I am such a serious nerd in life. Ask any of my friends they will prove what I mean. But life has not taken me far in trying to reach what I should’ve been by now. I began to wonder about all the great theories that I have been strongly believing in. I was informed about a speech delivered by Mr. Ratan Tata at Symbiosis, Pune, India. The following are the exerpts:
Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. Balanced means in ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. There is no point off getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions. Don’t take Life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a prepaid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? … It’s OK, bunk few classes, score low in couple of papers, take a leave from work, fall in love, fight a little with your spouse… It’s okay… We are people, not programmed devices…! Don’t be serious, enjoy life as it comes.”
Advt
That is so consoling for most of us I guess. But the fact of the matter is that he arrived at such theories after spending years of serious and commited life of an enterprising entrepreneur. Now he can afford to relax and speak of a responsible balance in life. But, what about us whoare still struggling to make our mark in business and career, leave alone life?
There is still another quote that comes to my mind at this perplexed moment of deciding about plunging actively into a grand business enterprise that I had been planning for the last so many years? The strategy he offers is quite pragmatic and too good to be true.
Live life one day at a time. It was he who said, ” If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But, if you want to walk far, walk together. How strange it is : we wish to wear high brands but we feel most comfortable in pyjamas. We wish to sit in Taj and Marriot with elite people, but we enjoy roadside tea with friends and with people we love. We wish to own big cars and go on long drives, yet we talk our heart out only while walking down a long road. We have 64 GB iPods filled with songs but sometimes a song on the radio brings a smile that can’t be compared.”
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This gives energetic people like us a lot of consolation and push to continue the way we have planned to take along with us as many people as we can in all our endeavour. It is a reassurance for taking a longer route of offering meaning and purpose for millions with the intention of staying meaningful endlessly. Those of us who took life so seriously and too logically could not accept failures caused by others that came our way. Perhaps, it is about this serious breaking down at the face of failures, that Tata is talking about. Certainly, we all should take life less seriously after having done our duty to the best of our abilities. Thus we can reflect the sentiments of Tata and take life less seriously after giving our best. The rest lies on so many other factors that control the ecosystem in which we are a part.
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