Conan O Brian has given me reason to believe that it's perfectly okay to have no direction in Life! After watching the initial part of his Commencement speech at Dartmouth, I had reason enough to believe that it was not a special delivery. As one would expect, it had a fair share of humour, dark albeit brilliant at that. He was pretty much playing out the Tonight Show on the podium. But then it got interesting towards the end (See for yourself)
Conan's speech!.
When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to learn to ride the Bicycle my Dad had bought me. At that point of time, All i wanted to do was to ride it out on my own; To feel "cool" like the other kids on the block. Perhaps, my realm of finding something to be content about was restricted and bounded by what I could perceive to be real.
My dad would pretend to hold the back of the seat and run along as i cruised into the distance; I would always be led on to believe that i was not doing this on my own. This stayed on for a couple of nights, until one fine evening I turned back to look that my dad was watching from a fair distance. It seemed quite unbelievable to me for I always thought that I'd need to conjure something magical to learn how to balance a Bicycle. To be frank, I was mighty frightened I'd fall, the mental demons were playing their games and playing them well. It really was one of the most amazing moments of my childhood. I had successfully managed to learn to balance a Cycle, and was doing it on my own!!
To this day, I believe that once you're led on to something and you're doing quite beautifully, it is quite natural that you may be thrown outside your comfort zone, but you need to feel confident enough to realize you have already done all the hard work and you're almost near the finish line.
As i grew older and wiser, I knew that I wanted to become a "somebody" who would do "something" that eventually got me rich. We all live in a materialistic world where it's hard to live without getting influenced by money or equivalents of money. All Kids (to this day) would want to end up with a lot of greens! But back then, we wouldn't know what or how. There may be some three year olds who'd want to be Fire-fighters and save the world, but they don't know shit :D.
I think I was 12 when I my mom told me about the IIT's and the IIM's. She sure as hell painted me a nice picture and made it seem that it was the way to go to achieve my "dreams"; Ones drawn for me by my mom. I had no identity of my own. I used to play fairly decent Cricket in an Indoor badminton court, scored a 400 well before Lara and voila. I had set my mind on being a cricketer. Then there was a phase where my friend's dad took me to the golf course. I was fascinated by the lush greens, the Bunkers and the roughs, the follow through of the Golf stick. So much so, I stole a couple of Golf balls, learnt the rules of the game by constantly watching T.V, planted a Par-3 golf course on the front garden and religiously played every evening till tennis got the better of me. I always had a sense that I was cut out to be a Sportsman. The competitive nature of Sport always drew me to it. But I guess I couldn't find one to stick to, and that was probably my problem.
Then there was a brief time wherein I was fascinated with aeroplanes, Everything about them. The wide bodies, the Cruising speeds, the double decker 747s, the magnificent livery, and what not. I decided that flying planes was too risky :D. So why not just become an aeronautical engineer?
Through School and most of college, I was a genius with Numbers. I could play them and they could play me. But I never quite figured out What future numbers have for me. (Finance perhaps, but something tells me that isn't going to happen). Then I aced my Undergrad entrance test, And I was told that Electronics was the best option for me. Four years of that Crap gave me enough reasons to believe I am not a technical person.
It was at a traffic signal a few years ago that had a profound impact on my future, or let me say, my perceived future. I decided that I was meant to be a good Managerial person. That's all I had to work with.
I then took up a job with IBM, where I still had wrong notions about what kind of roles I may apply for at the organisation. Having watched Wimbledon all through the years, all I pretty much cared about was somehow representing IBM at the event. That was the pinnacle for me. Some things just don't happen!
The important thing is I have learnt to live with defeats. These different phases in life; Coupled with not so realistic dreams add on beautifully to 'define' you. To give you an identity. Something to work with. Now that's a start.
I have been fortunate enough to learn the e-procurement cycle of Unilever at my job. And now, I probably want to be a Supply chain consultant. I am heading to Marseille to learn a few new things about International Business. Maybe my dreams will take a turn for the worse. Only time will tell. But who knows: Maybe I will end up working in the logistics division at Airbus; This way I am closer to planes. I get to travel the world. Sign deals, make some money; and use that money to Watch Federer and Nadal in action, at another Wimbledon final.
Or maybe I will do something else. I'm not sure, and I don't care. I am ready to adapt. The process is in place. Nothing can go wrong.
