The Purple Cow

After successfully meeting my original goal of writing 100 blog posts in 100 days, I fell in love with the grind so much that I ended up with 632 posts. Barring the last 50 posts, pretty much everything was written on a daily basis over a course of 1.5 years. This unique adventure has shaped me as a writer, thinker and overall established me as an ambitious challenge-seeker.

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No loss is a big deal in life, when you think of it on a metaphysical level.

7 billion people are breathing oxygen in and out just fine every single minute despite what you are going through. The atoms in your body don’t stop functioning because of your sorrow. To put it differently, the universe doesn’t care about your loss or victory.

Remember these words, especially in your failure. Because, our human tendency to feel sorry makes us feel exactly that: SORRY.

There’s no point crying over spilt milk. A mistake if made, should not hamper your courage of going after your aspirations. It should rather teach you a lesson and remind you of a naked truth that you probably missed before. That is it.

The moment you wake up to the reality that failure is a kind of blessing in disguise, you will be empowered again. When it arrives, it brings some hint of the future. May be its time to change your path. May be its time to unleash some other hidden dimension in you. May be its time to restart from scratch. 

Embrace it. Accept it. Infact, some of the greatest people who walked on this planet before us, have showed us tons of times that they always welcomed failure. Edison while inventing the electric bulb. Lincoln while running for the President. The Wright brothers while building their first airplane. They have failed over and over again. But that didn’t stop them.

"What did that guy in the coffee-house think about my dress?"

"I should not forget to email Jennifer about the $10 she owes me."

"I totally don't understand how Bill could have landed that $100k job. He was a dumbass in school."

"I hate Andriod. I hate Andriod. Rick has it and I hate Andriod."

"When does the next season of Big Bang Theory start?"

"Why does my iPod not have another 2000 songs?"

"How many more days do I have to wait until my new Xbox One arrives?"

"Who's unfollowing me in my twitter account?"

"Wait, let me count the number of hot friends that I should invite to my brithday."

Take a moment and read the above statements again.

If your day just passed with almost all or similar thoughts and concerns only, it is best you wake up from your state of irrelevance.

Life, the most amazing gift you have been given, is already going down the drain. There are only a handful of worthwhile things you can do before your time runs out. Like chasing a passion. Like solving a world changing problem. Like making a few people happy. Like finding your purpose in life.

Dip your head into those thoughts and let your trifles of today take the backseat. They can wait. 

We often under-estimate the importance of fear.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous but having some kind of fear in our mind is actually useful. We, humans, perform best when we are challenged.

It could be a physically impossible task, or a creatively unsolvable problem, regardless, we will be stoked when there is fear of failure involved.

Because then the success not only depends on your skillset but clearly on your sheer will power. And everytime your will power is questioned, you become better out of it and not worse.

The only way you can demonstrate courage is by conquering your deepest fears. We need more courageous people on the planet. Not the ones who hide behind their inabilities and excuses and blame the world around them.

Mark Twain once rightfully said, 

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."

In October 2012, an Austrian man called Felix Baumgartner flew high up to the edge of stratosphere and jumped from space onto the ground with a parachute. 

Are you still complaining about how impossible your next project is?

(Click on the image to watch the awesome video)

Most marketing and advertising we see feels so artificial. Because it is not done with an intention to be remarkable.

It is done to simply increase the revenue for the company. 

That is why those ads look and feel like every other ad you know. 

Average.

On the contrast, brands that have a strong purpose radiate that energy in their communication.

At Apple, Steve believed that the most important thing was the people's relationship to the product. 

That's why he took so much care to even the minute forgettable details like the packaging of an iPhone. 

You can't simply rest on your bed and make your dreams come true. 

You need to hustle. You need to be up on your feet and make conscious decisions that take you in the direction of your dreams.

Often times, these decisions don't come easy. You may have to get rid of a few old habits, or let go of a few temptations to stay focused. 

And that's not even the tough part. The really hard part is trotting ahead into the unknown zone. The future as exciting as it might sound is also scary. Remember how it feels like when you start a new project? There are a ton of things that aren't obvious and thereby can drive you crazy. 

But you can't hold back to the safety of your status quo. Yes, it is always easier to do what you have done yesterday, be it the office job you've been working since 2 years or that studio gig you've been playing since 3 months, it's easy to NOT break the flow. But if it's not getting you where you want, you should by all means, drop it and pick up a new challenge.

Talking about exactly similar situations in life, the legendary American psychologist Abraham Maslow carved out a great quote:

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

Sometimes, finding the problem is.

A lot of things in life are taken by a lot of us for granted.

We say to ourselves and others, "That works this way. This works that way." And we spare no more creative energy in questioning the norm.

Research is about finding solutions. Yes. But that's almost always the easy part. Nobel prize-level groundbreaking research is usually based around a problem no one has ever imagined before. So, identifying which problem to solve is usually the tougher nut to crack.

Pause before you plunge right ahead into your work next time. Are you digging through an already answered question? Then, may be it is time to frame a new question. Go where no one's imagination has gone so far. Bring that to the main-stream discussion and solve it!

Most of us  Very few of us strongly believe in perfecting things.

They believe in the ideals, the principles and the philosophy of quality so obsessively. It is ingrained deep down in their DNA that they can't let an average looking, average feeling product out into the market.

It could be a song they are creating on an iPad, or the video they are making for Youtube audience, or a creative ad poster for the local music festival, or a blogpost on Wordpress.

They crave to make it better. Nicer. Prettier. Any idea that's not remarkable is like kitchen mice to them. They chase it to death. 

Simply put, their bar and standard for excellence is so high up in the sky.

I am all game for such levels of matchless excellence. Infact, i myself crave dearly to create something that lasts, that excels, that inspires people every day. But here's the catch:

You can't be perfect on day 1. Differently put, you will suck on day 1. 

Yes, no matter where you come from, what your educational background is, what your talent level is, you will suck big time in your first attempt. Now, what are you going to do about that? Will you sit back and say, may be, some other time, I'll find better resources or better mindset to launch a perfect product? Nope!

Keep your bar high, sure, but let that not be a barrier of progress. The only way the legends have done it so perfectly is by practice. Not by luck.

The cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar didn't start his career with 10,000 runs and went to 0. He began with 0 and broke every record with practice and laser-focus. Perfection is the after-effect of perseverance. Quality is the servant of practice.

Excellence is the finish line. Not the pre-requisite to start a marathon. You know what's the pre-requisite to start a marathon? Having the guts to admit that you know nothing and yet leaping forward!

Every once in a while, I give myself a great advice.

To shut up.

We are so used to striving every moment to make a point. We want to be correct all the time. We want to be heard all the time. We yearn to be noticed and appreciated and understood all the time. 

But come on, give me a break. Agreed that the nitty gritty details of today are pretty important, but what about the big picture of life?

What about things that will shape your future and destiny? Who's giving them a thought? 

You should. Every once in a while. 

Shut off from trivial mundane things in life. Sit back and quiet your mind. 

Let calmness seep in slowly. Decelerate your thought velocity. Act like there's no rush. Hush your heart beat. And whisper to yourself mentally the story of your life.

Recall your past, mainly for the lessons you learnt. 

Glance through your present and be thankful for every bright thing you have.

Envision a future with hope and faith on getting better as a person and making a difference in this world as much as you can.

This process might just take about 60 minutes but I bet its worth it. You will regain the energy and drive you need to light up your day. Try it!

Artist is alone, aloof and quite detached from the world. He loves his art, believes his vision and lives his day celebrating the various good things about art. An artist goes everywhere his art takes him. To those lonely beaches, away from civilization, into those serene forests and farm houses, doing the simplest of all things like gardening, farming and sky-watching. He has to be simple. Only then art respects him. And will stay with him.

Manager is admist people always. He is incredibly attached to the set of folks he is with. He loves people, be it his team-mates, smiling neighbors or in general his community. He ignores their negatives and celebrates their bright things. He goes where they take him. To the movies, to the clubs, to the bars, to the perfect holiday spots and raises his glass every time for someone.

He should drive the best car in town, do the best job in the circle and take care of his folks like no one else can.He has to be sophisticated. Only then people admire him and will stay with him.

But, what if you wanna be both? 

Entrepreneurs are usually people like that.

Artist with people.

Manager with purpose.

You have to be detached though you are attached to people. You have to be dispassionate though you are passionate to your art. That's the toughest job in the world. 

When you are striving to become better, by all means be tenacious.

Fill your heart with positive energy. Seek hope and optimism from every corner of your day. Tune out your mind from the negative voices.

Speaking about tenacious, I can't help but recall the Mahatma and his poignant words about British:

“They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then they will have my dead body, but not my obedience.”

Shows his capacity of will power. His tenacity to stay strong on his beliefs.

Be like the Mahatma.

Back then, you weren't a different species. 

Yet you believed in most things. 

Yet you craved for doing what your heart said and not worried about logic.

Yet you smiled more and frowned less.

Yet you touched more people, loved more people, talked to more people.

Yet you shared what you had, be it your lunch sandwich, winter sweaters, or mathematics homework.

Yet you dreamt bigger than most people permitted you for.

Go back in your memory lane and peep into your childhood once. You didn't have a different heart and a different set of eyes.

It was all in the openness and faith on life. On your parents. On your friends. On the world in general. 

I totally understand you when you say you have gone through worse things in life since those bright childhood days, but still, you have no reason not to believe in yourself. Believe in others. Believe in this incredible beauty called "Life".

You are free. 

What a powerful and grateful state to be. But to make you realize and appreciate what you have, let me put the same statement in a different perspective.

You are free. You are not in jail.

And you have every right and reason to be thankful for that. Coz no matter how big your problems for today day look like, you are free. And that means, you can make things better. There is hope. Technically you should be happy. 

For 27 years, Nelson Mandela was put in jail for no apparent reason. He was locked in because he fought for justice. For truth. For equality. What we assume as natural human rights today had to be fought for during those days. He stood against all odds and spend almost his life-time in a prison for a cause. If someone had to feel hopeless, he should have. But he didn't.

There is a lesson here. You don't own all the problems in the world. There are much bigger hardships and unjust acts innocent people are being subjected to. So, don't you frown a lot over silly things. Appreciate what you have. 

And have hope in your heart. Everything will fall in place. 

Click on this amazing poem below, "Invictus" written by William Ernest Henley, which Mandela read out to himself every single day he spent in jail. Seems like it worked for him to remember there is hope. It's your turn now. Try it.

Some people spend their entire life time on ifs and buts.

Every day they are busy calculating the risk of going after their dreams in exchange of a little comfort that conventional safe life provides.

They spend the entire energy they have for the day on finding 1000 excuses to convince themselves that, 'taking a different' path is a bad idea. Why should you risk your comforts and endanger everything that's perfect, they say?

The answer is rather straight forward. The only way you can make yourself count, or make history, or carve out a legacy for yourself, is by defying the norm. It is by swimming across the stream, and especially, sticking to your belief during the tough patches. 

Because, you can't win an F1 race sitting in the passenger seat. Heck, there isn't even a passenger seat in the race car. It is all upon you. You drive your own destiny. No one else does.

If you hesitate too much, without dipping your feet in the cold river, you will remain forever at the bank. A safe and conventional path won't be respected at the end. What matters is what you have done going out of the way. What matters is if you had taken the plunge or not.

No matter what your answer is for this question, you already have a few distractions I can surely guarantee. 

In fact, everyone does. Winners and losers both have distractions. 

After working hard for 8-10 hrs at your work place, you come home panting for a quick nap. Or to get lost in a petty distraction. No doubt, your body deserves the rest it needs. There's no escape there. 

The real catch is in choosing the list of distractions you let yourself have.

A. Lazing around with friends(who aren't even that close) and simply discussing plot lines of that latest TV show (ex: Big Bang Theory) is a distraction.

B. Reading a great book to bed after 2 days of heavy work is also a distraction. 

A. Responding to every like, share, tweet, retweet, mention or photo-gazing on Facebook (or infact any social media site) is a distraction.

B. Spending valuable time with people who push your dreams forward is also a distraction.

A. Celebrity gossip, tabloid magazines, in-house parties, late night drives, bar hopping and window shopping are distractions.

B. Working on your favorite creative piece, be it building websites, writing code, learning violin, mastering the art of writing, or building a startup at your garage are also distractions.

I didn't intentionally highlight the list A, because it won't highlight you a bit in your life. List B is what losers hate to pick. And precisely the reason why they remain losers.

Art originates from the heart. Not anywhere outside. 

Infact, there is no place in the world where art can be found. It is deep within our own soul where a spark ignites an idea. That transforms into a thought process. Which manifests into something tangible using our skills and craftsmanship.

So as an artist, the real challenge for you is not to blame your tools if you aren't performing well. A remarkable novelist could be short of words sometimes. A painter could lose his touch. A ballet dancer's gait might become flawed. Then is the time, you should purge your inner clutter. From within the deepest roots of your mind. Cleanse your soul from the clichèd worldly expectations of you. Don't be who they want you to be. Become what you really badly desire from within. Once that's done, your ideas will come back to you. Like a flowing stream. Like a blossoming flower.

Everything around you is then your canvas. The entire world. 

Read this beautiful quote that describes the power of art in one sentence:

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

- Antoine de Saint Exupéry