Life mimics a marathon more than it does a sprint Obvious as that may appear, as proud and ambitious parents, we often push our children to excel in ways that may help them achieve some early successes - but may sap their stamina to endure the more difficult challenges which life may throw at them. What is more, our obsessive rush to get our children off to a good start overlooks the fact that in life, as in a marathon, an early lead hardly matters, but being too intent on coming first may leave our children lacking in many of the life skilld that a normal childhood would teach them. V. Raghunathan, best-selling author of Games Indians Play, offers an alternative approach that can be even more rewarding: life, he avers, is not a sprint, and it does not in the long run matter very much if you missed out on the best school, college or job as starters. As long as you give yourself the time to develop your personality and skills, you will still get where you want, at your own pace and perhaps far more happily. To illustrate, based far more happily. To illustrate, based on first-hand interactions, he gives numerous examples of many achievers, famous and not-so-famous, among them N.R. Narayana Murthy, Dr Kallam Anji Reddy, Dr. P.D.K. Rao, V. Mani, Ashwini Nachappa, Ila Bhatt and G.M. Rao. For those helping their children along for success in life, or rethinking their children along for success in life, or rethinking their own approach to it, Don't Sprint the Marathon will prove an invaluable guide.