The Significance of Events Vs Journeys In Your Life And Career
Edition #072
Introduction
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IIT Rankers - Where are they now?
Over the last week, there has been a lot of hype, excitement, and celebration in the Indian media about IIT JEE Results in India. IIT(Indian Institute of Technology) JEE exams are among the world's most challenging engineering entrance exams. More than 8,60,000 students registered for IIT JEE in 2023, and 8,20,000 appeared for the exams for 17,385 seats!
One question came up, though, which would be great learning for many - how have the past IIT Rankers done in their life and career, and what can we learn from that?
Reading one article from the Open Magazine Where Are They Now? threw some interesting insights:
Arvind Saraf, JEE 1997 No 1, says, “People used to stare or talk about me when I passed them. If you didn’t do well in a test or exam, people would say, ‘You topped JEE and look at you now’. Sometimes I wished I hadn’t been No 1.” In early 2005, midway through his PhD, while on an internship in India, he decided to stay in India. In June 2009, Saraf and a couple of friends started Swasth India in Mumbai. The NGO provides sustainable health systems customised for specific communities. Saraf’s decision shocked most of his classmates at IIT Kanpur. He said, “A lot of people simply knew me as JEE No 1, so it came as a big surprise to them.” Perhaps, it would have been less shocking if Aravind Saraf hadn’t been JEE No 1. So like many other toppers, he is happy to dissociate himself from the tag slowly. Now, he is now doing a stealth mode startup. Arvind shares his thoughts and experiences on the blog he writes here - The Road Not Taken
Prasanna Ganesan, JEE No 1 in 1996, says, “There’s the hedonistic option—you can graduate, get a good job with great pay, work 40 hours a week and chill out,” he says. “It’s a really attractive option—you can devote time to your hobbies, travel around. That’s when you need to decide on the extent of your ambition and whether you want to motivate yourself to set higher goals. It’s a tough decision.” Ganesan chose a job that excited him. Today, he is the founder and CEO of Machinify, Inc., which aims to drive an AI-powered revolution in healthcare operations, helping people receive the right treatment at the right time and at the right price.
Rajesh Gopakumar, JEE No 1 in 1987, went through several introspective phases when he wondered how he could contribute to development efforts in India and continue his career. Rajesh Gopakumar is now a theoretical physicist and the director of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR) in Bangalore, India.
Ashish Goel, JEE No 1 in 1990, says “ “It [his being a JEE topper] didn’t come up when I interviewed for a professor’s position at Stanford, neither did it come up when I interviewed with Twitter.com earlier this year to help them on a project,” says the Stanford University professor for operations research and theoretical computer science. “But, it’s good to have more than one thing on your obituary.” Today, Ashish Goel continues to be an Associate Professor at Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering and (by courtesy) in Computer Science Dept.
In another article in The Mint, IIT Toppers - The brightest men in India? talks about other issues with coaching classes and the ‘herd mentality’ Indian parents have while highlighting how these toppers have done in their life. But there are other interesting findings:
First, it is rare to find an IIT topper (at least the ones over the past two decades) who is still in India.
Most toppers gravitate towards academics as their bent of mind is such.
The top rank, however, does not find a mention either in their resumes or Linkedin profiles.
Finally, it is summarised very beautifully by Nitin Gupta, JEE No 1, 2000, who is an Assistant Professor at IIT Kanpur’s Biological and Bioengineering department - “Being a JEE topper makes no difference...than if you were a JEE rank 50 or rank 100 (except possibly in the initial allocation of the branch)—your career after that depends on what you learn and how well you do in IIT and afterwards".
Tim Ferris: How to Learn Better And Create A Better Future
In The Huberman Lab Podcast, Tim Ferris, a five-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, technology investor and host of the iconic podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, is in conversation with Dr. Andrew D Huberman.
Huberman and Tim Ferris discuss Tim’s process of exploration, experimentation and mastery — themes that have spanned his career that has placed him on the cutting edge of many important fields. Tim explains what questions to ask when approaching any new endeavour in order to maximise success. He also explains how to incorporate structure and playfulness into skill and knowledge mastery, how to find and work with mentors, and the critical importance of location and networks in creating truly impactful things.
The conversations include a wide range of topics from writing and structured thinking, origin of good ideas, diet, mental health, mentors, making meaning of suffering, parenthood etc.
Listen to the full episode here:
India’s Living Bridges
These are bridges in Nongriat, Meghalaya - in the North-Eastern part of India.
Some of these bridges are over 100-200 years old, and they have been built from the roots of rubber trees by entangling and knotting them together at both ends with trunks of wood or trees etc. They become strong bridges as these trees and their roots grow over the years. For the remote villages in this part of India, it has provided a pathway for the people in this region to commute to the main city market, do business and manage their life.
Here are some key highlights:
These kinds of bridges are still being built by the villagers here, and some are aware that they may not live to see the new bridges they are building. The reason is that the roots (connected over both sides of a river or a valley to form a bridge) will grow only over time to take shape and become strong. It may take more than 40-45 years, but they believe they are doing what their forefathers did for them for the next generation.
The villagers here have built incredible patience to wait 45 years to have these new bridges ready for others to use in the future while using the bridge built by the earlier generation.
It is a perfect coalition of man and nature. Also, the materials grow stronger and stronger every day, while most materials on which things are built typically grow weaker and weaker every day!
Watch the above video, or you can click to see a documentary about India’s Living Bridges here.
The Significance of Events Vs Journeys In Your Life And Career
Reading through the article on IIT rankers, ‘Where are they now.’ and also the philosophy behind the living bridges, one crucial point that struck a chord was the fact that - ‘It is important not get carried away by one-off events in your Life or Career’ and the importance of patience when you know your journey.
How are events and journeys different?
In a long span of life or a career, many events happen in our lives. Events are one-time happenings that we experience - it could be getting a top rank in IIT/exams or a seat in IIT or admission to an Ivy League college, or getting a coveted job in a top company or getting a promotion in the job or an award etc. Very often, events tend to give a ‘momentary illusion of success’ or ‘joy of achievement’, but it is often forgotten that it is nothing but a small milestone in a long journey that is about to happen or happening in your life or career. However, if the event were the only goal, it would be a problem.
Also, failure of any event like ‘Not cracking IIT JEE’, ‘Not cracking GMAT, GRE’, ‘Not getting promoted’, ‘Not getting that coveted job’ or ‘Failure in college’ are mere events if the journey is clear or if you can discover your journey quickly. If the journey is clear or you keep working on your intended journey, then this can be passed off as a one-off event, and you can work hard towards the more significant journey.
In contrast, a journey has several connected or unconnected events that one experiences, but the time could be elongated or extended over a long period. Therefore, several successful and unsuccessful events stack up to make a journey. For example, if one is not clear about the journey they are pursuing or wants to pursue, even successful events act as a barrier to any further growth. The critical reason is that there is no motivation to do better or work towards continuously improving for the larger goal in the journey that one wants to reach - as there exists none. Even if the journey is known, further efforts to learn must be put in to reach the next milestone with an all-encompassing focus rather than resting on past laurels or successful one-off events.
Comparing this with Living Bridges, small roots are like the events, but a bridge gets built only when the small roots are entangled and knotted. Many small roots contribute to the bridge being built and grown, and it happens over 40-45 years. So, too are the one-off events that happen in one’s life if not harnessed and built on further. Also, some events in your life or career may look insignificant, like the roots being entangled now. The results may not be visible or felt today by you, but they continue to build or grow with more efforts from your side to help you achieve the journey you want to pursue and reach.
Also, it may be essential to know you may discover new journeys you may want to pursue halfway through your life or career. That is perfectly ok and acceptable. But, the path towards the new journey requires an equally significant investment of time and effort from your side.
Successful events in your life without a journey or a road map will render them meaningless. Also, many of us are not told, or it becomes too late when we discover that life or career is like a living bridge. You need to keep having the same curiosity and discipline once an event has happened, as it will soon be forgotten, and that may not be good enough to take you to the next level. Most people lose steam at this point or revel in momentary success. They neither want to learn nor put in more effort as they feel they have accomplished the goal that they were striving for. In contrast, it is indeed just a mere event in their journey.
Often, events and journeys are confused, and that is the reason when you ask the question, ‘Why am I here, where I am now?’ - is a very tough question to answer for yourself, especially after one or two or three or four decades in your life or career. Often, ‘Cracking IIT JEE’, ‘Getting that Six-Figure-Salary’, ‘Getting that new job’, ‘Finding another high-paying job or company’ and ‘Getting a promotion’ are like the roots of the living bridge. It would be best if you learned to entangle and connect them to the more significant journey you want to accomplish or understand some of these events may not help you accomplish the journey you want to reach. And this understanding requires extreme patience to keep building, improving and not being susceptible to doing certain things( like a herd mentality) year after year. What’s more, this needs to be done consistently over the years. Suddenly, when you look back after two-or-three decades, you will understand the difference between an event and a journey.
It is essential to avoid getting swayed by one-off events. You can take inspiration from Living Bridges for your life and career. Consider every little event as a root for your more significant journey. Try to connect them to the next event or milestone to keep growing them over time. You must develop patience over many decades to see its impact and outcome. But you can rest assured if you understand the difference between events and journeys, you will be leaving a lasting impact on your profession or anything that you do and also on all the colleagues you have worked with.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
The world and the ones close to you want to celebrate events but don’t lose focus on the journey. Determining the journey is essential.
The importance of adding structure and playfulness in what we set out to do and how it can significantly help build skill, knowledge and mastery.
Patience is the most essential foundation for lasting impact. Overnight success is exciting, but over time success makes you legendary.