The Web of Life
Life is moving so fast there is no time to reflect and chart the future course of our actions. You have to do everything together these days and hope that every piece falls in the right place. I have learnt that whether we like it or not, luck plays a big role in life. Yes, like everything else, this also is unfair. But that’s the way it is.
Also, the value of 22 years of education has to an extent increased and decreased in my eyes. Certainly, unlike what was promised for one-third of my life, education is not everything. It alone can’t help you, as they say ‘make it large’ in life. Education can help you achieve the basics. It can also help you define your starting point in life. However, no matter what you do, education in itself has very little scope of being a differentiator (unless you are a NASA based rocket scientist or something). Differentiators will always be things over and above education. It can be things like people skills, attitude towards clients, ability to sweet talk your boss and many other things. This is where the game changes. At the end of the day, the basics in most of the jobs are fairly simple. It is ‘what else you do’ that differentiates you from others and these are things that are not taught in schools. This game of networking, sweet talking and back stabbing is very important in life. Afterall, a mix of all this, combined with basic work we do, is the only differentiator that we possibly can create in our careers. The reason why many people who we feel are not as good as us are promoted is perhaps the same. Although their bottom lines might be lower than ours, when it comes to the mix, their figures are certainly better than ours.
Dont get me wrong. I am not saying that education is not important. It is certainly important. It opens our eyes to the world around us. It also helps us write intelligent posts (unlike this one). I am just saying that it is not everything. What matters more in life are the experiences that we have had, the different people we have observed and spoken to, the places we have visited, the games we have played, the amount of pressure we can take and many other such variables which do not fit in our school equation. These are the things that will differentiate us from others and make us leaders. So, the question is are we doing enough to create lock-ins in our professional lives so that their decisions are in our favor most of the times? Are we?
Potpourri 