Friday, September 23, 2005
My poor country...
Most companies that are big today have created value in a manner that can not be challenged. Google with the process of searching over the internet, ebay with the idea of a common forum for buyers and sellers, microsoft with the idea of a software for everyone and a host of others. But by stark contrast, we in India have not done much at all.
Agreed that it was an Indian who started Hotmail, but then why did he sell it? Why could he not have stayed in there and grown the company? Did the promoter of MS, Apple, Google, eBay, build it to sell it? No, then why are we doing that? I will tell you why. Fear and the reaction to that fear. We in this country are scared of failure (like almost anywhere else in the world), but we react by evading it. This is the impact of overprotection. We are overprotected by our government, by our parents, by our schools, by our friends, by almost everyone, even God (remember that we stay in that subcontinent which is highly conducive for life, no struggles no too many natural disasters to face). We are now used to the ideology that we don't have to worry about anything. Worst comes to worst my parents will take care of me. Thus why risk anything. Lets just live out our existence in a way that is good and stable. Very few of us have the craving for creating something lasting in this world. All we are obsessed with is money. For god's sake, "Money should be a by-product, not the end."
If you want this country to improve, then we need something radical. Someone needs to tell parents to stop protecting their children but instead teaching them to stand up on their own feet. How many times have I seen people living with their parents under the pretext of a joint family. I don't dispute that, but there is a time when I need to go out and fend for myself and my parents, just like some birds in the wild, should push me over the cliff, if I am ever to learn how to fly. I am an MBA grad, and even in my college I had students who have moved out of their homes for the very first time. That is the problem. There are so many who will never move out of their homes, who will never know how to cook, who will never know where to go to pay the electricity bills, how to get through life without the help from others.
We are brains behind every big company. We are the best people in software, but we are not the ones the world is talking about. Why, you ask? The answer is simple. This world acknowledges the ones who make a difference, not the ones who make the difference normal. Think about it.
Wake up and start running, 'coz this is our only chance to make India great. Once we are gone, God knows what the overprotected next generation would do. Lets get paranoid and make a difference, lest we just pass on this country until someone better (and thats an insult to all of us in the present), comes and makes the difference.
Agreed that it was an Indian who started Hotmail, but then why did he sell it? Why could he not have stayed in there and grown the company? Did the promoter of MS, Apple, Google, eBay, build it to sell it? No, then why are we doing that? I will tell you why. Fear and the reaction to that fear. We in this country are scared of failure (like almost anywhere else in the world), but we react by evading it. This is the impact of overprotection. We are overprotected by our government, by our parents, by our schools, by our friends, by almost everyone, even God (remember that we stay in that subcontinent which is highly conducive for life, no struggles no too many natural disasters to face). We are now used to the ideology that we don't have to worry about anything. Worst comes to worst my parents will take care of me. Thus why risk anything. Lets just live out our existence in a way that is good and stable. Very few of us have the craving for creating something lasting in this world. All we are obsessed with is money. For god's sake, "Money should be a by-product, not the end."
If you want this country to improve, then we need something radical. Someone needs to tell parents to stop protecting their children but instead teaching them to stand up on their own feet. How many times have I seen people living with their parents under the pretext of a joint family. I don't dispute that, but there is a time when I need to go out and fend for myself and my parents, just like some birds in the wild, should push me over the cliff, if I am ever to learn how to fly. I am an MBA grad, and even in my college I had students who have moved out of their homes for the very first time. That is the problem. There are so many who will never move out of their homes, who will never know how to cook, who will never know where to go to pay the electricity bills, how to get through life without the help from others.
We are brains behind every big company. We are the best people in software, but we are not the ones the world is talking about. Why, you ask? The answer is simple. This world acknowledges the ones who make a difference, not the ones who make the difference normal. Think about it.
Wake up and start running, 'coz this is our only chance to make India great. Once we are gone, God knows what the overprotected next generation would do. Lets get paranoid and make a difference, lest we just pass on this country until someone better (and thats an insult to all of us in the present), comes and makes the difference.
