Sep 20, 2013

Be the main artist in the movie about you.

I read yesterday on Twitter that "Most people in the world will not be the hero in a movie made of their life". There was a positive and negative way to look at the same sentence. Either it says 'your life was led in a very self-less manner and you care more about others than yourself' or that 'you did not control your own destiny and others took over and played central themes in your life'.

Both interpretations are worthy of internalizing in many ways. Yes - one should definitely lead a life where you care about others selflessly. This is most noble of human deeds. However, you should do it with conscious personal choice and with determination instead of being in a situation where there was no option. Your personal choice of selfless service is also worthy a movie. Which is where I tend to take the second explanation as a more appropriate one where you choose to live life in your own terms, take deterministic action, even it it means making significant sacrifices voluntarily. You lead a life that others can emulate and you are the hero and central theme. You have a story.

In my upcoming book 'Rules of the Game', I talk about creating a central story about your career and your life. It should be led with purpose and passion, everything a hero would do in a movie. You need to go out with bang - where the world celebrates what you have done to the world - not just to yourself.