A light in the darkness

I like to read books right from the first page, but this book is something different. I just started with preface and my mind is already smiling. I don't remember, I have given this importance to preface page but this time it meant so much to me. So, it begins with my favorite question: What is your life's goal? Thus, it begins like this: " What do you want to be when you grow up? " The author answers this as : " I had many interests as a kid, and it was easy to choose. If it sounded exciting and glamorous, I wanted to do it. I wanted to be a marine biologist, an astronaut, a Marine, a ship’s officer, a pilot, and a professional football player. I was fortunate enough to achieve three of those goals: a Marine Corps officer, a ship’s officer, and a pilot. I knew I did not want to become a teacher, a writer, or an accountant. I did not want to be a teacher because I did not like school. I did not want to be a writer because I failed English twice. And I dropped out...

This season I am taking inspiration from the book "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki. The preface of the book drew me in even more than his concept did. I will talk about this in the next post; before that, I would like to describe his cashflow quadrant concept. It is also known as the "ESBI model." I title this post as income corner because we chose any one or two of these income corners.  Image credit:   Nathan Dumlao  on Unsplash &  Alexander Schimmeck  on Unsplash                              Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦  on Unsplash &  Ibrahim Rifath  on Unsplash. Created by me on canva. So this cashflow quadrant talks about four ways we can produce income.  1) "E" stands for as an employee. So as an employee you basically trade your time for money. Your pledge to give your time in return for the money you get. Here your income is predictable. 2) ...

  Today I would pause here from passion mindset and craftsman mindset to quarter-life crisis. The topic charms me because this is which we all face and there is no one to guide us at that time.  What is a quarter-life crisis? It is the throbbing question we pose to our own selves, “What am I doing with my life?”coated with anxiety, self-doubt, and pessimism about our future. We all have heard of mid-life crises. What is the difference between a mid-life crisis and quarter-life crisis?  Mid-life crisis  According to (American Psychological Association) APA, a mid-life crisis is the emotional turmoil stage faced by individuals between 35 through 65.  “It is the phase of life transition when he/she starts reflecting on what they have accomplished till date and do they still find satisfaction and purpose in them all,” as quoted by Michael G. Wetter, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist practicing in Los Angeles. If this reflection causes them to feel that they have not...

As I continue reading this book, "So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skill Trumps Passion", the arguments presented just cannot be defended. I feel I should have landed on this book before.  In any business, capital remains the integral element. What is a capital? Capital is anything that grants value or benefit to its owner.  In other words, capital can be anything (financial assets in a business, a factory, a machine, or intellectual property).  Viktor Frankl stressed searching for the meaning of life. One way to do this is to land on a career that will lead us to a place of fulfilling our purpose in life. There is a close bond shared between career and purpose of life. A career is the first battleground where we start to learn about our personal growth. It is the sphere of duty where we find our true motivation to contribute, to build, to transform, and to create what has been invisible till now (our dreams, our imaginations, and our innovations). It is the space whe...

Life has its own way of teaching things. I was lucky enough to secure a good job. This job gave me power over many things. Now, power means to command. This sounds very good, but in actuality, getting work done by your juniors is the real skill of leadership power. Within a few months of my posting, I understood this. So, rather than being bossy, I chose to be participative with them and sweetly make them all work with me. This worked well. This was my first lesson of life—the two sides of power and how to balance both of them and how to make your leadership most meaningful to everyone. The darker side of power, which wants to rule and ruins everything, is always overwhelming. We need to be careful with it; otherwise, it will overpower us and ruin things beyond repair. I am glad that I was in a situation where I had to choose the humble power aspect, which tries to work with everyone without hurting them.  Similar to this lesson is my introduction to the passion hypothesis. I still...

So today I am discussing the conclusions drawn from the passion hypothesis. CONCLUSION #1: Career Passions are Rare Passion means an intense desire and enthusiasm for something.  Now, what is the relationship between this intense enthusiasm and career? Are they related or not? I always enjoyed altruism and did it most often without complaining, but I am not a rich person, and I cannot become a philanthropist at this moment. So, my passion and career go nowhere.  Similar are the results of the study done by Robert J.  Vallerand  in 2002. He found dance, hockey, skiing, reading, and swimming as the common passions of college students. When it comes to offering jobs, it seems very difficult. Does dance actually materialize in a promising career? No. Does skiing provide any jobs? No. Reading provides a good job. No.  I still remember daydreaming about being an artist or a painter and earning a lot. But, in reality, a painter has a very tough life. Then for a while I...