The topic seems too heavy at the top of the page, isn't it?? I felt the same when a friend commented that to me recently. But when I sat and thought about it, I felt, it really made sense, lot of it in fact!! I just recollected a lot of events in my life, and was convinced to believe that my friend had got it right in the bulls eye!!
As a kid, in school, I always used to religiously follow whatever was told to me. Be it the homework, or any other arrangements or sports or activities or anything. Frankly speaking, I did not really apply my brain to anything. So I was like a literal doer. There was this friend of mine. And he used to do exactly the opposite of mine. When he was asked to study, he used to play. When he was told to play, he used to watch TV. He was something like a rebel. And he used to fairly get a decent result in everything he did. Now the age I am talking about, is that when we were not too mature and were dependent to a large extent on the inputs of others. Being independent was only a dream. And in those days, this friend was like doing things differently. I was still respected for being the topper or whatever, but I always used to watch this guy in awe!!
When I went to college, I had this classmate who was the laziest bugger I have ever known. He never used to attend classes, paid the necessary money for obtaining the hall ticket and used to write the exams. He used to sleep all through the day and the whole night, he would prowl on the cyberspace, playing games all through the night. He was the perfect nocturnal!!! I initially used to wonder, how will he ever manage to clear the papers. But one fine day, what I found surprised me like hell. Just a couple of days (or rather nights) before the exam, he was going through the last few yrs papers, evaluating what to study and what to drop!! He had mastered the art so well, that after a couple of hours of research, he knew exactly what to study and what not to!!! Not that it would help him in the long run, but the shorter purpose of scoring in the exams is definitely achieved. And more surprisingly, he managed to score a distinction in almost all the semesters, which was sort of a jinx to break!! And the biggest irony was, when placements time came, the person, who literally slept all his way through the engineering career, got placed before even before the topper of the class did. Now thats what smart working is all about. This is where I had my first taste of the professional life!!
Coming to professional life, I had a colleague who quit almost a year ago. And the reason he gave to me was that he was plainly frustrated!! I was not too convinced and was sure this guy is upto something!!! I had known this guy for about 5 yrs then and he had been talking about quitting of late. So I thought he is only talking. But the day, he put in his papers, I was in for a real wild shock. I had never expected him to. From then on, I have been monitoring his every move. He has been such an excellent planner and an even better executor, that I cant do anything else than saluting him!!! He had some personal problems to take care in between, which he managed brilliantly. In the meantime he appeared for a couple of competitive exams, a few of which I also did. He had put in a lot of efforts, and I for a change dint!! And surprisingly, I did better in the exams than him. Again an example of smart working and hard working!!! In the end, I did not know what to do, but he did. He carried on and on and on, and today, he is happily enjoying in one of the premier B Schools in India!!
These are just trailers of what I have seen in my life. If I make a movie of it, I am sure it will run into hours together!!! I have slogged the last year, working across my territory for what is known as Customer Satisfaction, measured by a score. The whole one year, I have literally did nothing else other than that. You can imagine the amount of efforts, that has gone into it all. And when it was time for results to come out, I only understand, that the number implying customer satisfaction, has instead gone even down!!
Now I can correlate the above two examples, the one of my classmate in college and my colleague who quit. One was excellent in making analysis and strategies, and the other was a sheer brilliant planner!!! So when my friend said "Working smart is way too better than working hard", I just couldnt stop agreeing with him!!! What do you say??? Please leave your comments!!
As a kid, in school, I always used to religiously follow whatever was told to me. Be it the homework, or any other arrangements or sports or activities or anything. Frankly speaking, I did not really apply my brain to anything. So I was like a literal doer. There was this friend of mine. And he used to do exactly the opposite of mine. When he was asked to study, he used to play. When he was told to play, he used to watch TV. He was something like a rebel. And he used to fairly get a decent result in everything he did. Now the age I am talking about, is that when we were not too mature and were dependent to a large extent on the inputs of others. Being independent was only a dream. And in those days, this friend was like doing things differently. I was still respected for being the topper or whatever, but I always used to watch this guy in awe!!
When I went to college, I had this classmate who was the laziest bugger I have ever known. He never used to attend classes, paid the necessary money for obtaining the hall ticket and used to write the exams. He used to sleep all through the day and the whole night, he would prowl on the cyberspace, playing games all through the night. He was the perfect nocturnal!!! I initially used to wonder, how will he ever manage to clear the papers. But one fine day, what I found surprised me like hell. Just a couple of days (or rather nights) before the exam, he was going through the last few yrs papers, evaluating what to study and what to drop!! He had mastered the art so well, that after a couple of hours of research, he knew exactly what to study and what not to!!! Not that it would help him in the long run, but the shorter purpose of scoring in the exams is definitely achieved. And more surprisingly, he managed to score a distinction in almost all the semesters, which was sort of a jinx to break!! And the biggest irony was, when placements time came, the person, who literally slept all his way through the engineering career, got placed before even before the topper of the class did. Now thats what smart working is all about. This is where I had my first taste of the professional life!!
Coming to professional life, I had a colleague who quit almost a year ago. And the reason he gave to me was that he was plainly frustrated!! I was not too convinced and was sure this guy is upto something!!! I had known this guy for about 5 yrs then and he had been talking about quitting of late. So I thought he is only talking. But the day, he put in his papers, I was in for a real wild shock. I had never expected him to. From then on, I have been monitoring his every move. He has been such an excellent planner and an even better executor, that I cant do anything else than saluting him!!! He had some personal problems to take care in between, which he managed brilliantly. In the meantime he appeared for a couple of competitive exams, a few of which I also did. He had put in a lot of efforts, and I for a change dint!! And surprisingly, I did better in the exams than him. Again an example of smart working and hard working!!! In the end, I did not know what to do, but he did. He carried on and on and on, and today, he is happily enjoying in one of the premier B Schools in India!!
These are just trailers of what I have seen in my life. If I make a movie of it, I am sure it will run into hours together!!! I have slogged the last year, working across my territory for what is known as Customer Satisfaction, measured by a score. The whole one year, I have literally did nothing else other than that. You can imagine the amount of efforts, that has gone into it all. And when it was time for results to come out, I only understand, that the number implying customer satisfaction, has instead gone even down!!
Now I can correlate the above two examples, the one of my classmate in college and my colleague who quit. One was excellent in making analysis and strategies, and the other was a sheer brilliant planner!!! So when my friend said "Working smart is way too better than working hard", I just couldnt stop agreeing with him!!! What do you say??? Please leave your comments!!
6 comments:
Terrific man !!! BullsEye indeed ... Really something which i need to do right now :)
spot on mate....actually i too have realized about what you have written in the past one year...also there is an element called "luck factor" as well...and most of the times i have observed that it tends to go the way of people who work smart,than hard.
Nitin + hard smart work = sabki waaat!!
Thatz just a sneak peek of a journey called LIFE.
But i like the narrative analogue you apply in your writing.
As it says Wine Matures with age, so has your essence!
Good one Nitin. But i always tot u r a smart+hard worker :)
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