VIBGYOR@VJIM

Whatever you do, wherever you go – you will be a winner if you think differently – and be different! You can begin being different when you are in high school, when you’re in college or when you have begun working. Some of us are born with a ‘questioning mind’ and may end up with an attitude of destructive disobedience – to the great dismay of our parents, teachers and bosses! Others among us are also born with a questioning mind but with an attitude of ‘constructive disobedience.’ They are found welcome in the corporate world and are often encouraged by progressive organization to become ‘intrapreneurs.’ That is – act as if they are independent entrepreneurs (or businessmen) but work within the boundaries of the organization.

When you look around you there are so many things that could be different, better, perhaps cheaper. I read in the Times of India some time back about a US scientist who had used corn residues to develop a novel packaging film that could destroy Listeria monocytogene, a rod shaped bacterium that causes food poisoning in animals and humans. It is a biodegradable poly acid (PLA) film, from a renewable material. What a fantastic idea. Why didn’t anyone think of this before? It is because Tony Jin of the US Department of Agriculture in Pennsylvania thought differently – and thus made a difference to the US and to the world.

And of course, there is a time and place for all new ideas. Many ideas are before their time and therefore, do no create an impact. These new ideas must find fertile ground, so that the seeds will germinate and sprout and grow into plants. Would Amazon.com or E Bay or Naukri.com or Shaadi.com have been a success, fifteen or even ten years ago, who knows – but it is unlikely. It needed a certain population of computers; and a certain population with a receptive mind set – to enable them to be a big success. These were great ideas, which are delivered to us in palatable packaging just as we are hungry for them.

However, this may be as a ‘tipping point’ it pays to think differently – and be different even if eight seeds fall on arable land and only two ideas succeed and change either the immediate environment; the community, country and sometimes, the world.

Praveen Kumar Jha