TOW Future Planning
This is it, my most personal blog ever. An insight into the individual I actually am.
Yesterday morning, my dad made me sit down during breakfast and asked me about what I want to do in my life. What work I am going to do? How do I plan to support myself?
Okay, so firstly, I am extremely confused. I don’t know whether I want to be rich or not. I don’t know whether I want to work long hours or short hours. I don’t know whether I want to work from home or from office. I don’t know whether I want to do a job or start my own bijness. I don’t know what industry I want to work in. I don’t know whether I want to do social service or private wealth service. In short, I don’t know!
As a little, innocent boy, I had one dream and only one dream to be an airforce pilot. To fly a fighter jet at Mach 3 levels, to protect and serve my country, to kill the bad guys, and most importantly to where those damn aviators shades and walk around. That dream though, was crushed when I learned that pilots need a perfect vision, one which I lack (the only imperfect part of me!).
My next dream at the tender age of 14 was to be an actor. But when I saw a video of my dancing skills, my dream went away faster than you can say moonwalk. At the adolescent age of 15, somewhere around the Mittal wedding, I realised that I want to be a Kazillionaire. That dream lasted for a while, till the time I graduate high school, and went off to college to study Finance, so that I can learn the secret of the stockmarket and make my bazillions.
My first semester in college though, changed my perception on life. Even though I have travelled to the richest places in the world, I had never really SEEN them. My first visit to India after joining college, changed my dream. I no longer wanted to earn bazillions, rather I wanted to be a politician. I wanted to change India, I wanted to remove corruption, work my ass off and make a real difference. Reading the news everyday about corrupt politicians, rapes, homicides, poverty, bad roads, traffic jams etc etc. made me want to stop cribbing like every other Indian, and rather go out and do something about it. I decided to minor in Political Science in college. However I didn’t stop believing in making money. I believe that the only way I can be an honest politician is if I am rich before I join politics, so that I don’t get caught in the extremely rewarding bribery world. I thus decided that I am going to work my ass off for about 10-15 years, amass a lot of wealth, and head out to the political world.
It was a fine dream, one I truly believed in and wanted to work towards. I was extremely happy and content, had it not been for this summer break which changed it all.
My brother is a fine young, slightly overweight man. He is carefree, relaxed, go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Atleast that is what I thought!
It was the night before my brother was leaving on an America tour, where he was out to meet a couple of buyers. I was sleeping in his room and we were watching TV late into the night. Suddenly the topic of work came up and we had a half and hour chat about some ideas, after which we went to sleep. Atleast that is what I thought! I woke up in at about 2 AM to take my midnight leak, and I saw my brother sitting on his desk typing away to glory on his computer. He told me he was too nervous to sleep. Too nervous to sleep! How can you be too nervous to sleep before a 20 hour flight? I need atleast 20 hours of rest before a 20 hour flight!
I went back to sleep after relieving myself not thinking too much about it. However, what I didn’t realise that night, is how instance would change my thinking.
I doubt that if I was not doing an internship in Investment Banking, that instance would have affected me. I always knew that running my own business would be harder than working in a job, which I assumed to be a breeze. However, my internship has taught me a lot of things. For one, I cannot sit and concentrate on reading about Power plants in Haryana for more than 45 minutes. If I could, I would not be writing my blog in the middle of a Tuesday! I see my colleagues around me typing into their computers for 9 hours a day, getting up, going home, coming back the next morning and doing the exact same thing! It just got me depressed! I cannot sit in a chair infront of a computer all day everyday!
My father was often up at 2 AM talking to the factory or rushing to work on a Sunday morning as a problem had occured, however I had dismissed him as a workoholic. Now though, I realised that he is not a workoholic, rather he was a normaloholic.
I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to not be able to sleep as I am too tense about work. I don’t want to sit in front of a computer. I want to be able to work at my own time, doing something which I like while not having to sit couped up in an office. It is not that I don’t want to work. I don’t mind working, I just hate having to work 9 hours in a row, 5 days a week, 360 days a year for 60 years. I want to be able to start work at 9 at night till 5 in the morning if I have to. I want to be able to sit on my la-z-boy and make my spreadsheets. I don’t care if I cannot live in a mansion, I don’t care if I have a Maruti instead of a Mercedes. When do needs merge into wants, and make our wants our needs?
However, leading such a life is not acceptable in India. A country which I refuse to leave. And I cannot follow what I want, and have to change my thinking, atleast a little bit. Under any circumstance, I need to have a Mercedes.
I thus realised what I can, no wait, what I want to do. I want to go into the restaurant bijness. I anyways eat most of my meals out, I know what I like to eat, where I like to eat, and why I like it. Why not incorporate that into my own restaurant, making it an instance success?
Life quote for the day –
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. – Robert Frost
Kunal Khosla's Krazzy blog 