He was never serious about studies. Dropped out of college. Tried learning some weird skills like calligraphy. If at all we find someone with the above set of features do we really bother to encourage him?
But when we read or listen to the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs we feel inspired and impressed.
I read a stack of books with such stories which never fail to provide the constant inspiration at times of trouble.
But a jolt of realization struck me today morning when I received a phone call from an unknown number.
I had a colleague when I was working in Dr Reddy's Labs as Area Business Manager in Kurnool. He used to work hard and a very intelligent guy.
I had always one motto in life. Work hard, prove yourself, get promoted. These are the three principles through which I evaluated people always.
This colleague of mine worked perfect. But he looked like lacking something. He was not excited about the career path that the company offers. In sales when someone finishes his targets and doesn't get you any trouble it is more than enough for the boss. But here it is not the question of targets but the excitement that was missing.
One fine morning he gave us shock. He came with a resignation letter. Those were the days where resignations were quite rare. Though he was not in my team, I had good relationship with him.
More than the resignation, the reason that he gave for that looked absurd for me. He was telling very confidently that he was going to learn something related to computer software. He wanted to change his career.
For me it looked foolish. A person with no prior experience in computer software, who already spent good number of years in sales industry, thinking of getting into computer field looked very illogical.
I still remember our stand outside tea shop meeting, where I offered him my gyan about why he should continue to work in his current sales role.
The more I offered my logic the more adamant he became.
I heard about him for the next one year. People used to share about he buying a computer, practicing some software course at home. All this looked much more purposeless for me. I felt strongly that, since he was not able to work hard in his current role, he found some excuse to spend the time.
Slowly the information about him stopped reaching me when I moved out of Dr Reddy's and shifted family to a different place.
I was unpacking my laptop today morning getting ready for the day's work at office. The mobile rang and it displayed an international call coming in.
It took some time for me to recognize the caller. It is the same colleague whom I thought was wasting his time with computers.
He lives in US now. He went through all the struggle before he reached there. Worked in Bombay for a small salary, worked in South Africa, then finally landed in US.
I felt very happy for being wrong.
But this episode opened a new window for me to think.
To decide whether you are successful or not, is it Working hard, being in the same career, looking for great appraisals, looking for career advancement alone are parameters ?
If someone tries to pursue his or her dreams should we label him/her as a person trying to avoid the work ?
Not that everybody writes a book about themselves and creates a fanclub like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
There might be several untold stories of success like the one that I narrated here.
Let us not have just back ward thinking where our heart can appreciate a person who became a legend.
Rather let us encourage a person going to become legend too.
But when we read or listen to the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs we feel inspired and impressed.
I read a stack of books with such stories which never fail to provide the constant inspiration at times of trouble.
But a jolt of realization struck me today morning when I received a phone call from an unknown number.
I had a colleague when I was working in Dr Reddy's Labs as Area Business Manager in Kurnool. He used to work hard and a very intelligent guy.
I had always one motto in life. Work hard, prove yourself, get promoted. These are the three principles through which I evaluated people always.
This colleague of mine worked perfect. But he looked like lacking something. He was not excited about the career path that the company offers. In sales when someone finishes his targets and doesn't get you any trouble it is more than enough for the boss. But here it is not the question of targets but the excitement that was missing.
One fine morning he gave us shock. He came with a resignation letter. Those were the days where resignations were quite rare. Though he was not in my team, I had good relationship with him.
More than the resignation, the reason that he gave for that looked absurd for me. He was telling very confidently that he was going to learn something related to computer software. He wanted to change his career.
For me it looked foolish. A person with no prior experience in computer software, who already spent good number of years in sales industry, thinking of getting into computer field looked very illogical.
I still remember our stand outside tea shop meeting, where I offered him my gyan about why he should continue to work in his current sales role.
The more I offered my logic the more adamant he became.
I heard about him for the next one year. People used to share about he buying a computer, practicing some software course at home. All this looked much more purposeless for me. I felt strongly that, since he was not able to work hard in his current role, he found some excuse to spend the time.
Slowly the information about him stopped reaching me when I moved out of Dr Reddy's and shifted family to a different place.
I was unpacking my laptop today morning getting ready for the day's work at office. The mobile rang and it displayed an international call coming in.
It took some time for me to recognize the caller. It is the same colleague whom I thought was wasting his time with computers.
He lives in US now. He went through all the struggle before he reached there. Worked in Bombay for a small salary, worked in South Africa, then finally landed in US.
I felt very happy for being wrong.
But this episode opened a new window for me to think.
To decide whether you are successful or not, is it Working hard, being in the same career, looking for great appraisals, looking for career advancement alone are parameters ?
If someone tries to pursue his or her dreams should we label him/her as a person trying to avoid the work ?
Not that everybody writes a book about themselves and creates a fanclub like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
There might be several untold stories of success like the one that I narrated here.
Let us not have just back ward thinking where our heart can appreciate a person who became a legend.
Rather let us encourage a person going to become legend too.
No comments:
Post a Comment