How to Find One's Sustainable Joy, Part 3

The blog so far discussed Walter Orthman of Brazil as an example of being happy in one company for more than 85 years and Colonel Sanders of KFC, searching for his true identity for the majority of his life until he finally found it in his 60s. This week, the focus is on three Hungarian sisters and their amazing achievements with their search for their identities. Benjamin Franklin said "You can do anything if you set your mind to it." This belief manifested in the three sisters from a very young age.

László Polgár believed that early and intensive specialization can produce a prodigy in nearly any subject. He proposed to his wife, Klára, with the intent to test his hypothesis on his own children. Klára was intrigued and went along with this experiment on their three daughters: Susan, Sofia, and Judit. They were home-schooled. Besides the regular subjects, the three sisters played chess in their spare time as their primary entertainment. They swam and played ping-pong with a routine 20-minute break where they must tell jokes to one another. The three sisters were so consumed by their passion of playing chess, they often went behind their parents' backs during bedtime to use flashlights to continue their play. One time, their father asked one of them to leave the chess alone and go to sleep. Judit replied, "It is not me. The chess won't leave me alone." Besides chess, the sisters learned advanced math and studied languages. All three are polyglots with Susan who is certified as a hyperpolyglot with fluency in seven languages. Judit beat Bobby Fischer to become the youngest grandmaster in chess at the age of 15 and held that title for nearly a decade. All three sisters consistently beat male chess players including world champions.

The Polgár family had to battle the male-dominant bureaucracy in the world of chess. Susan was not allowed to play with male chess players until she protested and refused to play only in the women's league. The sisters seemed to have learned this fighting spirit from their parents as the parents had to fight the Hungarian authorities to homeschool their children. The Polgár family believed that gender should not be a factor if one can be a genius in certain pursuits. The three sisters proved this by becoming grandmasters all before the age of 20. However, Susan believed that different genders often approach the game differently. "Girls would rather solve chess puzzles than play against one of their friends,” she said. Boys will always choose to compete with brute force to take down the opponent. Unlike their male counterparts, the three Polgár sisters beat their opponents with tactics and elegance. In fact, when Judit defeated two male world champions (Spasssky and Karpov), and the judges called her play the most elegant one a champion had ever exhibited. Even though all three sisters have retired from professional chess competitions, they have held onto their cultivated identities as elegant chess grandmasters. They continue to thrive in tutoring chess to others and their lifelong identities have changed the world of chess for the better. This concludes the series of finding one's sustainable joy with different ways to solidify one's identity. Next week, the blog will continue with Step three in finding one's true identity from a few weeks ago. If you enjoy my posts, please click on the blue follow button by my profile picture and comment.

Jason Chen, PhD