Blind!
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| Pic Courtesy: www.danlew.com |
Rainbows used to be the magical color palette of the nature until you found out the science behind it. The stars were mystical beauties until we realised its just a mega giant torch burning far far away from us. Many things that were wonderful and beautiful becomes mundane and uninteresting once you find out the science behind them. So is it that being ignorant is bliss? Nope! Poets, writers and painters see the same moon, same stars, rainbows, lovers everyday and still are inspired by them every day. They see the beauty in what they have and what they don’t. They are not seeking perfection from these elements; after all they are not some ill-grown manager. They are inspiring leaders who see the beauty in the positive as well as the negative. That is why, I have a simple rule "never be in awe of anyone/anything". Respect everything/anyone that will make you humble and realise how little you have achieved. However, if you are in awe you will only end up as a blind follower. Being a blind follower you are paving way to two kinds of blindness - Learning the right lesson and missing the beauty.
The frenzy around Steve Jobs is a prime example for blind following. He resigned and the whole world had to write eulogy, and rightly so, as if he died in war! This man has shaped how more than half the world does its work today, converses with others and in some cases even how it thinks. All the praises that we have showered on him is worth every word of it. But then there are two side effects to this frenzy. One, we fail to grasp the real reason why Steve was so successful. Second we fail to look into the failures of Jobs and hence lose the lessons in the loss. I am sure most of us think he is some kind of wizard who dreamed about ipad and unleashed his creativity one fine morning to capture our imagination. But truth cannot be far from it. Here are two articles that somewhat captures the enigma behind Steve's success - Article 1 and Article 2. These are way better than the "Steve is god" posts on most other sites which would sound like a pre-teen raving about Justin Beiber. Also, here is one article that points to one of Jobs', probably biggest, mistake.
If you have to appreciate the real beauty of a person then you have to understand his/her positives as well as negatives, if not appreciate them. This is the second disaster that blind following leads you into. One small mistake and you tend to trash the person who you revered moments ago. Had you not been in awe and just followed your reason, respected him as a human being then you will be able to appreciate his real beauty as well. Our fathers are prime example for this! He was our hero during our child hood and whatever he did was the best. But wicked life adds its twist and we are revealed that dad is conservative. He cannot even surf the net. In short, he is not "cool". And then like sudden brakes in an otherwise smooth travelling Volvo cruiser you feel a push and then a pull. You stop seeing him as hero and the gap widens. This is when he stops being the handsome, strong dad to a vile, destroyer of freedom, dad. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, only because the brain said so! Garner some respect for everyone and everything; understand the good and bad of everyone and everything. Beauty will reveal itself from within you!
P.S: I have committed my share of blind following as well. I am a human being and I am a huge fan of Kamal Hassan, APJ Abdul Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar, AR Rahman and Illayaraja. In my blinded state I wrote a piece in this very blog on how Sachin is a god's avatar to show how a sportsman should be. Just like how Lord Ram came into this world to show how a ruler must be. Even Lord Ram had his share of shortcomings. He was not the best of Husbands, some might argue. Sachin too slipped from being a good citizen. Not once, but twice. At least the first time can be termed as a casual mistake - When he got a Ferrari without paying customs. The second time he has committed (almost) the same mistake pertaining to taxes. Well, he has twisted the laws to suit his pocket. Read from here.
Thanks da :)
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