10-05-2021, Monday.

The Blog: Just Do It

It’s 3:31 a.m., page 596, the line reads, “but perhaps the story you finish is never the one you begin”. My eyes move on to the next four and a half lines but my brain is still in tryst with: is this what Billy Bauer (Zuckerberg) meant in Smithereens (Black Mirror S05E02) when he said, “it was not supposed to be like this…… it was one thing when I started it and it just became this whole other f*#$ing thing….” Is this what happens to the start-up that fails? I don’t know why my mind is thinking negative when the story you finish could be way better than the one you begin, but that pessimism is a question for next topic. Why did Smithereen turn out that way? Why do start-ups fail? Why? However, Robert Kiyosaki says, “Use your emotions to think, not to react”, so did I. And the next line by Billy Bauer led my thought trail, “it got there by degrees”. Each moment matters yet none is precious.  It happens through every day. It happens daily. With every decision you take. In the way you communicate. In your dealings with humans. Oh yes! Humans, the toughest element in a start-up.

I wonder would the Macintosh have said ‘hello’ had Steve Jobs pleaded Andy (which one?), “Please Andy do it”, “Yaar Andy ek ghante me kar do”? May be not. May be his lash out was needed. May be that straightforwardness was needed. May be, had Jobs been polite to him this world wouldn’t have heard the ‘hello’. Hell no! That world doesn’t exist.  May be Jobs was so bothered about the hello that he didn’t bother about his manner. May be…. You see, I am so concerned for my strong opinion hurting someone that I have to use ‘May Bes’. May be my point is not expressed with that intensity, that urgency and that passion by using ‘May Be’. Okay! So no more ‘May Bes’.

You get what you were seeking. If you do not get what you were seeking , think again, you’ll realise that’s what you were (seeking). I am no fan of universal truths, and thus, each universal truth has to be understood in a context. While communicating within the team (at least), if you are more bothered about not being bossy or rude to someone than being incessant about getting the task done, if you are more bothered about hurting people by being on point rather than being bothered about achieving the goal, then congrats you have made good friends not good products. You don’t need to unnecessarily ask, “Can you do this?” when you can tell “Do this”.  But that’s a polite way to order. Do you ask your computer, “can you please do this?” or you directly input the command? But it’s a computer. So what? They do not have feelings. So you are bothered about feelings? Well…. So you are more bothered about not hurting someone than the end result? Can’t both co exist? Get those both down your……. Okay! It doesn’t sound convincing enough? No problem.

The year 2020 compelled humans to do lot of stuffs, that given a choice, they wouldn’t have. Staying inside, wearing masks, working from home, managing sans maid, etc. The year taught me what defines one is the limits to which one pushes oneself. Humans by nature like to stay comfortable. That comfort zone! Had the pleas and requests to get people out of that zone been successful, there wouldn’t have been any need of those in the first place. Humans need a push, sometimes a shove. That push seems cruel until the day they thank us in retrospect.  Talking about straightforwardness, the Do this vs Can you do this, the direct way of telling something vs indirect, humans, by nature, love straightforwardness. Rather, humans love when they don’t need to think twice. It gives them liberty and limitlessness. Or rather, when humans feel free and limitless, they just sound straightforward. Think of the people with whom you have the most profound, deep or crazy talks and you shall realise. This process of speaking straight takes care of the result. And Trust the process to take care of the result. Thoughts bloom when you feel free, untethered. One can argue that there is no harm being indirect, and thus, polite. But there is. A good habit attracts others and a bad one is contagious. Being indirect in just communication finds a way to leak into other paths as well. Soon, you’ll have designers incapable of coming up with simple and intuitive designs, marketing team devising a round-and-round campaign and the decks not clearly conveying the pitch. This sounds convincing enough.

It’s 3:33. The line following the overlooked four and a half lines, the line that finally ends the tryst and reunites brain to the eyes asks, ”if I begin again, would I, too, end in a different place?”  Yes, is my answer. And to the Midnight’s Children, the story (of the blog) I end is the one I began, as my founder did not ask, “Would you like to write an essay/blog and publish it?” rather he insisted, “I want you to write one”. That’s Hachimichi.