Ashwin Upadhyaya's Blog

Thought of an interesting analogy while talking to my friend.

Getting into a relatively new business is like the formation stages of a queue in front of railway ticket counter (in India). When a ticket counter opens, people rush to be the first person at the queue. The ones who are smartest (by guessing which is the first to open) always have an eye on the counter even when it is closed. Just when it is about to open, they make the run for it. Most don’t make it to the front, yet there is fierce competition. Example: IT industry in the 1980s, Renewable energy now.

Getting into an existing business is like joining the existing queues. You can still move forward but the excitement is missing. Example: IT industry now, Renewable energy 10 years from now.

How does it feel to be Andy Dufresne when he is sentenced to Shawshank? How does it feel to be Chris Gardner when he loses his last bit of money to the government?
I don’t know if I can say “I know how it feels to be him”. But I sure have seen something close to that! And it is the toughest emotion to overcome. The dip can only be experienced. It cannot be read, it cannot be seen.

I just did a reboot by not blogging for 3 weeks and it feels fresh. Extrapolating this to other forms of communication, does it help if

• you stay away from the mobile phone for a day?
• you stay away from the Internet for a couple of days?
• you refrain from talking entirely for a day? (A bit extreme may be)

Anyway, I think there is some benefit at least to the creative section of the mind because of doing this. Probably that is why, poets and artists prefer solitude.