy away from praising her during their visits to the restaurant, given the fact that most Goans understand food more than fashion.

How many aspiring fashion designers of Goa keep Wendell as their role model, how many Goan music professionals are genuinely proud of Remo’s achievements, and how many Goan women who really cook well at home openly admire Carafina. Above Success Stories in Fashion, Music or Food are just some of the Success Stories the writer has used to make Goans understand the pattern that has been developed over the years among Goans, to ignore success and take extra notice of failures.

Our basic instinct to ignore Success Stories and focus more on the negative has actually muted the growth of Goans giving rise to mediocrity. No wonder even success of successful Goans is capped due to our ability to tear down the character of the ones who are trying hard to achieve. If the Ambani’s, Murthy’s, Premji’s, or Mittal’s were from Goa, their success would definitely be restricted, because Goans would find some reason to tarnish their image and make sure they stay distracted into some issues.

Wendell, Remo, Carafina are successful people in their line of work, and the more we learn about them, the more motivated our Generation Next will be. It is important to know more about Success Stories which does not always mean high profile stories, but even small successes in our locality, neighborhood, villages or cities. The more we find out about them and get inspired, the better it will be for us to achieve success that might be waiting to come our way. However, we need to make sure discussing Success Stories at regular intervals must have the desired effect of providing inspiration to Goans and not arousing useless emotions like envy and resentment.

Success Stories also need to be discussed on a regular basis and projected as role models for our Generation Next to offset the regular media blitz created by present or future politicians, or the so called social workers and what have you, who harpe on their achievements through paid media commercials. In a democratic setup as long as media space is cheap in Goa, these sort off personal advertisements are difficult to stop, but the fallout of these paid commercials, is it confuses Goans the definition of success. Therefore it becomes important to discuss Genuine Success Stories to offset the phony ones. This will help the Generation Next and Goans to differentiate Genuine Success Stories and change their perception towards success.

There are so many Goans who design clothes, and so many Goan musicians, and most Goan women can cook good food, so how cum Wendell, Remo or Carafina achieve so much success in their respective fields, definitely it is not by chance. Their success story has got a lot to do with their vision, hard work, dedication, attitude, achieving excellence, and a conscious effort to achieve their goals. Therefore it is all the more necessary to make a BIG DEAL of these types of Genuine Success Stories, so as to provide inspiration to the Generation Next.

Above Article first appeared on Herald - Goa on 27th January 2008