Now the question was how do I go about it, so I did the most cliched thing ever I joined the family business not to fool myself that I was doing business but rather to understand how businesses work. It was complete chaos. Every day felt like today’s the day it all fails. Every day there was a new challenge, sometimes it was the supply chain, sometimes the buyer and sometimes the production but somehow, we persisted and were ready to face the same challenges the next day. Some might say I traded cashews for walnuts, but I enjoyed every moment of my time there. When I did start my own venture in a field not even remotely connected to my undergrad major, contrary to the general perception I did not feel that my four years at college had gone waste but rather my skills as a developer came in handy at every turn. In a world where every business must have an online presence before it even starts production on any scale, I was able to build that with zero investment using the open source tools I was exposed to at my first job. As engineers, we are wired to cover entire syllabus in a night and it came in handy when I had to learn about the components that were to be used in my products in a short span of time and then apply what I had learnt to make improvements of my own. Drawing parallels from the testing parameters we used for the software components I was able to structure a testing and quality assurance procedure without hiring any external consultancy services. Though I was in a different field yet it seemed like I was being trained for this exact job all my life, and that according to me is the entire point of getting an education.
Life is too uncertain and unpredictable to operate in a straight path. There are intersections and diversions according to which you have to adjust while maintaining your motion forward. Though the jury is still out on whether the path I took tenders me as a success or a failure, I did learn a couple of things from my experience. The purpose of education is the enlightenment of the mind, not to mould you for a certain job or task. While there are always certain desired skills for each job but that does not mean that choosing an alternate career path would render the skills acquired previously useless. Your skills are your own and what really matters is how you apply them. Change is the only constant in the world and one should not be afraid of it. The choices from the past should not govern the choices for the future. Difficult decisions are often the most liberating ones. It is okay to quit something that doesn’t bring you joy but never the quest to find that joy.
As far as the phrases go I would extend the aforementioned one a little. When life gives you lemons, ask yourself if you’re content with lemonade; if not, give those lemons back and fight for the fruit your heart desires.
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