I’m currently reading Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do With My Life. The book tells stories of people who have struggled to find meaning in their lives — their true calling. It’s not about being sucessful in terms of a career or money, but about finding the place where you feel at home
Every story is inspiring in some way or the other, but one of the stories I read today particularly made an impression on me.
It’s the story of Stephen Lyons, born to parents holding blue-collared jobs and who himself worked as an electrician. Lyons always felt that he had potential to do much more in life and wanted to get a college degree. But by the time he finally made up his mind to attend college, he was married. His wife preferred that he continue his work as an electrician.
The pay was good and soon the two had a baby. Keeping his job was no longer an option for Lyons, but a necessity. Lyons eventually went through a divorce. But he continued working as an electrician — wondering always what he might have made of his life had he gone to college.
The recession of the early ’90s however put him out of a job and he and his second wife were forced out of their house. The two had to shift to a smaller and poorer town. Lyons persuaded the local college authorities to give their air-conditioning maintenance work to him. He worked for the college free of cost for one month before they put him on the payroll.
He soon realised that the college waived off tution fee for those who worked for the institution. And he enrolled in class and earned a business degree. For his final exam he submitted a business plan for a solar energy company. Though he initially struggled trying to sell solar energy solutions to people in California, he eventually succeeded.
One thing he attributes his success to is creative visualisation. What does this mean? Lyons befriended a Chinese artist. The two friends felt safe with each other in sharing their dreams. That’s what creative visualisation meant — “The right friends.”
This, to me, was the most striking thing about the story. Four weeks ago I too had experienced the power of the right company. I had gone to cover Cerebrate, a Club Mahindra event that brought together achievers from various fields — from mountaineering to singing to product designing.
One thing distinct about people in this group was the fact that they all talked about possibilities. While they might offer criticism about how one goes about achieving their dreams… they would never criticise the dream itself. For three days that I spent at the conference, I truly believed that with the right amount of hard-work in the right direction I could actually set out to achieve my dreams.
Was the path easy for any one of the participants? Nope. Did they make mistakes? Most definitely yes. Did they fail? Yes. Do they still harbour day-to-day tensions? Yes. But I noticed that the goal itself is bigger than all of this for them.
The fear of not taking a safe path, fear of failure, fear of committing mistakes, and fear of the hard work seemed absent.
Most people fail to really pursue their dreams because there are too many people reminding them of their fears. Sure, the people who attended Cerebrate too were surrounded by such people. But they found a way to steel their hearts to fears and pursue their interests nonetheless.
Tagged: thoughts