Crumbling under my own mind
Hi, This is my first post on this site so please excuse me for if I goofed up. I come from a very small middle class family and like most parents, mine too wanted to provide best education for me and sure they did. I went to a real good high school, finished my Masters from another good college and I worked with some of the best companies around here in India. Presently I am doing my research work at IIT Delhi. However in this long journey of 27 years I am yet struggling to pursue my
dream. That of working in my own company. I don’t know why I’ve started to think the way I’ve started thinking. My uncle says “I’ve gone nuts !”. Recently I had a chance to travel home and as soon as I told my mum about the ideas in my mind she was shocked. It was as if I had given her a 1000 Volts of electric shock. It seems everyone is trying to push us to get to a job and work like slaves for others till we are of no further use for them. The whole idea seems really weird to me. I mean I am well educated, but still, all that I am supposed to think about is this; Getting a good job, settling down, getting married, having kids and dying one day. There is absolute no mention of the problems we have around us. Now if everyone was to think on those terms then how can our glorious country have a better future? This is something which really baffles me. I personally don’t wish to be a social worker at core but still I wish I could contribute in someway to the society so that things can become a bit better for generations to come. Entrepreneurship in my thoughts is one way through which a person can think out-of-box about some problem surrounding us and try to provide a means to solve the problem in a better, efficient manner. And God knows if the idea will be so innovative and never before thought of. It would be a real cool thing in GenY terms
. I don’t think people have any idea about the problems we have before us, it maybe that we are too afraid to come out and deal with them. With good education this problem can be definitely overcome. Today education and that too quality education refers mostly to landing up in a renowned institution and finally settling down for a decent jobs, this approach has to be changed in my opinion. If all that we required was to have knowledge of a particular skill then I don’t think there is any difference between a carpenter who has learnt his/her skills from old generations and a person who’s studying in premiere colleges. It would be really wonderful if we can provide education to people so that they can start to think and make use of their powerful mind to tackle the problems around us and make this world a better place to live in.
Very recently got a chance to hear the speech of Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, which he gave during a graduation day ceremony at Stanford University, it’s one of the few most influential speeches I’ve ever heard.
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March 1st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Hi Mayank! This is a very good post. Straight from your heart. Don’t worry about goofing up coz we have a very hard working and over burdened editor from Nebraska working for us, with us. Now coming to your views on our current educational system; they are more or less the same views shared by some of the most successful entrepreneurs. Most entrepreneurs don’t go for a fancy MBA or attend classes sincerely. They are more concerned with practical things. They are completely in a world all of their own. Take Edison for example. He was self taught and so he was passionate about what he learned and ultimately generations of students from “premier” institutes ended up working for him.
I read somewhere; Education is like a license. It makes you go places faster.”
and also;”If you want to meet new girls, go to college. If you want education, go to the library.”
March 1st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[…] Three score and ten or more wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRecently I had a chance to travel home and as soon as I told my mum about the ideas in my mind she was so shocked as if I had given her a 1000 Volt of electric shock. … It seems everyone is trying to push us to get to a job and work there like slaves for others till we are no further useful to them. The whole idea seems too wierd to me…. […]
March 1st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Hello Mayank!
You have done a good job by highlighting the dilemma almost all of us face at some part of our lives. True in the pre-globalisation period, starting a business in this country was next to impossible for a person not belonging to an existing business family.Our parents and peers always looked up to a Government Job or acareer in an established business house as the obvious goal forevery one. But the times are changed and now, even youngsters consider a fixed incomejob only as one of the options.Take the case of the IIM(A) product who chucked a Rs.60lacs job offer to start a catering unit in Chennai, just as a tribute to his mother who had funded his studies by running an “Idli Dabba” . To day his unit employs 200 people and has a turnover of Rs.4 crores yielding a net of tax profit of Rs.80lacs.May be it is such success stories which should inspire people like us to take the risk. Best wishes.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
hi mayank,
you represented the disillusionment creeping up the psyches among most of the youth(i being one of them).it takes a lot of courage to breakaway from the system and do things our way or rather tread the path that is less travelled.
coming back to the steve jobs commencement speech that he delivered at the stanford university–the last line of the speech epitomises the kind of attitude one should possess towards life–”we have only one life.so don’t live someone else’s life.”–great words from a great man.let’s emulate it and see the results for ourselves.i am writing this at the risk of sounding cliched–fortune favours the brave.best wishes and waiting for more posts from you.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
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April 9th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
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May 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 am
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