Do I need a change…?!!

I am what I am and I don’t want any change in me or around…!

I

NO.

I don’t want to read this.

Why I should…! I am a student of engineering, and will have a career to make this world better…

It’s simple for me.

I will check out the syllabus, attend the class if conducted or I feel like… and then pass the exams and will cover the entire syllabus in pre-exam holidays or exam breaks… oh.. its simple, easy and just like that… I am a smart guy…

Also, at times when I give some time for myself while my mobile battery is discharged and recharging. I think over my past and sometimes future also. My history went just like, who bothers… for future, I have not much clear idea… Mostly I will do what my seniors have been doing.. Of course, I am a good follower… I engage in so many activities around my college (except class apparently, in fact, it’s for nothing)..

I need to stop reading further.

If I go on reading, I may lose my track.. the way I am moving ahead with my engineering…I am doing good… with good grades in each exam… what else my parents need… against what my parents are paying, I am giving them much better grades in exams.. the good scores on mark sheet…

But, is it what I am to become? Merely, an engineering graduate, without a skill to apply…!

Engineering

What is it? Is it actually the way I am doing… Am I learning it correctly?

Let’s check out…

 

There are many thoughts around what engineers can and cannot… Where am I going to stand…? What will be my package once I complete my studies…? Will I go for further (or higher?) studies? But, will I get a good job with my expected reputation… Will I be at par to settle hopes of my parents… my friends (beloved of course)…

It seems I am a bit insecure at present.

Oh man…!

What are my goals…? What am I up to? How my life will go… In what direction… At what pace…

Increments… high salary… foreign trips… High-end vacations… movies… parties… dance… fun… luxury… It is all that I must have (or these are my needs?)… Am I feeling confused…

Why…

Why I am thinking this way, just in a page…! Somebody already said NO…

What…

What I am going to do… rather; What I will be able to do…

Where…

Where I will be reaching… Where I need to reach…

When…

When all my thoughts… My goals will be accomplished… My targets…

But yes, if my goals are accomplished, who are going to be benefitted by it, apart from me?

I am serious… I am thinking of someone else??

Who…

Who am I thinking apart from me… I see nobody… maybe, my family…

What sense does it make… how come somebody else can be there in my thoughts… after all, I am who I am… I will do for myself, whatever I will do…!

But, but I am a social animal, just as all human being are…

I got this one life… I will live it to the fullest… Wish to do everything… yes, everything that I enjoy…

But,

How much is it appropriate thinking for an engineer? What is the meaning of the life of an engineer?

As I know of the history of mankind, since the discovery of a wheel, maybe before that, since stone-age when men used to generate controlled fire by rubbing stones engineering is in existence…

Not only in existence but in practice.

I am surrounded by engineered tools…

Spoon in my cup (the cup itself too) to the vehicle I drive… the way I communicate…

Engineering is everywhere…

Scientific definitions are there but,

In simpler words, engineering is the ability to make something or to create…

To make it better, something which is already created… while doing so, I will need to develop an ability to analyze… what is there, what I can do to make it better… the important question here is, why I need to make it better… Do I have any purpose? I will utilize my skills, devote my valuable time to something only if it is going to be of use to someone…

Who???

Well…

The whole world is there… someone must have something which they are fed up of… or maybe they have become used to using with difficulty (of course humans can overcome certain negative thoughts after conquering continually)… Right… It is a very famous theory cited by Charles Darvin…  “One who is the strongest will survive”…

In today’s world, what it has to do with fitness… is it about physical fitness or something else in this era?

Leon C. Megginson quoted a wonderful thought recently…

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.

It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

A Change…!

Once again…!

I said “No Change”

Why I am so fascinated to this word “NO”…?

A man from the Netherlands, named Gijs van Wulfen[1] once in his write-ups mentioned.

He identified seven major reasons for using word “NO” and affirmatively advised to “Never accept a NO”.

Those seven reasons are:

  1. NO – We have always done it this way… (Humans are generally allergic to change the way they do things around. Search online for a term “most dangerous phrase” and you will find this reason on top…! Do some extra readings to understand in depths)
  2. NO – It is not possible… (But who cares for carrying out an analysis using principles of probability… or mathematics… How and why to make an instantaneous judgement on possibility? Is it worth an attempt, even once? Let’s check out first, and not talk about possibilities without any analysis.)
  3. NO – It is not logical… (Oh my dear, what is logic and what is lateral… the world is filled of mysteries and we care for logic that has been evolved by humans, which we still believe that whatever information we have and we use, still is incomplete… )
  4. NO – There is no budget… (I need to work on something… I need funds. I don’t have much to invest… What all I need to do is, just to ask systematically. If I am to do well, my motives are clear and selfless, and money will never become a hurdle… believe me.)
  5. NO – The management will not agree… (My faculty members, my parents, my relatives, my friends – all are some or the other way monitor and manage the way I do things. They will question me, resist me if I am doing something which nobody has attempted in past… Is it a correct set of thought…? I must first start applying. Let’s see, I will find a way out to make them convinced.)
  6. NO – That is too way risky… (But, do I have visualised the strengths and weaknesses or the opportunities and then talking about risks? Risk analysis and management has now a scientific and systematic ways to be handled. Researchers have found, all that I need is to study a bit, know more about it and then I shall be speaking of risks…)
  7. NO – My customers won’t like it… (Wow…! Customers… but who are they? Whom I am looking forward to satisfy… Have I made a classification and separated them in quantity? In general, if it is a mass, I must not consider all as my customers… They will be very specific, of course.)

In addition to above reasons, there are a few more to conquer with… as

  1. NO – I don’t want to do it… I don’t like it… (Is it the liking that we always chase around? A human value of showing respect and responsibility towards the society is always there at the top. Liking or not, many tasks are to be performed. Instead of getting into evaluation on liking, think of a degree of necessity… Just do what is needed the most!)
  2. NO – I will not be able to do it… (It is a great thing to have faith and trust in myself. If I am not with myself, who else will be? At the beginning of anything I am new at, there will be a lack of confidence, but the more I will get involved, I know, I will overcome those unknown fears and doubts… So just do it…!)
  3. NO – I am not knowing it at all, I can’t… (There are many incidences I will come to know about soon that states that if I am doing something for 10,000 hours, I am bound to be an expert in it. My body will start reacting unknowingly but will show precise and correct reflexes. After all, what matters is a skill to be developed. I need to keep going on it. I will learn what I have not known and move forward. I did not know anything when I was born…! It was the practices I did as a result of which I am what I am, today)
  4. NO – I don’t have time… (What I am talking about… Time?? Everyone is landed with 24 hours – fresh 24 hours every day. How do I use it? For whom? About to become an engineer, who I am dedicating my time? Time is a precious resource, once lost, lost forever. Giving time can mean giving a share of life. No currency can be compared with.)
  5. NO – I have nobody to teach me all this I want to do… (Do I really need someone to teach me? Is it all that I have learned till now is based on someone who taught me? Many tasks and skills we develop by doing it. All what here onward in this document tells about doing, doing and doing… learning by doing… Doing something with a hope for a better tomorrow where my there are my contributions also… Proud moments…)

All of above 12 reasons are more or less can be considered excuses of not willingly to get involved in something which is making an attempt for a change.

Let me remember a few examples here.

  1. I do not find an opportunity to have better education… (even it was not available to Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, Detroit, USA)
  2. I have been losing a number of times, I don’t want to dare anymore… ( Abraham Lincoln lost the presidential election for 15 times prior becoming by the then president of USA)
  3. I belong to a very poor family, I cannot afford… (His highness Late A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Past president of India was also born in economically very poor family)
  4. I have become disabled since I had an accident… (A famous Indian dancer Sudha Chandran has both her legs implanted artificially)
  5. Since my childhood, I have been being called a person with a very low IQ… (The same was a case for a great scientist and I know him named as Thomas Alva Edison who discovered electric bulbs)
  6. I lost my father since my childhood, no one guided me properly… (A renowned music composer and singer from India, R. Rehman also lost his father in his childhood)
  7. I had to take care of my family, big responsibility, since my childhood… (Well, Lata Mangeshkar, a singer and recipient of Bharat Ratna-Padma Bhushan-Padma Vibhushan and many more awards had this very same case.)
  8. My height is very low and its annoying me… (Grand master Sachin Tendulkar, a cricketer and recipient of Bharat Ratna-Padma Vibhushan-Padma Shri and many more awards, is of 165 cm height, let me have a bit of distraction from my weakness – no one in the world is a perfect one… In fact, it is not even defined)
  9. I have a company which is bankrupted, who will trust me now… (Pepsi Co., USA was bankrupted twice in past, it is still growing and expanding its business… ups and downs are cyclic in nature, let me have patience)
  10. And the last one for now, I have a very fruitful idea, but people refuses it… (the same was a case in past for Zerox photocopying machine, I know where do it stand today and what it is doing)

[1] Speaker Innovation & Design Thinking. Founder FORTH innovation Method, Utrecht Area, Netherlands

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