Life’s Freeway

Life’s like a freeway. It’s one of the lanes that you occupy determine what you will be. It’s you who decide your destination & hence your lane. There are people who aspire to be big, have great vision, a well built plan & hence they are on fast track lane where there’s no stopping. Then there are people who are realising their potential, hence moved from slower lane to one with better speed lane. But then this lane also has people who have realised they are too fast to what they can do. So they move off the fast lane to relatively slower track as a breather & conscious effort to reframe their goals & directions.
So does it mean people on fast track always succeed? No! What would happen to a Premier Padmini who believes it can out cast dazzling 200 horse engine! Either it will realise it & move on slower lane or worse, will be thrown away. That’s what we call competition, right? First, know yourself, your competitors & then the environment you all will be functioning & try to get the right fit. Where do you stand then? This will give you clear idea whether you are fit (at that instance), or you require some face lift. Which means, you either get off the track so that you can get yourself all that’s required to be in fastest lane, or if you can’t, you shift your goals & hence shift tracks.
Also, cars with everything right & on fastest lane will suffer, though they will reach their goals faster. There are chances they will have to sacrifice their tyres, some essential parts in the process. Too much focus on goal will means missing beauty of journey. This is big topic all together. Let’s discuss this sometime later. So unless you have really good plan & you are damn good in execution & balancing your professional & personal life, your personal life’s on toll.
So what happens to people at the bottom of pyramid? Please, with bottom of pyramid am not referring to C K Prahlad’ s poor people ( or is it the same?). Here those are people with average aspirations like me who start & end their life staying at 40 KMPH never thinking of crossing lane? They live & die trying to maintain their speed & keeping their spare parts together. It’s the chicken coop they are leaving in. Hundreds of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages…They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they're next. Yet they do not rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop1. This people get off track too often for all reasons (& also when they have none). I think chicken coop is one topic we will discuss shortly.
My point is it's not genius that differentiates a great business tycoon from his employees. It's getting out of this chicken coop that differentiates. Its risk taking that differentiates. It's eye for an opportunity that differentiates. Its curiosity & congruent actions that matters. This is what differentiates successful & not so successful individuals.
We can stay on slowest track & keep wondering what it takes to change lanes with no effect or know our strengths, stay curious, be prepared for opportunity, update ourselves & shift lanes as opportunity presents. It’s upon us, to make a choice & then stay hinged to it.
1- “ The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga