Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Career Like "J" - 'Juggler'


"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly" (Patrick Overton
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Hi Everyone,
When I was very small, may be in standard 3rd or 4th (don't remember exactly), my father took us to a circus show that was being held in the city. There was one show that captured my attention most and that was the juggler show. Now that I am old enough to think about things from various angles I can relate what a juggler does to many other things in life.
If one views a juggler in action closely then we will see that he starts with two balls, then three, then four and sometimes I have seen jugglers playing with up to 12 balls together and not one of them falls. Once they are done with balls they use bowling pins to do the same. Then they raise the stake by using knives to juggle, then the stakes are raised even further and they use lit torches to juggle. But not once they get hurt or fail.
They know that with each increase in object and with each change of object the risk of failing and getting hurt increases. But he still goes on and the more risky stakes are in juggling the more famous and popular a juggler becomes. Now why I am telling this story? Because I find a stark similarity between the profession of a juggler and our normal careers.
When was the last time we took a big risk in a career and took that 'leap of faith'? For most of us it would have been a very long time. Normally when we start our careers we are very enthusiastic at the beginning but then later on the enthusiasm decreases and we get into comfort zone and don't bother taking risks in careers. By taking risks I do not mean uncalculated risks or rash decisions. But yes I am definitely talking about having the guts to leave the comfort zone and get moving ahead to actually achieve what we have wanted and not just trying to compromise our dreams by what we have.
I have heard people a lot saying that they would like to be as rich as a celebrity or as famous as some person. But do they even think for a moment the arduous life journey these successful people have gone through to reach where they are. There is a school in Lucknow called CMS which has a Guinness Book of world record for having maximum number of students in a single city. But do you know how hard was the life of the owner of the school was? Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, the school owner, used to study under street lamps because he did not have enough means to live a comfortable life. If he would have accepted that as his faith and not done that extra we would not be having such a good school at present.
People whine a lot but they are not ready to do the efforts, walk that extra mile, leave the comfort zone, take some risks and take a 'blind leap of faith'. If we are not ready to do these things then I don’t think we have a right to complain. Some people really do have genuine issues and problems but for most of us we don’t and we simply don’t want to make that effort.
We don’t have an unlimited life and our years are limited. If we take a look at all the successful persons we will feel that most of them had to struggle a lot to reach where they are, so let’s make that effort to fulfill our dreams and desires. We should remember that, "If we do not go after what we love to do we will be forced to love what we do"
Let’s be like the juggler and raise the stakes from time to time because calculated risks can be very rewarding with some setbacks on the way too.. But in the end the result more fruitful than not.
Thanks,
Genie Signing off
email: arunesh.genie@gmail.com

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