The Prodigious Power of Passion

"Success comes to those who dedicate everything to their passion in life. To be successful, it is also very important to be humble and never let fame or money travel to your head."

- A.R. Rahman

Though the definition of success is highly subjective and individualistic, the essential secret ingredient to achieve one's own definition of success is by following one's passion in their lives. 

We have seen and heard many famous celebrities and eminent sports personalities speak enthusiastically with a positive vigor when asked about their respective vocations. When we closely look at them speak, we can see for ourselves the sparkle in their eyes and how fired up, committed and exuberant they are when discussing their daily routines. This is the effect that passion can have on a person.

"You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out."

- Steve Jobs

No wonder Steve Jobs was exceptionally successful in developing the highly revolutionary, innovative, admirable and profitable Apple products despite the fact that he was kicked out rather unceremoniously from his own company. I am not going to go in detail about Steve Jobs or his accomplishments. The world already knows it. This blog is going to be focussed specifically on what passionate people does different which makes them to stand out unique in their professions from the normal and average people.  

First, let me start with the burning question - what's passion?. Simply put, if you can wake up on a fine Monday morning and say "Yahooooo! Google!! Bing!!! I am going to work today". Voila! You are infected with passion and the prognosis of your medical condition is that you are condemned to work more productively and happily. 

Passion is the innate, ever-producing power-source that enables an individual to find their true calling in their profession so as to have a definite meaning and purpose in their lives. It need not be confined to professions alone. It can also be extended to your avocations or relationships too. Thus, Passion is the impelling force of an individual which is extremely motivated from within that enables them to attain their goals thereby making a dent in the world around them.

As we spend a greater part of our 168 hours at work, it is very much imperative that you do something that excites and drives you to not to just earn money but also to excel and shine brightly like the sun. Money, fame, status and respect are the by products of our work. Unless there is enough commitment from our end, neither money nor status is achievable. I have seen many people grumbling and complaining that they do not like the work they are doing. Gradually, this leads to severe cognitive dissonance and causes stress to crawl into them like a snail. As a result, they become dissatisfied and unhappy. Even if they decided to switch companies, unless and until the work is up to their liking that suits their personality aptly, they would be caught up in a perpetual web of job changes and disgruntlement. 

For instance, I like sales a lot. I see sales as an opportunity to solve the other person's problems. It makes me happy when the people who buy the products from me are satisfied and happy. But, I love writing very much. It is not that I do not like Sales but speaking relatively, my preference would be towards writing. As a kid when I started to read comics and then slowly transitioned to novels, I have always been fascinated by the art of writing. In fact, I started my blog as I found it an ideal medium to express my passion whenever I found time in my spare time. I knew when I started my blog that I was not a good writer. I used to get continuous feedbacks and suggestions from my very close friends who are really good in the language so that I can improve myself as a writer. I took their suggestions very seriously and implemented them in my subsequent blogs. Gradually, they were able to see a marked improvement in my quality and standard of writing. The changes were immensely visible to them. I just write because it keeps me extremely happy and realize my full potential. As a matter of fact, I was disconnected from my blogs for more than 2 years. I did not have any sense of purpose - just work, come back home, work and come back home. It was very good for me to rediscover my writing side once again. Now, I am looking forward everyday to see something new and interesting in my life so that whenever I had the time I could connect with my passion and articulate it, thus ensuring that the spark in me is kept flaming in constantly without fanning out.

This is my personal experience. But, there are still many people out there who want to pursue something but does something else. In the short-term, life will be all dandy and full of candy. However, when encountered with failures and defeats, you will be ready to cave into the pressure of your frustration leaving you behind with considerably sufficient lack of fulfillment. But,when an activity is pursued with passion, it is like a spring which makes a person to be truly resilient despite several failures in their attempts. It creates the mental toughness to withstand any obstacle and makes you to realize your real potential to tear apart those stumbling blocks and emerge out as a beautiful butterfly amidst the many turbulent turmoils. 

Passion makes you to be tenacious, resolute and patient with your ideas and ideals to accomplish the objectives to its fruition. Also, passion drives you to take more risks and makes you to move out of your comfortable zone to live your dreams. It gives you the clear focus and the clarity to enable you to decide what should be done and what should not be done so that you can invest your valuable time and effort in shaping up the future. 

To sum it up,

"If you don't love what you do, you won't do it with much conviction or passion."

-Mia Hamm

Epilogue:

I started writing this blog around 840pm. I had no idea until I saw the time that 150 minutes had elapsed since I had begun writing tonight. Discover your passion too!!

The Karmic Love - Teaser 3

She was sleeping in her bed when her ladylove awoke her with a start. She could feel her ladylove's lovely lips pressing passionately against her soft skin. Her gentle impressions gave her the exhilaration from within her body. She felt a sudden upward surge of electric energy rapidly flowing and engulfing her body completely through her nerves. Wrestling with her mind and forcefully pushing aside 1 joule,1 coulomb,1 ampere and 1 volt which her teacher had taught her about electric charge and electricity in her school, she wanted to be happily immersed fully with her honey-comb in that present exciting moment. Her bumblebee was unleashing her formidable tongue as an effective foreplay weapon to explore and discover "her" zones. The rapturous joy was inexplicable and inarticulable by the available words in the dictionary. She was besides herself when her buggy love undressed her gently and started to slowly caress her delectable cupcakes. Inch by inch, she was heading towards her climax when an abrupt streak of lightning and a venomous thunder broke apart the crowning point's rhythm and ultimately her dream. She woke up startled as the dream was so real. She could still feel her lips against her nubile body. She was breathing nervously and a deep unsettling fear began to creep into her like a tiger moving stealthily towards her prey when she was inundated with thoughts like "Am I a......?". She shuddered to even think of that taboo word. Yet the dream was more than real. She recollected the amorous glances and signals given by her whenever her eyes bore right into hers. "Does she also reciprocate my feelings?". "What will my parents think?". "Will the society accept us?". Another clap of thunder brought her train of thoughts to a chugging halt. 

The AUTOnomous Man's Gorgeous Grey Matter!!

Because of the accident, I was forced to book autos to and fro to my office everyday. I can very well buy at least 7kgs of onions for the total cost that I needed to pay for OLA cab during a single trip to my work place. Such was the effect of *2.4 times the normal rate for OLA cab in the peak hours. Still, without burning my pocket, OLA auto was the bright and shining knight-in-armor to me in the desperate hour of need, literally and metaphorically.  

It has been more than 10 days since I have been a regular customer for OLA. There were also definite clear and visible signs that my injuries were also on the right track of healing. I decided to make use of Baasha's alter-ego's automobile until my injuries were completely healed up.

Instead of having an insipid and monotonous journey, I used to have engaging discussions with the auto-wallahs to know and understand their lives from their eyes. Most of them with whom I spoke to were in the age group between 35 and 40 years. They had certain things in common - rented auto, 2 kids, ailing mother/ father / mother & father, night "enjoyment" with friends, go home late after booze, get up in the morning and work for the loop to continue again and again. They were also seriously fed up with auto politics in the stand. I empathised with them as I had also undergone harsh office politics when I initially joined in my current company. 

It was then that I encountered a one-of-a kind person during such a trip to office. As usual, I had booked OLA auto in the evening to return to my home after a long day's work.The first booking was cancelled. After several repeated attempts, I was finally able to book another auto. The return ride turned out to be more than just a conversation. It was intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying. 

The conversation started with the basic traffic when out-of-nowhere a biker suddenly crossed in front of us and would have been gravely hurt if it weren't for the auto driver's strong and crisp brakes. Out of an impulsive outburst of emotion, I was deploring the way that the current two wheelers were driving crazy in the city - zigzagging and criss-crossing as if they were playing "Zippy race" video game. To which he responded, "Not all of them used to drive in such a manner, sir. I have been driving for more than 30 years and I have not caused or been involved in any accident." I was amazed at this man's quick jump at recognizing and pointing out the fallacy in my opinion and even more amazed when he responded to it in such a cool and composed manner despite it was he who was directly involved with the situation. Muttering a sheepish apology for generalizing things, our discussion turned to the whys and wherefores to the intensity of the traffic prevailing in the city. He was giving me multiple reasons like bad planning, poorly maintained roads, many number of cars due to reduced bank rates, corruption in contracts, pathetic construction etc. Then, he continued and started to speak why the autos were in yellow color in Tamil Nadu by giving me scientific explanation and justification for the choice of color. 

Just like switching gears in his auto, he changed the topic by lamenting on the politics in his auto stand. He held the same view point as mine - When people come together, politics happen! All we can do is just do our work sincerely, be patient and go silently without engaging in any verbal combats. I was very happy hearing it. Before, I could speak another thing, he started to speak on the present politics in the state and country and was praising Modi's abroad visits for bringing in FDIs into the country. I was thoroughly impressed with him then as even many educated people failed to understand and had found Modi's foreign visits as mere waste of time and money. Inquiring into his educational qualification, I found that he was 12 th pass. But due to his family circumstances, he was forced to give up his studies and work for the family. However his hunger for knowledge never diminished even one jot. He was up-to-date with the current events. I complimented him that he was highly knowledgeable. To which he replied instantly and humbly that just because a person knows something in the world, it doesn't mean they know everything. Likewise, just because a person knows many things in this world, it still doesn't mean they know everything. At this juncture, I realized and understood that he was also a very philosophical person who used to reflect immensely for any given situation.

Our conversation careened to his day to day operations. He was telling that most auto drivers earned around Rs. 1000 - Rs 1400/day driving from morning 7am till 10pm, paid their daily rents, petrol expenses,drank heavily and finally saved around Rs.300 - Rs.600 /day whereas he used to begin his daily drive after dropping his kids at school by 8am, roam completely till 7pm and still used to save around Rs 800 - Rs 900/day. He told me that he observed the other drivers that paying daily rents and drinking used to cost them a hefty sum. So, he calculated and decided that having an own auto and paying the EMI was much cheaper and economical than shelling out his hard earned money as daily rent to some Ram, Ramesh and Mahesh. Also, he abstained from drinking which contributed to his savings considerably thus enabling him to purchase a house for his family. Further, he added that since he usually winds up his work by 7pm and return to his home, he would have sufficient time to play with his kids and spend time with his family thereby having a healthy work-life balance.

I was lost for words. What I had toiled and learnt in MBA for 2 years, this person had learnt it by mere observation and implemented it in his real life ensuring that he does not commit the mistakes made by others. Here was a person who is a pure Finance genius, HR manager and Operations optimizer without a MBA degree. Not to mention his impeccable sales skills. The way he was driving the topics with such ease and flair infused with sound logic and profoundness, I was overawed and overwhelmed with emotion and thought that if this person had continued to study further. he would have surely made a dent in this world. 

It was well-past 8pm. The traffic moved slower than the slowest snail in the world. Finally, after a snail crawl, we arrived at our destination. The meter read Rs. 163. I gave him Rs. 200 and asked him to keep the change. He promptly replied it was against his principles and value system to accept anything more than the assigned amount of Rs. 173 (Rs.163 + Rs. 10). He gave me the remaining change, wished me speedy recovery and sped off to his next destination - Home!

It was a very different and a new experience for me. I do not know whether I would meet another person like him again in my entire life. But, I felt happy for him at the end of the day for his character and attitude towards life. Also, the incident made me to understand that life is an extremely big mysterious force that keeps unravelling itself very slowly at the right time at the right place through the right person to the concerned person. 

The Karmic Love - Teaser 2

Swetha walked quickly to avoid being in an embarrassing situation. Rahul persistently pursued her so that Swetha can understand his love. Swetha had already given her heart to Sriram. It was only a matter of days before Feb 14. She felt she could wait till then to openly assert her love to him. But, she did not anticipate this complication to happen. Of all the people in this world, Rahul had proposed to her. She knew he was a decent guy. But, she knew she also belonged to someone else. Swetha could always feel that electric spark between Sriram and herself whenever they used to chat. He was smart,intelligent and witty. Most importantly, he understood her in the way she wanted to be understood. She knew he was the right person for her. Finally, Rahul caught up with her and said "Why do you hate me?". In a nonchalant manner, Swetha replied " I don't hate you, Rahul. You are a decent guy and my good friend. It's just that I belong to someone else". "You mean that bastard Sriram? I have heard rumors that he is otherwise". "STOP IT. This conversation is over". 

Despite Rahul's louder and louder accusations on Sriram, fuming with anger, Swetha left him  and continued towards the bus stop still thinking on the unwarranted accusations which Rahul had cast upon her Sri. "How dare he! Did I ask him to come and propose to me? Stupid Rahul. Jealous of my Sri. Sri can never be like that. He is the epitome of gentleman". Thinking thus, she was going through the disused shortcut to catch her 130pm bus when what she saw had stopped her and her thoughts in mid-land. She felt her heart being frozen and then breaking into a zillion pieces. She can identify him even from more than a dozen mile. The appearance was unmistakable. It was he. Swetha felt that the entire world along with the Milky way and the Universe ceased to spin. Seated on a big slab in a remote corner of the campus along the disused road, Sriram was fondly stroking Mohammad's manhood. 

SABR - an Ingenious innovation or an Ignominious infamy?

Prologue:

All the characters and events in this blog are not fictitious. The perspective brought forward throughout this blog is solely mine and I am purely responsible for it. However, I mean or intend no negative or disparaging opinions or views on any one or any event.

Connexion!!

Edward Bono would have been one of the happiest persons in this world if he were to be alive today. Though he is widely recognized and regarded as the person who coined the term "lateral thinking", he has also specifically emphasized on structured creativity as an effective medium of creativity and communication. In fact, based on his radically foundation ideas and my own understanding of what he had tried to convey through structured creativity, my previous blog was written in my own style.

So, what is the connection between the first paragraph and my previous blog ?

Simple. I forgot to add an epilogue in my previous blog to thank Edward Bono for his untiring contribution to the world of creativity through his dedicated research. Lateral Thinking has helped many people and organizations to come out of their normal thought process that has been serving as a severe obstacle in our day to day thinking.

Now, coming back to the first line "Edward Bono would have been the happiest person in this world ." Would he have been so extremely happy to receive a simple epilogue from a virtually unknown stranger to thank him ? Definitely. Not a chance!! However, he would have been immensely happy to see the practical application of his lateral thinking concept through Connexion! 

Connexion is a game show hosted in Vijay TV wherein a series of images are shown and the participants are asked to decipher the common words, starting sentence of a song, movie's name, a famous personality etc that are inherently hidden and depicted through the visuals. The main challenge is that the connection between the images are so profound and deep (simple relationships are also occasionally given) that is difficult to uncover the right association between the images within the stipulated time and come up with the correct answer. The show really tests the spontaneity and the ability of the extra ordinary lateral thinking process of the participant to get the answers bang on target for the questions displayed. Though the quiz master gives out certain clues to ease out the puzzling and perplexing looks on the participants when they are interpreting and solving a particular question, the answer is still difficult to comprehend unless the right association to the interrelationship is pieced together and sorted out properly.

Overall, Connexion is a very lively and interesting game show. I was actually introduced to this show during the lunch hour discussion at my work place. Finally, I went to work after a week's worth of bed rest and recovery from the accident. Limping in pain, sitting and having my lunch , my colleagues wanted to distract me from my pain and had started a conversation which landed up with Connexion rather unexpectedly. I was completely fascinated by the concept of the game show. As soon as I came back home from work yesterday, I watched the programme on Youtube. Needless to say, I was quite amazed by the difficulty level of the questions.  One can easily find out the answers. But, the timeframe that is given to figure out the tie-in between the images and unscramble the answer is indeed an uphill task. Hats off to the show producers especially the guys who are involved to create such creative questions for pulling of such a stunning show in a very seamless manner amidst the always and never-ending, teary-eyed mega serial killers!

Epilogue:

I knew I had forgotten to give the epilogue to my previous blog. I was wondering how I can purge myself of the guilt as the idea of structured creativity rightfully belongs to the great Edward Bono. Wondering how I can set things right, it was then I saw Connexion. Things just hit me like a violent typhoon. As soon as I saw my ever show, instantly I came up with the bright 1000 watts idea to link up my previous blog with my new blog using the concept of Connexion - Lateral Thinking!

The Infant Age of Structured Creativity !

Just imagine this scenario. An invading army is very close to our border and waiting for the right moment to strike and unleash their brutality on us. Supposing the weather is extremely cold and an important strategic soldier fails to be up and ready for the war. Think about the consequences in such a hostile & combative environment . The catastrophe will be immense and beyond the bounds of our wildest imagination. The chaos and pandemonium that surely ensues after such a lethargic portrayal of indiscipline will definitely create a frenzied furore across the length and breadth of the country.

It simply gives us the shivers when we merely imagine this hypothetically impossible situation and its possible potential ramifications. 

But, this is what is happening in real life due to lack of discipline and self restraint in our people. The gross misuse and abuse of freedom made me wonder as to whether the Britishers had done the right thing to give us our much needed independence in the first place.  Such is the appalling dearth of discipline in the country - be it the media with the reporting of their news, politicians who rule the country, eminent personalities and celebrities involving themselves in scandals and the list can forever go on in the upper echelons. Coming to the next strata of population that occupies the vast majority of our motherland , even we are not disciplined. Right from simple adherence of traffic rules to payment of taxes, loyalty to our spouses, sincerity in our work  - the list can again continuously go on - we not only misemploy our freedom but we exploit it to our undue advantage without giving much heed and forethought to the consequences of our actions. For instance, if the old man hadn't come in the wrong direction then I wouldn't have had the accident in the first place and sustained the painful injuries which I am suffering now. What if I had died in the accident!! I wouldn't have been able to hear his apology also or write this blog now. That small act of his indiscipline cost me an arm and leg - literally and metaphorically. Even in my workplace, I had requested my boss to grant me the privileges to access Youtube for my Market Intelligence report. One of my colleague comes cooly and asks me to open Youtube for watching some trailers and comedies!!  I had to calmly tell them that "I have work to do. There is a proper place and time to watch those videos. Please watch it in your home". These are just simple and sample real life scenarios. I am sure even you would have encountered such normal and wild acts of indiscipline in your life too.

I understand that people cannot be military-like over night. But, there is a certain permissible level of indiscipline that is acceptable like keeping ones room untidy, not shaving, not grooming oneself properly etc as the net effect is only for the concerned individual. In my opinion even those things can be improved. But, this kind of indiscipline is much better than the kinds that harms other individual and public property.

When confronted with being undisciplined, some carried the belief that creativity should stem from being completely free and unbound to restrictions and that disciplined people are too structured and systematic in their way of life. In a way, they have a point. But once when it comes to creating a compelling and persuasive message that needs to be shared across to a particular group, the use of creativity in such a situation cannot be employed to build castles in the air. Rather, the creativity must be tuned and be given a proper shape and structure so that the intended point reaches out to the target audience so that they appreciate the crux of the message in a better light.

Being creative for the sake of creative to be different from others does not add much sense to the people any more. The huge difference lies in the way we are being creative so that our creative ideas are meaningful and adds value to others thereby enriching their lives. This makes our creativity to be more purposeful thereby making a difference in this world. This is precisely what Steve Jobs did with his more than successful ipods or iphones. He radically innovated on the existing walkmans or mobile phones to create a simple and simply dashing and dazzling ipods and iphones that the consumers cherished to have it as their prized possessions.

Structured creativity is also a type of creativity that must be judiciously used depending on the circumstances. But even for this type of creativity to develop, grow, prosper and flourish, a congenial, conducive and the correct environment should be laid out as a fundamental platform for an individual to explore and tap into their infinite creativity.

Let me just give an example to illustrate this point further. Supposing someone asks me " I want a car under sub 4m". I can come up with a wild and ground-breaking idea of a double decker car with 6 wheels and doors opening only from one side. But, the feasibility of this idea might take a hit when this creative idea is to be implemented in reality. On the other hand, if some one tells "I want a normal car under sub 4m with new features that can be practically implemented". Then again, we need to have a proper feasibility study of our fresh, new features but at least the scope of our creative thinking can be very focussed and targeted to reach our objective efficiently and effectively.

Ultimately, the context defines and mandates how wild our creativity should be for a particular situation. When we are writing a novel , then we must be highly creative and put in all our visualization process into the big picture to have the perfect novel, infused and peppered with facts and history, if necessary, like the way Dan Brown does in his books or it can be truly creative like the way JRR Tolkien created a new land, history, species and language in his "LOTR" trilogy.

Whether this blog is a result of structured creativity or the result of an untamed creative idea that eventually became so organized and methodical, I leave it to you.