Bhaag Milkha Bhaag – Milkha Singh Distracted by Success: The Commitment Test

    Even the Flying Sikh nearly lost his race to success itself. Milkha Singh's brush with parties and temptation after his first taste of fame is a lesson every rising professional needs — commitment doesn't end when you succeed, that's when it's tested hardest.

    Bhaag Milkha Bhaag – Milkha Singh Distracted by Success: The Commitment Test

    Bhaag Milkha Bhaag – Milkha Singh Distracted by Success: The Commitment Test

    Everyone expects the fall to come from failure. In Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, it almost comes from winning. The moment Milkha Singh tastes his first real success, parties and temptations move in to claim the very focus that got him there — and for a while, they nearly win. It is one of the most honest portrayals of commitment I know, because it shows the trait being tested not in the dark days, but in the bright ones.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Commitment is Trait #9 in the Emotional Intelligence cluster — the left side of the Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). EQ alone doesn't fly a kite; it needs the tension of RQ (relationships) on the right and PQ (productivity) at the bottom, with Success as the string pulling everything upward. Milkha's story is really a story about what happens when the EQ side goes slack right when the kite starts climbing — and how he pulled it taut again.

    The Story: A Champion Distracted by His Own Success

    Bhaag Milkha Bhaag traces the life of Milkha Singh, the man history remembers as the Flying Sikh — a Partition survivor who built himself, quite literally from nothing, into one of India's greatest athletes. The film's most instructive stretch isn't the tragedy of Partition or the agony of training. It's the part almost nobody talks about: the moment right after his first taste of success.

    Milkha Singh was committed. He trained relentlessly, pushed his body past reasonable limits, and built the discipline that got him noticed. But the moment recognition arrived — the moment people started calling him talented, started inviting him places, started treating him like someone who had already made it — his focus began to drift. Parties. Temptations. The pull of a social life he'd never had time for during the years of struggle. The same hunger that built his talent now sat dangerously close to the comfort that could waste it.

    He wasn't distracted because he lacked ability. He was distracted because success, for the first time, gave him something pleasurable to be distracted by. It took a deliberate act of will — a conscious refocusing, a recommitment to the goal that had nothing to do with applause — before Milkha Singh became the champion history remembers. The film's lesson isn't "work hard and you'll succeed." It's sharper than that: success creates its own gravity, and if you don't manage it, it will pull you off course faster than any failure ever could.

    You Are Never Distracted by What You Don't Love

    Here is the truth I keep coming back to when I tell this story in the room: you are never distracted by things you don't love. You are distracted by things you do. If a working professional can't focus during an India–Pakistan cricket match, it isn't because the match is powerful — it's because he loves cricket. The pleasure is the pull.

    Success works exactly the same way. A promotion, a big client win, a standing ovation after a presentation — these don't feel like threats to your commitment. They feel like rewards. That's precisely what makes them dangerous. Failure keeps you sharp because pain is a good teacher. Success relaxes your guard because pleasure never announces itself as a risk.

    I've watched this play out with professionals I know personally — not celebrities, ordinary people. I know someone who made a firm commitment to stop drinking. For a few weeks he held the line. Then, slowly, the old pattern crept back — every evening at exactly 7 PM he'd walk out of the office, even with pending work on his desk, even with his team still needing him, because the pull of that first drink was stronger than the commitment he'd made to himself and to his job. That's the Milkha pattern in miniature: a small early win in discipline, followed by a slow surrender to something pleasurable.

    The film Dangal offers a parallel worth naming alongside Milkha's story. Geeta, played by Fatima Sana Shaikh, is fiercely committed to her wrestling training in the village. But the moment she moves to the city for advanced coaching, the glamour, the new friendships, the freedom — all pleasurable, none of them evil in themselves — quietly erode her focus. Like Milkha, she has to hit a low point before she remembers what she was actually training for.

    The Four Reasons Commitment Breaks

    Across the professionals I've trained — from the Indian Army and BRO to RBI, BARC and JSW Steel — commitment tends to fail for one of four reasons, and Milkha's story touches on more than one of them.

    1. Distractions and Temptations

    Alcohol, parties, relationships, social media, the sudden social life that comes with recognition — these are the Milkha traps. They don't feel like threats. They feel like rewards you've earned. That's exactly why they work.

    2. Setbacks and Failures

    The mirror image of Milkha's problem. Businessmen abandon ventures after losses. Writers quit after rejection. Salespeople lose heart after a hundred "no's" in a row. Fear of failure is as corrosive to commitment as the pleasure of success — just from the opposite direction.

    3. Lack of Alignment with the Mission

    If you're only showing up for the paycheque, there's nothing pulling you back when temptation shows up. Commitment needs something bigger than comfort to anchor it — a mission you actually believe in.

    4. Fear of Sacrifice

    Commitment costs something — late nights, cancelled plans, discipline when nobody's watching. Many professionals want the outcome Milkha eventually got without paying the price he paid to refocus and get there.

    The Chain That Rebuilds Commitment: Focus → Meaning → Action → Results

    What eventually pulled Milkha Singh back from the parties wasn't willpower alone — it was a shift in focus. Here's the mechanism, and it's worth memorising: what you focus on determines the meaning you give to events, the meaning you assign drives your action, and your action determines your results.

    If Milkha had kept focusing on the temptations — the parties, the attention, the comfort of having already arrived — he'd have found endless reasons to justify breaking his commitment. Instead, at some point, he refocused on the larger goal: not the medal, not the applause, but the race itself, the discipline, the reason he started running in the first place. That refocused meaning is what drove the action that made him a champion.

    This is the same discipline I ask professionals to apply the moment they land their first big win at work. The instinct after success is to coast — to assume the hard part is over. It isn't. The hard part has just changed shape. Set the next clear milestone immediately. Don't let the applause become the finish line.

    Carol Dweck's growth-mindset research makes a related point worth borrowing here — that people who treat success as evidence of fixed talent tend to stall, while those who treat it as one data point in an ongoing process keep growing. Milkha Singh's recommitment is that growth mindset in action: success wasn't proof he'd arrived, it was proof the training worked — so keep training.

    Applying This at Work

    Every rising professional hits a Milkha moment — the first appreciation email, the first big client saved, the first promotion. Here's how to protect your commitment right when it's most at risk:

    Want to build this discipline across your team, not just in yourself? Explore how we structure this inside our Signature Corporate Training Programs, or browse the full library of corporate training topics we run for organisations across India. And if you'd like to go deeper on how Commitment fits with every other EQ, RQ and PQ trait, the Winning Kite Leadership Framework page maps the whole picture.

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    Avinash Chate

    TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc.

    Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What does the Milkha Singh example teach about commitment?

    It teaches that commitment is tested twice — once by struggle, and again, more dangerously, by success. Milkha Singh, the real-life Flying Sikh dramatised in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, got pulled into parties and temptations right after his talent began earning him attention. He had to consciously refocus and recommit before he became a champion.

    Why is success a bigger threat to commitment than failure?

    Because failure keeps you alert and hungry, while success relaxes your guard. You are not distracted by things you dislike — you are distracted by things you love, and early success brings exactly those pleasurable distractions: praise, parties, new company, a sense that you have 'arrived'.

    Where does Commitment sit on the Winning Kite framework?

    Commitment is Trait #9 on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite Leadership Framework. EQ traits like Commitment work with RQ (relationships) and PQ (productivity) to lift the kite toward Success — the top of the kite. Strength on one side without balance on the others keeps the kite grounded.

    How can a professional stay committed after an early win at work?

    Reconnect with the larger mission instead of the applause, set the next clear milestone immediately, practice discipline even when nobody is watching, and consciously choose what you give your attention to — because what you focus on decides the meaning you give events, and that meaning drives your next action.

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