Impact

Life is all about Impact. Either you get impacted or leave an impact. Everything else in between is Blah.

As a child, we grow up learning things. We start with a blank slate; there is a lot of learning. We are good in some subjects; learning is fast. We are poor in some subjects; learning is slow. But gradually, we get better and at some point, instead of raising our hands to ask a question, we are raising hands to give answers, or even more, to give some intelligent comments that even the teacher had not thought of (and some guffaws as well in them!!)

Similarly, in the kitchen, we are all nerds to start with. We learn by observing, following instructions, and doing things in a programmed way. Then gradually, we start doing things ourselves, make toast, apply butter to toast, heat water, make chai, and so on. At some point, we surprise everyone by making an entire meal ourselves!

At the workplace, the story is no different; we start as novices, learning things. This is the stage to ‘get impacted.’  We are absorbing stuff we do not know. Later, as experience grows, we not only operate in an autopilot mode, knowing subconsciously what needs to be done in any given situation, but we have also become managers. We now guide others on how to do stuff- making an impact.

So this is all fine, but what’s the big deal? Why a whole post on ‘impact’? At some point in our life, typically in the 30s and 40s, we feel lost. We are not clear if we still need to be impacted or if we should create an impact. We are not sure about our ‘unknown unknowns’. We are living in a fake sense that we are the best. We are making good in the sport we play professionally, are the Senior VP in the company, have a name in the industry that we operate, etc. We believe we have ‘arrived’ and reached an apostle in life. We are highly ignorant of so much more we may be completely oblivious. That’s a difficult situation to be in. It’s a matter of time before we get ‘pushed aside’ in the field as people find us old and our ideas outdated. There will be younger people in the industry who will learn more than what we know in less than half the time. That’s true in almost every industry and stream. Federer took lesser time to beat Pete Sampras’ record, and Jokovik will beat Federer and Nadal’s records very soon. That’s how life is.

The sooner we realise our shortcomings and accept it the better. The sooner we realise that learning is a lifelong activity, the better.

As the saying goes, if you are the smartest in the room, you are in the wrong place. 

You often go to a social gathering- are you being impacted or leaving an impact? This could be through tact, wit, action or how you carry yourselves. If it’s neither, you are in the dangerous, confused zone, where neither your presence nor absence makes a difference. The host will soon forget you were there, and the guests never knew you in the first place.

If you are browsing content on a platform like os.me, are you here to get impacted or create an impact? If you want to be impacted, come with an open mind to absorb as much content as possible. But have a churning mind that can quickly ascribe meaning and importance to what you are reading, separate signal from the noise and retain the most essential. You can create an impact, not just by writing blogs, but through your comments; share your own perspective on the topic, however crude on unstructured your thoughts are. Sharing them with a broader audience helps to whet them out.

99% of people on this planet have a similar life. They are born, grow up, get educated, get married, have job, have children and die. If you want to be among the 1%, start looking at ways to make an ‘IMPACT”, leave behind a legacy, and get people to remember you for your thought, word, deed or action.