The Class of 2020

Recently a dear friend of mine, who is a professor at a business school asked me to share a few words with his class over a zoom call. Initially, I was a bit reluctant, and that’s mainly because I have always felt that, I am the least qualified person to offer any advice to anyone on any matter. So I can’t, and I won’t offer any advice. That has been my predisposed position. Also after losing my sister, I felt somewhat disinterested in things. I was still navigating my way through the emotional jungle, so I was a bit overwhelmed.

But then, I started getting e-mails from some of his students, and I quickly realised that I might be letting my friend down. He or his students obviously didn’t know what has happened. So I said to myself, Ok! I know, I am not qualified to give people any advice, but maybe, I can share my own thought process on how I have learnt to see the human world and also the individual journeys that humans do while living. So I decided to go ahead, and we agreed to do the call.

After that call, I got busy with life and living. And one day, my friend called offering his condolences upon learning that I have lost sister. We had a chat, and something he said did hit me. He then suggested that, I share parts of the conversation that I had with his students through a blog post, he felt the message should reach more people. He was regretting not being able to record the conversation, but in a way, I am glad he didn’t.

People talk about chasing dreams, setting goals and then achieving them. Thinking BIG and dreaming bigger. There is no shortage of people sharing their inspirational stories, and everyone has something unique to share. 

Like others, I am also on a journey, and as I learn more about myself. I have realised that my biggest achievement has been people. I have learnt from people, and it is people who made my journey and living special. It is people who will believed in me when others didn’t , and it is people who will helped me mend when I felt my life was hit by a train. I am now fully convinced of a simple fact that, we are all connected to each other, even if we fail to realise it. I am a product of my journey, and obviously my choices and decisions. 

The mind that I am now has also learnt to realise that no success is permanent, and you can never succeed on your own. Also Knowledge without wisdom isn’t worth much, and wisdom can only come from, when you are truly experiencing your living. And If you truly value yourself then, you will also learn to value others over time, and then learn to invest yourself in the right type of relationships. It is never about how many people you happen to know, but knowing who to call when you are hurting and who to share your joy with. You will always be a work in progress and also your own going biggest investment project.

When the journey gets overwhelming, and you feel like giving up, please always remember, trillions of cells are working together tirelessly to keep you going. You are in fact a super organism. The power of collective is immense, and your existence is confirmation of that power. And if you fail to take care of the ecosystem that is your physical body then, eventually you will pay a big price. In the same way, if one day you decide to start an enterprise then, you should know that your profits will naturally come from the collective that is the society. So the prudent thing to do is, to invest yourself wisely in that society.

In the end, we will all die, so start to learn to truly live with yourself, because you will always be responsible for your own happiness and peace. Be kind to yourself when you make mistakes, and be kind to others, and allow others to make mistakes. No one is born knowing everything, and we all learn from trial & error.

We want all want to take off, but some of us need a longer a runway to take off, and go where we want to go. So don’t rush, or else you might crash and burn while trying to take off. No body can teach you how to succeed, you will find your own way. A process won’t help you succeed, but yes ! It will help you sustain that success and stay flying, but only when you have managed to take off. 

A question that I always ask myself is, what is being rich ? Is it about hoarding assets and cash to create your net-worth? But over time, I have realised that, there are a lot of rich people, I won’t like to associate myself with. Not because I don’t like them, but mostly because my definition and understanding of being rich has probably changed over time as I have learnt more about myself.

So for me today, a large part of being rich is also about hoarding on to rich thoughts and ideas. Being compassionate, and being able to feel others pain. Being there for those who maybe strangers. Being able to add more value than you take.

As I see it, nature is truly rich, because it adds more than it takes. I know being able to experience living a life of a human isn’t easy, but I know, it’s also a privilege. I would like for all of us to die rich, but not by hoarding assets and cash, and leaving it to our family or friends. I wouldn’t call that as dying rich at all.

Today my aim is to create and add value to the world, and to my own species everyday before my journey ends. My net worth I hope will be like that of our sun. Even when it’s burning everyday, it won’t stop giving. Just imagine, if sun was to start taking then, life as we know it won’t be able to exist in our solar system. The existence of the universe itself is a miracle, and I hope I can do whatever I can to keep this miracle going. Because I know, nature is working tirelessly to keep this experiment going.

So maybe, it’s time, we all relearn, what being rich really is, or should be. Maybe this understanding should become part of the educational content, but some may disagree. And I will leave it to others to figure it out for themselves. Nature is truly the real capitalist and supremely rich. I hope we can learn a few things from nature about being rich, and what being rich truly is.

People are the glue that binds the society or a nation. And a society or a society under a nation state is an idea that people willingly subscribe to. An idea that binds people to the idea of a society or a nation state. But no idea is permanent. All ideas have a self life, and therefore, there is a continuous need to keep tweaking and reinventing the idea, in order to keep the bond between people as strong as possible, or otherwise if the glue weakens, and it will overtime , then the society starts to lose it shape. This happens over generations.

So an idea that worked very well for a generation, may not be that relevant to the generations that came after it. It’s a natural process. And therefore, going back to the same idea to reinforce the bond between people in the society isn’t a guarantee of success. Nature creates new species from the old, because it knows, that’s the only way to sustain what it has built. It is has no nostalgia for the old or the past, it always keeps moving forward. It has created a very diverse ecosystem, because that’s how it can keep the entire ecosystem and what it has created, sustainable and relevant. That’s why no species are going to permanently feature in nature’s plan. It makes no sense to try to stop diversity in a society, because no one, not even nature can’t stop change.

We don’t have a manual for living, and none of us are born with a manual on how to live a human life, but I hope collectively we can create a reference manual for others, for them to refer to, as and when required, through our own stories and journeys. So let’s try to learn to live a life knowing that, it might become a reference for others to come. Something we don’t get taught, but we can only learn from living our own journeys. Life and living is a class that most of us fail to graduate from, but we still give it our best. And that’s the only thing we can do.