What lies between the letters 'B' and 'D'? The letter 'C' of course. But this simple sequence of three letters can also be used to depict a profound truth of life. Between 'Birth' and 'Death' are the ' Choices' we make.
The details of our birth were not determined by us. We did not choose our country of birth; nor did we have a say in deciding our mother tongue or parents. Nobody asked us which colour of skin, eyes, and hair we would prefer. Birth was a pre-decided affair. We will not select the variables of our death either - the mode, time, or date.
Between these two determines of birth and death, the field of life unfolds and presents us with an array of choices. We select our thoughts, priorities, emotions, and behaviours. Regardless of how good or bad we may presently be, we can always choose to make our future better. Regrettably, we also have the option of choosing to make our future worse.
Every choice veers our life up or down one teeny-weeny bit. By itself, the individual moments do not seem to count for much. But as they accumulate with time, the difference becomes significant.
Compare the life trajectory of two classmates. For now, let us call them Sat and Ram. It is the year 1980, and both study in a school that few outside Telangana have heard of - Hyderabad Public School.
Sat is an average performer at academics. He is not naturally brilliant, but he makes up for it by consistently choosing hard work over pleasure. ON graduating from school, he fails to crack the Joint Entrace Exam ( JEE) of the prestigious IITs. But he does manage to get admission to an average engineering college - Manipal Institue of Technology.
Now let us look at his classmate, Ram. He is genetically highly intelligent but believes in having fun. He loves reading trashy novels and frequenting movie halls with like minded friends. He can be found at 10 p.m. every night at the tea stall in his neighborhood. Yet, by virtue of his inborn brilliance, he sails through the JEE and joins the prestigious IIT Madras.
Thirty years later, guess who is more successful? Surprisingly, it is Sat. He is the head of a corporation that employs 130,000 people worldwide. The work he does enriches the quality of life of 1.5 billion people around the globe. On the other hand, Ram, his former classmate, has just lost yet another sales job and is searching for a new one.
How did the career and life trajectories of Sat and Ram diverge so extraordinarily in three decades? Well, let me tell you their real names. Sat is actually Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft Corporation. Though he was a mediocre student in school, by virtue of his diligent nature, he kept plodding upward. In college he was no longer considered mediocre.
Rather, he was now considered proficient and was selected for the Master's in Computer Science program at University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Later when he got a job at Microsoft Corporation, he chose to do an MBA alongside. He would fly out of Silicon Valley on Friday nights to attend classes at the University of Chicago during weekends. His outstanding mindset and growing skillset got him noticed at Microsoft. He utilized every opportunity he received to learn and to deliver results. Finally, when Steve Ballmer resigned,, the Microsoft Board did not hesitate to annouce that Satya Nadella would be the next CEO of the company.
Now let us come to Sat's classmate, Ram. He is actually Ramu Mithyavardhanulu. Ramu who? That is precisely my point. You have never heard of him because he never did anything of significance despite graduating from one of the best engineering colleges in India.
What was the secret of Satya Nadella's amazing success story? It could not have been innate intelligence, else Ramu would have surpasssed him any day. It was his consistency in choosing growth over pleasure, and meaningful work over frivolous enjoyment. When this formula was repeated hundreds of moments daily, for 365 days every year, over a period of thirty years, it resulted in an ordinary student becoming the world-renowned Satya Nadella whom we all are familiar with today. Ramu had the same, or possibly even greater, potential in him. But he squandered it away, one poor choice at a time.
Thank you for reading.
:)
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