Mr. Engineer, I’m talking to you!

Cautionary Note: The views expressed in this post are my own and relate to the life in engineering colleges in small towns. Resemblance to any person living or dead is purely accidental.

The idea of this blog post struck me when I was reminiscing my college days. I felt it would be encouraging if I write how life in college is, based on my experiences.

I come from a small town, located roughly one hours drive away from the city of Nizams. There are a number of colleges from where I come and the passage of rite for every school passing student is to join one of these engineering colleges. Inclination or the passion for the subject has the least to do it with it. It is the de facto norm in the community. The result is the feeling of disappointment when the initial feeling of euphoria on joining the college passes. Here is the kicker, few of those students keep cribbing all through the four years while others get up to do something to make a difference.

I’m from a computer science background and my passion all follow accordingly. My decision of taking up engineering was with the herd. Being unsure of my passions and interests meant that I went with the flow of the decisions taken by other students around me.

Life in college

After a lot of struggle one gets into an engineering college. The freedom after years of shackles of the school life makes one appreciate life even more. The first year went by figuring out things, adjusting to the new learning environment. But as time passed I figured college wasn’t merely a period to prepare for my future job but a period to make mistakes and experiment.

You can’t dislike something unless you have tried it out for yourself. And this is what I did, tried out and dabbled in various things not to do what I liked. Rather to figure out the things I liked less so that I could make better decisions. Coming to the academia, one takes an average of seven subjects a semester. Things changed and I fell in love with the programming; the organizational beauty in the chaos of the code.

I read a thread on Quora, on advice for a 20 something guy from people who have already gone through this stage. The top answers which seem so obvious in hindsight turned out to be to travel and read as much as possible and be grateful for what you have. Ever since I have been living with the advice as my guiding mantra. Question every moment of life and struggle hard to make it better but once in a while take a moment to enjoy life just as it comes about.

Life Post College

Unlike my batch mates, the charm of working in a large organization never appealed to me. The idea of working only to jump one step at a time in the corporate ladder turned me down. I loved to tinker and mess around to build stuff only to see to come it alive in front of me. The obvious step? Joining a startup in the capital city of New Delhi.

Was it worth really worth travelling 1,910 km to be exact to work in a startup? The pros really outweigh the cons for me. A learning environment where “Ship Fast” policy prevails and failing early and often over just playing it safe.

Bottom line: Always write genuine resumes. Just kidding!

Always do what you are most passionate about even if others don’t see it. This might not be the most obvious thing in the world, but when you would look back you might just be able to connect the dots. For me it was the herd mentality of joining an engineering college which lead me to discovering my real passion of hacking around stuff.

One of my favourite lines which just sums up the essence of what I feel ”What you wanted to be back then doesn’t coherently exist with what you want to do now. So why regret?”

Pixelonomics

List from the last year

Keeping in line with my new years write for pixelonomics, here I am writing this one to say hello to 2013. 2012, I’m sure has been your year of ticks and crosses. I hope you have more ticks than crosses and for every cross you have a lesson to take forward with you.

Lets run through 2012 in a jiffy then. Apple lost its founder amongst many others who died during the year, Indian cricket team has hit its rock bottom in this year or so we hope in the sense that it wont get any lower, New movies showed up like they do every year, Formula one circus was back in India and also went to the US of A, the winner of the F1 title was the same as 2011, multiple products launched many more saw their ‘end-of-life’ and so on and so forth. But what really changed for you?

How about we do a little highlights show of your 2012. 12 incidents that marked this year for you. Can you think of them clearly in your head? Think of all that happened to YOU. No, Steve jobs’ death doesn’t make it to this list unless he was your friend on first name basis! This has to be personal stuff. Try avoiding things you bought. Definitely not the stuff that has depreciated by 20% already even if it was a phone of your dreams and beyond! If you bought a house or made a big investment I’d like to see that on the list.

Now do we have a list? Or has it been hard to come up with 12 things. If it is, I must say I feel bad for you! Then again, I couldn’t care less because I don’t think you do either. If you do, read on. Anyways, of these 12 things, now strike out half the ones that you think are less important, on a scale of your choice. Off these six, look at how many will be hard to beat in 2013. If you got married in 2012, that might be hard to beat and hopefully you won’t have a second wedding in 2013 to prove me wrong! But a baby in 2013 may be a highlight that will overshadow the wedding. May be, may be not. You decide.

Now take a few steps back and look at this list. Does it get you excited? Does it bring a smile on your face? Ask yourself these questions.

Does this deserve to be the only list of highlights of an entire year of my life?

Am I living a life that I’d like to see in rewind?

If you answered yes, you will surely find 2013 more interesting. Why? I need not explain. If you answered in Negative, then 2013 is your chance to change that. If you wish to have fun with this, make this a game for a party in January. Pick on top 12 mistakes, top 12 things you bought and anything else you can think of. It will be a lot of fun and care enough to look at this a little bit closely and you will see a much nicer 2013! And I wish you the same, if you made that list or not.

Happy 2013! 

Pixelonomics

What's in your glass?

Is the glass half full or half empty?

There is no black-and-white situation. It’s all part of life. Highs, lows, middles.

Van Morrison

We have heard this oh-so-often! If a certain situation is in favor or against..? Or how do we react to a certain something, positively or not? Does it really matter?

Its time to look at what the glass is filled with though. What’s in your glass? How much of it really is only the next step.

The exercise

A simple exercise you have to imagine for yourself: Pick a glass of water and throw in pinch-ful of dirt in it day after day. Also add few drops of clean water everyday along with the dirt. What do you suppose will be in the glass in ten days from then?

Go ahead. Imagine. My guess is you will have a glass full of muck! What do u think? Now suppose what I guessed was right, how does it matter, you may ask? Good question buddy! Now bounce back into your imagination, take this glass of muck and hold it under a tap of fresh clean water. Hold it there for good 15-20 minutes. What do you get? Start to notice the mud gets flushed out slowly as the fresh water starts to occupy space in the glass. In 20 minutes you’ll have a glass free of any muck, just clean good water. Nice, clear and transparent!

Why did we do all of this?

Lets take this a step further now. Assume this glass as your mind. All the dirt is the bad stuff you encounter everyday and the drops of clean water are the good things you absorb on a day to day basis. The “bad” things are negative remarks, bad news you hear/read, fights and arguments that you have, negative thoughts, worries and so on. The good things are words of encouragement you hear, new skills you learn, happy times you spend etc. life is full of these and they come simultaneously. Eventually we land up with muck in our head and that results in us not performing to our capability. The glass of life that should have been filled with clean and fresh drinking water becomes a muddy mess instead.

The holding under the tap water really is an exercise of reading an educative book, listening to an inspiring speech or doing anything that creates positive energy in you! Such activities fill your mind up with positive thoughts, wash away the dirt that is slowing you down.  Alcohol is known to be a popular flushing agent too but sadly it acts more like a screen saver than a disk clean up software really!

An excellent way to do this is also to attend trainings and seminars that expose oneself to newer aspects of life.

Here’s another way I once chose to describe this idea while talking to a bunch of university kids…

I got upset real bad … started some 5 new things to keep my mind off it….kept at them in full steam, dint spare a minute for thoughts to emerge…. some 100 days later …2 off the 5 new things I had started had faded away from my schedule ……… n yet, I was a lot less upset and I had developed 3 new skills!

Remember, it takes longer to clean up than it takes to dirty something. Plan accordingly and execute regularly.

I wish you a clean mind and lots of energy!

Oh by the way, is the glass…. nevermind! Should you have any reactions, suggestions or questions, I’d love to communicate via the comments section below.

Pixelonomics

The attitude for succeeding at anything new

Through this post, I will attempt to describe an essential state of mind which is necessary for the success of anything ‘NEW’. This mindset is most relevant, as these four components are critical to the success of something ‘NEW’ – naivety of mind to believe in something that might not seem “reasonable” or “possible”, consistency to stick with what you started (you will need this in your pursuit of success in almost anything), ‘eagerness to learn’ to be able to continuously adapt your idea till you find the right model,  and most importantly, the philosophy which governs your life or in other words – your core values.

Naivety

This is crucial as if someone told you the amount of obstacles you would face in your journey, you probably won’t start. So you ‘jump in’ thinking that everything will go well and every obstacle seems like the last one, after which, everything will just scale up to make you a billionaire.

• Don’t over-think; Just start!
• Believe in the impossible.
• Balance your openness to learn with the naivety which enables you to envision what others can’t (Already much written about evolution of ideas, so I am only focusing on the attitude).
• Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!

Consistency

Mainly for people who are yet to run something successful, as people who have run a successful business clearly understand its importance.

Channelize your excitement – What do you do in case you are pursuing something that is not yet successful, and another idea has started to  excite you? Firstly, factor out sunk costs. Sunk costs are not why you should pursue something. Often one gives something up because of the excitement of something new. This is where you have to keep your foot down and learn to say no and continue doing what you initially set out to do (assuming you are smart enough not to give up the opportunity of building the next Facebook).

Eagerness to Learn

It is extremely important to have a balance of openness to iterative learning and being naive. Don’t be too emotionally attached to your idea as that might take away crucial opportunities for you to find the right model. Your naivety helps in taking the first step towards changing the world but your adaptability will teach you how to change the world.

Philosophy of your life

This is what will keep you going in your toughest hour and be the answer to your day to day confusions, so that you can focus on what you are building. Yes, it is a that important!

• Philosophy – It doesn’t have to be something so complex that even you can’t comprehend clearly. It can be as simple as having a strong belief in the God. So keep looking and start defining yourself. Again, your philosophy can also keep evolving as you learn, but the key is to not postpone this learning.

Final Words

This article is mainly a reflection of my experiences as a first time entrepreneur. What according to you, defines the attitude for succeeding?

Do you have some personal stories/experiences to share?

Pixelonomics

How do your measure yours?

I gave it my 100%

It amazes me to have people say this all the time. I always wonder—how can we measure effort, be it 50% or 100%? Aren’t we evolving as individuals and isn’t our capability to do something being enhanced with time? The extent of our capability is just a state of mind—it’s a thought, a perception of ourselves, what we are doing and what we can do.

Let us completely ignore the idea of “percentage of effort”. Let us, instead, focus on getting something done or in more specific words “giving what it takes to get it done”. In retrospect, you can measure by your own means whether the effort you put in was your 10% or 200%. It is just a mere statistic that you can use to further develop and enhance your skills. But it is just that, a statistic—nothing more, nothing less. It cannot be the factor that decides beforehand whether the task can be accomplished by you or not.

Let me illustrate this with an example

A friend of mine did not know how to swim, so crossing 20ft of water that was 7ft deep was way beyond his 100% (He is less than 6ft in height, just in case you were wondering). At some point in time, he realized he will need to accomplish the above task. There were two options: one, claim that he cannot swim and get out of the situation and two, learn how to swim. It took him exactly five days—one hour a day—along with a good coach, and the job was done. It was a list of some very simple tasks that helped him achieve this goal. None of them, as individual steps, seemed to take a lot out of him. After about three months of practice, he now swims the length of an entire Olympic-length pool in at least two different strokes without breaking a sweat. Observe here how his benchmark has risen with concentrated effort. What was possibly 500% beyond his capacity now seems like something he achieves with 10% effort, again the measure being a figure of imagination that we have all learnt to calculate without being taught by anyone at all!

It’s another thing, however, when we say: I don’t care about it enough to be putting in all that much effort. Then it becomes a matter of choice and the level of priority you attach to it. We here are considering the things we want to do in life and are working towards accomplishing them.

There is a good old saying that goes “If there’s will, there’s a way”. It does not speak of dimensions of the road or a map or whatever else. Does it? It does not say whether the task will be easy or difficult. Even “easy” or “difficult” is only the ability or lack of it to do something at a given point in time. At the age of one, you found it difficult to walk. You don’t at 25! Why 25, even at two u did not find it difficult anymore.

Final Words

The bottom line is your 100% is simply where you put an end to the limits of your ability to do something. That’s where you build a wall and say that doing anything beyond this is out of my reach. We don’t need that kind of a wall, do we? How does it matter if in your head it took 10% effort or 100% to do something? The point is the job got done. You got it done. If a certain task is not doable today, it is simply because you know too little about it or haven’t learnt to do it yet, or in some cases, do not have the resources to do it. It’s only a matter of time before that can be taken care of. In his book “Talent is Never Enough”, John C. Maxwell has listed some excellent steps to help you get to where you want to be and achieve things that extend beyond your talent.

In the end, like they say, “A man’s got to do, what a man’s got to do”! So do your bit by doing all that it takes. Let the numbers remain in the background and let action take centre stage. When the action looks good, the numbers will surely not hold back in shining bright.

Pixelonomics

I am what I am

Life is about what we are

Isn’t it? Unlike most other living creatures we are the only species called human “beings”. I personally have never heard of a cat being or a dog being. Give or take, my logic says it is this way simply because we as humans have the choice to “be” the way we choose, hence we are aptly called human “beings”.  The power lies in our hands to make what we do of our lives.

Another interesting fact, and this has been observed by experts, is that human beings do better when they are competing against someone rather than performing the same task by themselves. Obviously then, competition brings out the better in us, in comparison to an ordinary non-competitive situation.

Keeping the above points in mind, I present to you an ideology that says the best and the hardest competition lies between what you are today vs. what you are capable of having been this very day. Ask yourself: What am I capable of having been today, given the fact nothing else around me has changed?

I am capable of a lot more

In my research on this topic, I discovered every single person around me to have fallen way short of their own expectations of themselves. Invariably everyone thinks of themselves as being capable of a lot more, yet they are not where they expected to be. This is not about what one desires to be, but  just about how different or better off you are capable of being at this moment. Many times we look back at what we have done in retrospect and say to ourselves, “I really could have managed that, shouldn’t have let go”. This is definitely true of people who missed out on an opportunity and later realize that they did. Now the idea here is to think not in retrospect but bring this way of thinking in at a time when we are making a decision. We (me and a few friends) gave it a shot. The idea was very simple: Every time you do something, compare it to your capability and ask yourself, “Is this the best I could have done?” Set the situation aside — assuming it were to be the same — and focus on yourself and your performance.  For instance, if a certain condition was not favourable to your accomplishment or task, did you do the best you could have done to deal with it?

Once you have asked yourself the above question and seen the difference, do it when you are planning your next move. Let your capability of getting something done define the quality of the result. Lay out a challenge for yourself and watch how it transforms the process. I have personally found it very enjoyable to do so. How well would you do something if I were to judge you completely based on that?

Every person I’ve spoken to about their unachieved dreams has boiled it down to the idea that they were/are capable and yet for some reason they never looked at it that way. They just let a lot of situations overpower their belief in their own capabilities; hence they faced defeat when they were capable of winning. Even for something done well, it is wise to ask: Is this the best I could have done? Am I not capable of doing better?

Why I find this thought process so beautiful is simply because the situation around us is the same in both instances. The only variable is the self that we are and what we are capable of being. In that sense, the individual involved is the only variable. The skills are the same, and the starting point is the same. The decisions made, the lessons learnt from the given situation, and the improvisations made are some of the things that the individual could have done differently.

The Test

I wish to leave this short and hear your side on it too. All I ask of you is that you do this little test on yourself. Ask yourself “What am I capable of having been today?” Note it down, then make a note of “what I am today”. Let the difference speak for itself. I wish you well in this competition. The result will be out there for the world to see. And if no one else, you will surely gain from it.

All the best!

Pixelonomics

I don't smoke because I choose not to

Let me start by stating that I’ve nothing against anyone who smokes and I am not in favor of judging anyone for the same. And before you react, let me shamelessly announce that it’s my birthday today, have mercy!

You may ignore this

“If I choose not to choose something I should have chosen and the choice I made in the end was not good enough versus what I had chosen otherwise, I would not love the choice I made!” Actually, you had the choice of going ahead without adding this strange statement but you chose not to. And I had the choice of not adding it but I chose to!

Choice vs. Decision

By the way, when you went ahead and took the very first drag (smoke) of your life, if you already have, did you choose or decide, to do that? Of course, they are synonyms. But there has to be something that differentiates them, correct? Decide has a Latin suffix ‘cide’, which means to kill or cut. This is because we must kill or cut all given options but one to decide upon it. Whereas choice is based on free will, not on reasons. One of the recent posts I read about decisions is written by Abhijeet Makhijani: We live the decisions we make.

Research about success and choices we make

What is a good choice?

Research shows that our ability to make the right choice is directly proportional to success. Of course not, I am kidding! Don’t tell me you took that seriously, did you? Success can never be directly proportional to the right choices we make. That is because, I believe, there is nothing like a right or wrong choice. As mentioned before, choices are based on free will. A choice is good or bad, based on how we take it forward and what we make out of it.

Can you  name two of your good and close friends? For the sake of keeping it fair, make sure that they both are equally close to you. If tomorrow, for any given reason, either of these, asks you to choose one of them, to be friends with, who would you choose? In most situations, it cannot be a decision. It has to be a choice! And more often than not, life asks us to make strange and random choices.

The Questions

I have often wondered, for every set of choices we got and finally chose one, what would happen if we had chosen the other one? Will our life be similar to what it is? Will we be richer, happier, more content, perhaps?

Given the fact that this one calls itself a teaser, I will drop it here. By the way, please choose in favour of commenting and please share your part. It shall help me with the next one in the series. Happy ‘making choices’ to you!

P.S. Smoking is not good for your health and your near ones, who invariably become passive smokers. Though it’s a matter of choice, it is our duty to take care of them and ours, as well. Hence I urge you to choose wisely. Cheers!

Pixelonomics

The virtual life of a real person: Twitter

The Conversation

On twitter, are we being someone we’re not.. or who we really are?.. #imo

@PersonA: its the difference between mouth n mind, on twitter, we speak with our mind via hands. Seriously speaking– the internet, especially social networking, is a place of no faces just voices (thoughts)- real or not.

@PersonB @PersonC: there’s a barrier, which allows you to be a bit more bold in saying what u want online.. which u might not in person.

@PersonA: dat barrier is instant reactions in person n benefit of doubt, online. Evry wrng move, gets benefit of doubt, online @PersonC

@PersonB: hmm idk, i personally feel less inhibited to say some things on twitter. some of which i wld hesitate 2 say in person @PersonC

@PersonA: online, if u say smthing bad n get a bad reaction, u have d room to say u meant smthing else n get d benefit of doubt @PersonC

@PersonB: does that mean we’re more cautious/held back in real life interactions than online? online, you’re more free/open?

The Confusion

Are you the person we know online or are you really who you are in person? Confused? Good, you should be! – because this is a topic that I find fascinating as much as I find baffling! If you’re frequently on social networking sites, like Twitter or Facebook, then you are leading an online life in addition to an offline life. You’re in two worlds – the real and the virtual. Now tell me this, how much of your online life overlaps with your real life? Are you exactly the person you are online as you are offline? I’d argue that you’re not and that, to some extent, it’s almost like you’re leading dual lives.

The Observation

I’ve noticed that on Twitter that the quiet are outspoken and the outspoken are… well, annoying. The online world presents as open microphone – speak your mind, share your thoughts, anonymously or not – without the fear of that instant face-to-face reaction from your audience. Your computer screen is a barrier. That barrier is a safety blanket. You’re less hesitant to say things online that you normally wouldn’t in person. In reality or in person you may be more cautious; you might hold back or maybe think twice before saying something. Online, you just tweet it out… after all, there is the option to delete afterwards.

I’m going to go as far as to say that we all do this – we all create an alter ego for ourselves online – to some degree, because somehow we are each lacking something in our lives. It could be anything. But it’s something we seek for fulfilment. Acceptance perhaps. That feeling of fitting in. Belonging – we all desire that. After all, it’s human nature. Perhaps subconsciously, it is that what pulls us into the online world. I’m not saying that you’re seeking acceptance online because you are ostracised from society.

Why is life so complicated?

What I am saying is that, simply, it’s an innate desire to want to find your niche. You can try what you wouldn’t in ‘real life’ – You can wildly tweet your mind; show off your intelligence in hope of gaining approval or that oh-so-wonderful re-tweet. Admit that you love getting your tweets re-tweeted! You can start a debate or discussion on whatever you want with likeminded individuals that you may not have access to in real life. You can even tweet simple, mundane things that most of us tend to agree with, like “Why is life so complicated?” or “Justin Bieber is hot”. OK, you won’t find me agreeing to the latter one, but I’m pretty sure you’ll find others on Twitter who do.

Maybe it’s companionship. Sure, you have your ‘real life’ friends, but maybe there is a small feeling of loneliness that you seek to fulfill by building an online identity and in doing so, creating a personalised online world for yourself. With Twitter, at least in my opinion and once you have established a following, you don’t feel all that alone. Speak – tweet – your heart out, someone is bound to listen. You will always have an ear (or two… or more) online who will listen to you rant, sympathise, offer a shoulder or some wisdom. We are social creatures; no one wants to be alone. It’s a good feeling when you always have someone around to listen to you. You tend to do all that you can to make sure your online persona is liked. That could mean constantly being friendly and polite to others online, when in reality we aren’t always happy, kind, jolly folks 24-7. Do you really smile to ‘strangers’ as much as you send smileys on Twitter?

The Questions

So what does this all mean? What are we all seeking online? Are we all being someone we’re not, or alternatively, someone who we really are online?  When are you most in your element? Online or off? Or Both?

Pixelonomics

We live the decisions we make

Ever so often, we hear people trying to make decisions and revising them time and again. Decision making is generally preceded by confusion, anxiety and also, in some cases, utter chaos. Some decisions are made, especially in the Indian scenario, the one I am most familiar with, with the entire family at large. Be it something as small as which tutorial the kid is going to, which car to buy, what colour to paint the walls, or even what to cook tonight!

Then again, in this whole gamut of things the accountability of a decision lies with one person. This is more so when the decisions are not about the trivialities of life, like which clothes to wear or where to go for dinner. I am, here, referring to decisions relating to careers, education, business and other such matters—decisions that impact a lot of our lives and do so in the long term.

What is a decision?

By definition it means: “to make a judgment or determine a preference; come to a conclusion”. This essentially means that one has X number of options and is going to choose from that. Sometimes the number X is large, sometimes it is just one. The former is where the confusion generally tends to linger. So how does one decide? How does one know if the decision is right? The “what ifs…” can be unnerving and drive one up the wall.

In my view, a decision is based on the knowledge one has. And thus emerges the term “make a well-informed decision”. Let us take an example here of a person travelling from place A, say Bangalore, to place B, say New Delhi. Now the options one has would be to take a flight, take the train, drive down, and maybe even take a bus. In a normal scenario, one would also consider factors such as the budget and amount of time available for the trip, the convenience of travel, etc. The knowledge I mentioned would be basic information such as how long the flight will take, how much it will cost and how long it will take to reach the destination. All of this, once known, helps one decide what the best option is for him/her. Then of course, there are other details such as which airline one would fly, or whether one would fly first class or economy. Again, this would be based on the comfort level one seeks and how much he/she is willing to spend on it.  Ditto for train or bus or a car.

Travel from place A to place B

Now consider what would happen if the person did not know the details of travel. He/she may just choose to fly New Delhi-Bangalore via New York, which happens to be a path routed halfway around the world, to get to a place barely 3 hours away. Technically, it is possible. It’d just cost 10X the amount of money and probably 20X the time! I know this may sound ridiculous to you if you know where Bangalore and New Delhi are located (In case you don’t know, they are in the south and north of India, respectively, about 1500km apart). Consider travelling from Melbourne to Sydney via London, if you are more familiar with those cities. I mention this for a reason, and you’ll know why as you continue reading the article.

How many people do we know who’d just go to the airport, have a look at the flights available, choose the best decision possible and take off? Not too many, is my guess. And if you do know of someone, there is a good chance that person has just way too much money and time to spare. Considering I don’t belong to that league, not yet at least, I shall not comment on that. Most individuals, when travelling, would first choose their destination, study the options available for getting there, for boarding and lodging, entertainment, as well as the weather at the time of the visit. Isn’t that true?

The big Q of life

Yet somehow I don’t see the same meticulous approach being applied to the way a lot of people plan out their careers, for instance. Most kids I speak to today, be it in higher secondary school or in college will answer, “What do you want to do in life?” with a “I want to do an MBA!”. (Of course not just MBA— I also get engineering or life sciences or something even fancier for an answer; I’m just taking on the wannabe-MBA clan for now—no offense guys, you are a smart bunch!) The look on their face is generally that of a person expecting “oh wow!” for an answer.

What do you want to do in your life?

To my surprise, they also get that reaction more often than not. I decided to be a little more inquisitive and asked “But why do you want to do an MBA?” “To get a good job” is a ready answer shot right back at me! “Ok,” I say to them and myself, and probe a little more, “What kind of a job do you want?” They will then rattle away names of some 5 MNCs, some fancy designations. Then my next question, and I love this one, is “But why would you want to do that?” Out comes a whole list of reasons, sometimes not as confidently as I got the earlier replies, including but not limited to—I love the field, I want to express my creativity, I want to excel in life, it pays really well, I think I’m good at it, it sounds challenging—every answer is very generic. Upon dwelling on the topic further, most people realize they are not even sure what they eventually want to be in life and why they’d want or not want to be a certain way.

Given this scenario, it is barely surprising that decision making is difficult. Decisions are left for later. “We’ll see what happens then” is a brave attitude to carry, though not necessarily the smartest one. Like in the case of a traveler, if he missed his flight to Bangalore, he’d still have a destination and plenty of other options to choose from in terms of getting there. Imagine someone who had a ticket to Bangalore, missed his flight and is now wondering where to go. Now you may wonder what this has to do with decision making, but I believe it is entirely related to the topic. When you have a set goal, it is far simpler to make decisions. Only with a goal do facts and figures make any sense. Every decision one makes is then based on “Will this take me closer to where I want to get, or otherwise?” It becomes easier to say yes and to say no.

“Is it the right decision or not?”

My own little experience says only time will tell how good or bad a decision is. And how that time goes by is in one’s own hands! If one chose to go into business as an entrepreneur and did really well, it was a good decision. If he came out a loser, maybe the decision wasn’t that great. Maybe the person didn’t make the right decisions as an entrepreneur. Whichever way one looks at it, it is the decision that one made. If I decided to work with a certain client and he caused my company to go bankrupt, it still remains my decision that I chose to work with the guy and let him ruin me. So I am responsible for what happened to me on the onus of my own decision.

A goal, of course, can be anything at all. It may be “I want to eat a burger today”, for all you care! But since you know it’s got to be a burger, you can look up the yellow pages, take references of restaurants from friends, read reviews on the internet, reach your nearest outlet and eventually get your burger. Ditto, for buying something, meeting someone, doing anything at all! If you know exactly what you want to use/do it for, you’d be able to decide better. If you want to buy a car to show it off, get a nice bling machine. Who cares if it barely has any go or guzzles gas—the point is it should look good because it’s meant for you to show off. If you want a car to get you from point A to point B and do so in some basic style, then you’d probably choose a different car from the one I mentioned earlier. You can take up as many instances as you like, and be it a right or a wrong, it will boil down to a few decisions. The point is whether one has the courage to accept it that way. A decision is never just one decision. Its implementation brings about many more situations that call for decision making, like a heading and a subheading.

It sounds like a lot of work, making oh-so-many decisions, every step of the way, but I’ve learnt otherwise. One makes many decisions almost without thinking. And it is, of course, nice that way. Then again, it is worth a relook at times. I’m not always a firm believer of if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it. I like doing my own little upgrades from time to time. Interestingly, I found my answer to “Why do we need to study history in school” in this theory. The idea is for us to know our past and make informed decisions. The manner in which we Indians are taught history, or anything else for that matter, is again debatable but that’s not important here.

Conclusion

Life, as we have it, has options for us every step of the way. We are the ones who choose, who decide and live those decisions. In a nutshell, get the facts right, understand the options, weigh them against the resources available/affordable and evaluate them with respect to the goal. Once you do all of these, you’ll find out it actually is as simple as it sounds! The more important matter then becomes to implement that decision well and make the most of it!

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