ARE YOU A J.R.D. TATA ?
Remember the brilliant sales idea you had, but kept to yourself? And, your colleague brought it up at the weekly sales meeting? And hogged the credit? There must be such experiences and examples in all our lives. Unfortunately, we all tend to sell ourselves short. After all, how can we be clever, or original? (Or so we think). It is possible that we are brighter than we allow ourselves to be. Possibly because, in the scramble up the corporate ladder, we are a little reticent about standing out in a crowd.
Maybe it is time we changed this. All of us are capable of original thought, if only we allow ourselves to move above the nitty-gritty of bread winning and/or running a home.
Here are some ways of allowing ourselves to realize our full potential.
Give your mind food for thought. It is so easy these days to burrow oneself into what one is doing – the 9 to 5 job, the commuting, the routine, and starving the mind of any new stimuli. I remember, in college, of reading books by authors as diverse as Leo Tolstoy, Mickey Spillane, even Munshi Premchand. Today, I rarely find the time to read. You must give the mind material to think, ask questions, to dream. The mind needs new information all the time to be able to ask questions, and grow. Try watching Discovery Channel or cartoons as seriously as the news.
Do not assume that everything has already been thought of. Thomas Edison, Heard of him? He built up an empire on making a success out of everything that had already been thought of. He invented the phonograph. He invented the electric bulb. He was an original thinker, but he only innovated on the discoveries and findings of others. Innovation, for one, is as important as the original discovery. Take a more recent example. We all know of Consumer Surveys. They have been around for donkey’s years. But only Deepak Shourie innovated the concept for the magazine Outlook when he launched the magazine, to give its’ lead article a refreshingly new look! Don’t let it stop you. Remember, no one has thought of it the way you have.
Whatever the idea, give it some time. You may be very busy, but you have the same time everyone has in a day – 24 hours. It’s very convenient to put off something till you have more time; you’ll never have the time unless you make time.
Do not judge any idea too hastily. The mind is supposed to think, and so it does. All the time, even while you are sleeping. All your life, you are faced with a series of problems, and are finding solutions for them. Ideas could be operational – as mundane as what to have for breakfast, or where to go for a vacation; they could profoundly affect your entire life – higher studies, a change of job. If your normal proclivity is to quash the idea (oh, going to Europe for a holiday? I can’t afford it, or where’s the time for further studies, or changing jobs at my age? Impossible) don’t do so. Allow an idea to grow, find out facts about it – it may be the best thing to happen to you. Let it happen.
Eschew false modesty. ‘It’s just common sense’, ‘anyone can do it’. Do not be too self effacing. It’s better to be arrogant than modest – in these times, who can further your cause if not you?
Do not find excuses not to do something. If you want to do something, get down to doing it. It is very easy to find or think of something else to do that is equally urgent. Make it a habit of doing what you feel the need or urge to do, without distracting yourself.
Do not expect instant rewards. Everyone knows that Amitabh Bacchan shot to instant fame after his role in the movie ‘Zanjeer’. And envy him for it. Not too many of us know the details of the ten odd years he spent in Mumbai as a struggling actor. Success is not overnight, and we must be ready to pay the price (whatever it may be). We’ve all heard the story of Robert Bruce, and the spider. The moral of the story is very relevant today.
Be specific. Do not approach your thinking from the point of view of the armchair intellectual. That is something that only works for small talk at cocktail parties. Thinking only for the sake of thinking will not lead you anywhere. Try to focus your thinking in your area of expertise and interest.
Original thought is not the purview of the select few, but of us all. What tends to hold us back is our own under-confidence. We must remember,most good ideas are simple ideas – like fast food!
