Rajesh Jain of Emergic has been writing very thoughtful letters to his newly born and sharing his values in life. This post quite touched somewhere. Here is an excerpt
This quote (via Atanu) by Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect, sums up what I think should be your philosophy for life. “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”
When you are ready to make your mark in the world, keep these words in mind. Too often, we are happy with the mundane, the ordinary. All around, we see mediocrity. People are happy being good. Good is the enemy of Great. We get into a groove, a comfort zone, and stay there. Don’t. We live only once. Dream big. We are where we are today only because a few in our past dared to think different and envision a world that could be.
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Beta Thoughts is the weblog of Pankaj Narula. Pankaj works in the enterprise software space as a SAP NetWeaver Solution Architect at ACS Systech of San Jose CA. You can read more about me on About page or see my LinkedIn profile by clicking below.
Now Reading
Planned books:
- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most by Douglas Stone
- Co-Opetition : A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation : The Game Theory Stra by Adam M. Brandenburger
- Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics by Eric D. Beinhocker
Current books:
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Micromotives and Macrobehavior by Thomas C. Schelling
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The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and S by Michael A. Cusumano
Recent books:
- Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler
- Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher
- Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins by Tom Perkins
One Response
airtoni
August 5th, 2005 at 9:20 am
1true that we are heer today as aresult of a few before us thinking differently, but i would presume that many put this in the context of “gee these are smart people, the first ever. soon enough we will all evolve to their level.”.
(big bad buzzer sound), no i put forth the idea that we are all capable of these betifully orderd dreams, and it is more likely that the mundanitiy and mediocrity have been inter-woven into the peseants culture by way of popularlly crafted myths. For who in the western capatlist world can fight the modern meme of ‘nice guys finish last’.
I come from a place in australia where there are only a couple million people living, but i garuantee you that on any street corner, at any hour of the day, for no reason whatso ever there will be are ten million experts on any given subject, all talking at once whilst assuming your a fool and don;t know where alice springs is. You can tell these people by the way their mouth starts to open, just waiting for you to finish talking so they can expel their diatribe.
So i live knee deep in mediocrity, australia is another word for fucking brainless fools. but they are kept that way with meat pies and afl, maaate!
In the roman empire, there was an emporer (what a coincadence!) who was afraid that if the people took an active intrest in the day to day political affairs of rome then they would most likelly rebel and a civil war would ensue. Thus the colloseum was made, it distracted the people with roughly two-thirds of the year being games. You might then say “hang on didn’t the greeks also have games”, well yes, infact a lot more but the difference was that the greeks used the games as a way to better one’s self for all were allowed to compete, whereas the romans… well they became pssive spectators to the life they are surrounded by, which paved the way for a consumerist culture, like ours.
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