ExpertDabbler

Got to read vatsan’s post on the “temptation of employment“. This made me think about my own teenage ambitions and dreams and what i am doing now.

He is basically saying that the lure of a job now and some quick money would make one move away from pursuing dreams in his case. Blame it on my middle class upbringing or whatever, I honestly don’t think that most of the late 20s, 30s and above folks are doing what they dreamt of doing in their teens.
How does one distinguish temptation and opportunity? It depends on the person. To the society, it depends on the end result.

If he or she is seen successful, society lables it as opportunity. If he or she is seen as a failure, society calls it as falling to the temptation.

My laundry list err… dreams list during my younger days goes like wannabe photographer, cinematographer, director, MBA from a top business school etc. Software does not figure in the list at all. I was never good at even BASIC programming and so i detested computers and the software industry. Today the same computer that i once dreaded has given me identity and respect.

I am not exactly suggesting that I can be called ‘realisitic, practical and other dangerous words but it’s just that I feel whatever we dream should also have a spontaneous flexible streak. Kamal wanted to become a famous director but had to chose acting on Balachander’s insistence. He has done not bad at all in acting I suppose:)

I have always believed that a person has many roles to play. That of a child, parent, lover, professional, employer, friend, sibling etc. We may not be the best in all but at least we should strive to do the best possible in each of the roles to sleep peacefully at night. Its not just about career choices and money. A failure in contributing our best in any of these roles will render us unhappy deep down no matter how many crores we possess.

There are many who believe that a BPO job does not hold great promises in the long-term. This short and long are all relative terms by the way. All I would say is, don’t be so sure. Life has a way of laughing at you when you least expect it.
Nobody would have thought studying in US and Australia would still hold you jobless in those countries but that’s what is happening there.

I know some of my friends who did their Masters in Computers in US and then after struggling sometime there, came down to Bangalore and got jobs in companies like Sun Microsystems. May not be consistent with their dreams but sensible decisions nevertheless in my opinion.

I think life is not just a simple, straight forward case of focusing on something and doing whatever one wants to do no matter what.
At the same time its not like doing whatever is the safe-thing and following the beaten track. There are baffling situations to be handled, conflicting interests to be managed, compromises to be worked out, constraints to be accepted, mistakes to be tolerated and bad luck to be endured. It is all about choices and at the same time there are no correct choice and wrong choice per se in isolation. Thats what makes life so exhilirating and challenging.

To add and paraphrase one famous quote, Its important to plan but please remember that life is what happens while you’re busy making plans.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2005 at 11:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.