PARENTAL GUIDANCE NEEDED

PARENTAL GUIDANCE NEEDED should also mean guidance needed by parents
I am aware that there are others , much more qualified  than me doing this but I need your help to try and make a difference .
This little piece is inspired ,or rather triggered , by the case of a 8th class student who has decided that cooking is his life . He is already attending classes and courses being taken by " Master Chef " category and speaks quite authoritatively on various aspects of the culinary arts .
He of course continues to attend school but because of his passion finds the energy and time to pursue his interest.
He is fortunate that he has the full support of his parents .
My proposition is that many children , in their formative years , have an idea of what fires them up and what they can spend hours doing without tiring BUT
Run up against the prejudice of many parents that education is education and hobbies are hobbies .
Many things like cooking ,dance ,singing , painting , sports , photography etc can only be hobbies and DO NOT represent avenues for prospective careers - ( read PAYING CAREERS )
According to them a hobby does not fit into the template of a career path !
Juxtapose this with the current scenario of the fate  of hundreds and thousands of Engineering and Medical graduates who are floundering 
Thankfully many parents have started seeing the light but are unsure as to how to proceed in helping their children assess whether THE HOBBY IS ACTUALLY A SUSTAINABLE PASSION and therefore , even though they want the happiness of their children (naturally) are  prone to be cautious and vote for The so called " tried and tested " route.
The purpose of my post is to reach out  to those amongst us who agree with the point I am making and would be willing to contribute their ideas and join me in formulating a strategy to work towards this aim of helping students - through their parents .

I look forward to your  responses / comments

Marketing an Image

Here is a story I read which possibly is far fetched but shows what it means to create demand without having the back up .

Sometimes I wonder if we are not trying to create an image of well being and success by playing on the weakness of others who are known to use such yardsticks , such as what we wear ,where we are seen and with whom we are connected on social media

It's like creating a  market for a product which is not tested and ready .

There was a man who decided that he would create a product for well being
He named it ' Elixir of Life '
He did not have a product nor perhaps the foggiest idea of what it would contain .
He did the following
1. Inserted ads in the papers extolling its virtues  - Great content which caught the eye of dispensing store owners
2. Hired a group of young people and sent them by rotation into  the stores asking for ' Elixir of Life ' which made the stores aware of a demand which needed filling
3. Hired some open backed trucks and got these young people to get on their backs with banners of the product
4. Repeated step 2 and 3 for a couple of days
You can imagine how the purchase officers of the stores scrambled to their phones to place orders on the numbers given in the ads !
His order books were full so he got a supply of bottles with requisite labels.
Now came the rub ! What should he put in them ?
He got cases of whisky , gin and other alcoholic beverages , mixed them all up in his bathtub and bottled it as the Elixir of Life !
What the fate of the product or the man was is lost to history

Do  you see a parallel in what is happening in the real world with the help of social  media where there is a growing population of motivators , trainers and mentors ?

One is never alone - a story

This is a story  i read many years ago but have not forgotten .
In a village in Europe there lived a boy who yearned to be a Doctor . It was his inner calling but his environment and family conditions made it difficult.
One day he made a compact with God that if He would help him become a Doctor he would serve humanity without any personal considerations .
Miraculously doors opened for him and he went to college and university to become a Doctor and start his practice in the rural and remote areas .
In some years his attention was called for in remote and outlying villages which he attended to unflinchingly .
One cold blustery day he had just returned from his round and flung off his overcoat and lay down on the bed when he got a message that his presence was required in a village , the path to which lay through a dense forest in which apparently robbers , thieves , murderers and rapists were operating .
He balked at the prospect of going out and was thinking about how it would be better to do it the next morning when he was reminded about his pledge to God.
So he jumped up and set out . On the path it was getting darker by the minute and suddenly a huge shape loomed up in front of him and blocked his path . Fearing the worst the Doctor waited and the man blocking him said " Do you have a light ? "
Not having one , the Doctor said so and the shape dissolved in the dark and he continued his journey .
After attending to the patient he was returning home the same man stopped him , looked menacing , but just asked if knew the time .
After this harmless interaction he proceeded home and rested .
The next morning he learned that the police had caught the dangerous man who had operated in the forest at night and committed a lot of crimes .
Out of curiosity the Doctor went along to the police station and was shown the apprehended criminal whom he recognised as the shape.
He asked him why he had not harmed him when had two opportunities and the man said :
" Yes I did stop you with the intention to rob you BUT THE OTHER PERSON WITH YOU SCARED ME AWAY "
We are never alone and unprotected.

Entreprenreurship: A True Story

This is something for all the budding entrepreneurs out there whom i hope to be able to assist . If this has already been told pardon me for thinking it's an original . Its not my intention to plagiarize

An object case study of successful entrepreneurship and Out-Of-the-box thinking  comes from some centuries ago in the story of Christopher Columbus . He may not have realised he was doing it, as at that time, there weren't all the proponents of smart tags and terms around !

Out of the box thinking  : 

He had an idea which was way out of line with the logic of the times and decided that if he sailed in a particular direction he would reach India. He believed in that idea despite everything and every one !

Planning : He got down to compass and charts and made a Voyage Plan

Marketing : He successfully defended his plan before those that mattered - The Queen , Court and those others who would finance his trip with ships , human resources and money. He got the investment on the basis of the Returns in terms of riches from the East

Risk : With open eyes he accepted the risk of hostile conditions and the vagaries of the Unknown

Outcome : He reached a destination which was completely off the projected result so some may term him as a failure 

End Result :  His enterprise is rated as having produced one of the best products known to mankind " Gods own Country " and he is revered as it's discoverer.

So , my friends , set out with conviction and a good result is assured . Remember he did it without sophisticated equipment and navigational aids or medical support which we have today !
Just GO FOR IT !

Missionary Zeal

The phrase ' Missionary Zeal ' represents, to my thinking  , the single mindedness of purpose to propagate  and establish anything.
It also implies carrying things through, despite all challenges of opposition and resistance ,  to bring about a desired  outcome.
In history we see examples of this in The Crusades and The Holy War which I suppose helped attach the word Missionary to it.  It definetely seems to have helped build Empires in the previous order of the world though of course the methods and their consequences are recorded in graphic detail and sometimes are quite gruesome , sometimes not very ' Missionary '
Any way , my purpose is to examine what this method entails in  our pursuit of purposes in normal life.
It could be applied to anything from a project for Self Improvement / Development to a project involving men and matter .
First of all its the definition  of purpose
Second is the convincing of others to align with the intention
Third is to get all the required skilled people to work with us towards the expected end
Fourth is to manage the inputs in a balanced manner
The most important is to learn from history that the steadfastness of effort and the Zeal should  not take a Radical form as that has a gory aftermath .
We see  this in many movements of Evangelism of different denominations which is tearing this world apart ! 
This might seem an extreme analogy but to me it translates to autocracy in the projects in the working space and even self development. We would be advised not to become rabid about any path we chose as that alienates those who can help.

Ambush as strategy to know a persons real thinking

To know what or how a person is REALLY thinking  - take them by surprise !
Ambush them in the gulch where they are least expecting it !

Once upon a time , a man came to the court of a great King  and displayed an  ability to speak many languages , fluently .
The court was amazed and the King  got many people ,whose native tongue was different, to speak to the man . He replied each one in their own tongue down to idiom and syntax.
On being asked , several times , the man refused to reveal his origins.
Intrigued , the King said he would offer a large fortune to any one who could discover the secret .
Many clever people approached the man himself and offered him a ' cut ' if he made them the messengers of the answer. He refused !
Then a clever one sneaked into the linguist's chamber in the early hours when he was fast asleep and sprinkled some water on his face .
The man was startled out of slumber uttering  who's that's and what's that's ( including some unprintables ) BUT THEY WERE IN HIS MOTHER TONGUE ! His secret stood revealed !
So while it's not advocated that we go around sneaking into bed chambers sprinkling water on people sometimes it's necessary to catch people with their mask off and defenses down  to know their truth.

Growing up to be someone

The Gem is not polished without friction ‘   – Confucius

“It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside the frame “  - Anonymous

The glorious world of our childhood is so wonderful for most of us when we are foot loose and fancy free. It’s a carefree world of make believe when we can be anything we can imagine.

There, are sown some seeds of our ambitions

As we grow into the world of youth we begin to understand the world better and also , very importantly , ourselves . Some innate intelligence in us and part of our nature draws us into certain ways of thinking. We are successful in some activities and not in some. We try to be like our elders and peers sometimes successfully and sometimes not. However, we try a variety of things to discover where our talents lie .
Here, guided by likes and dislikes we are moulded for adulthood. It may be noticed that we study more of the subject, play more of the games, which come easily to us and we succeed at since that gives us pleasure.

Actually, unconsciously, we are exercising some intelligences and natures which are rooted in us .

These are our strengths which we need to adapt for our adult careers.

As we grow more aware and live in the world around us we tend to select opportunities which present themselves and become rounded personalities.

The secret to success lies in understanding ourselves and then working intelligently to get good grades and excelling at sports or dramatics or something else as well.

But then comes the biggest question in life – what should I aim to do as a career ? What will give me the income I want ? What will help me be satisfied in life ?

Nobody can answer that question better than yourself . But , yes , you may need a helping hand of a parent or teacher or peer or a knowledgeable counsellor 

Its like the setting of yoghurt – in the milk there must be added a sample of yoghurt and after that the yoghurt sets but gets the characterics of the sample and so may be sweet, sour or some other taste . This means in our life as milk, advice from others- the sample - makes us set into a useful condition.

Always take advice from a reliable and tested source