And we perfect, most dangerously, our children. Let me tell you what we think about children. They're hardwired for struggle when they get here. And when you hold those perfect little babies in your hand, our job is not to say, "Look at her, she's perfect. My job is just to keep her perfect -- make sure she makes the tennis team by fifth grade and Yale by seventh." That's not our job. Our job is to look and say, "You know what? You're imperfect, and you're wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging." That's our job. Show me a generation of kids raised like that, and we'll end the problems, I think, that we see today. We pretend that what we do doesn't have an effect on people. We do that in our personal lives. We do that corporate -- whether it's a bailout, an oil spill ... a recall. We pretend like what we're doing doesn't have a huge impact on other people. I would say to companies, this is not our first rodeo, people. We just need you to be authentic and real and say ... "We're sorry. We'll fix it."
"And we perfect, most dangerously, our children. Let me tell you what we think about children. They're hardwired for struggle when they get here. And when you hold those perfect little babies in your hand, our job is not to say, "Look at her, she's perfect. My job is just to keep her perfect -- make sure she makes the tennis team by fifth grade and Yale by seventh." That's not our job. Our job is to look and say, "You know what? You're imperfect, and you're wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging." That's our job. Show me a generation of kids raised like that, and we'll end the problems, I think, that we see today. We pretend that what we do doesn't have an effect on people. We do that in our personal lives. We do that corporate -- whether it's a bailout, an oil spill ... a recall. We pretend like what we're doing doesn't have a huge impact on other people. I would say to companies, this is not our first rodeo, people. We just need you to be authentic and real and say ... "We're sorry. We'll fix it."
But there's another way, and I'll leave you with this. This is what I have found: To let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen ... to love with our whole hearts, even though there's no guarantee -- and that's really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, that's excruciatingly difficult -- to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we're wondering, "Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?" just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, "I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm alive." And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we're enough. Because when we work from a place, I believe, that says, "I'm enough..." then we stop screaming and start listening, we're kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves..."
For millions of years Homo sapiens inhabited this planet and evolved with time once they stood straight, making a perpendicular angle to the land beneath, unlike all other species that move parallel to ground. This one small change made a big difference and Homo sapiens not only become the super-species soon but also left their footprint on almost every traversable surface of the planet. However this journey took millions of years before the Man become settled and started a civilization.
At these times of Bullet Trains, Hyperloops and recent Bugatti Chiron Car [with record-breaking, literally, and unimaginably insane speed of 304 Miles per hour – 7 times faster than the fastest Horse of the planet!] it might sound absolutely unbelievable and almost crazy to imagine that our predecessors explored this planet on foot by walking all that cross-continent distance. Apart from their tenacity and perseverance to map this globe on foot, what’s more interesting is their patience and endurance to continue the expedition without having slightest idea of where to head, how far the destination(?) is, how long will it take to reach there and what are the challenges that are waiting en route.
The real development per se started with the invention of Agriculture and it shifted gears with industrial revolution when humans discovered various means of energy that could be put to good productive use. Latest phase of Digital revolution is the fastest one and within a span of less than 40 years it has changed everything that we used to do for ages in an evolved manner and pattern. It has not only changed our physical activities with invent of latest gadgets and robots that are able to ‘sense’ a pending ‘task’, complete it immediately and efficiently, also report it articulately in a most professional manner, but this revolution has also changed the way we cognize, sense, engage, think and act or (mostly) react!
The life (of only humans) has become so incredibly hasty (perfectly rhymes with nasty!) that the scarcest commodity of the date is TIME! Everybody is in a mindless hurry and hence moving from point A (Ambition) to point B (Business) at a rocketing speed in anticipation to reach point C (Contentment) at some point in future, couldn’t see the D (Delusion) it is hitting at every signal on route!
When there is a downpour and all the water streams and rivers are flooded overcapacity, everything that falls in the flow gets carried away with the strong current of the water and even the living beings couldn’t escape this drifting because of the power of the flow that drags them. Entire human civilization seems to have got stuck in such a powerful current that is towing it mindlessly and the species couldn’t do a thing about it… most helpless state of the most evolved species at most developed times... what a pity!
Coming to the point, this entire process of evolution that is in the top gear at the moment and moving almost with a speed of that Bugatti Chiron, has made some fundamental changes in the age-old behavior patterns of humans like, unlike their ancestors who walked from continent to continent, today’s Smart man doesn’t even move an inch before checking availability, quality of the provisions it needs and running a quick comparative analysis for the options it has for them. In another example it has become a thing of past to tune in the radio and wait for your favorite song to play as Gaana and Carvaan had made that entire experience obsolete.
At such hurried and self-centered times, it won’t only be insane but almost stupid to expect people to read a long 2-3 pages of (Social?) message (without images?) in anticipation of a paradigm shift in people’s mentality and demeanor. However it is not only imperative but almost inevitable to spread a word about a social change for a wrong-doing that is either unrecognized or presumed otherwise in certain set of conditions, like - peeing in open or smoking in public or telling lies for short-term gain at the cost of someone’s permanent loss. Technology has made it easy to share audio-visuals (videos) and it’s a fact that if a picture is worth thousand words, a short film is worth a book.
How short is long enough is the question, though! Well, an advanced psychological study of human mind says that the attention span of humans has reduced to 10 Seconds! Yes, you read it right… just 10 Secs! If you find it hard to believe, just pick up your Smartphone, go to gallery and open any WhatsApp video that is of about 2 minutes length. Now see how many times you would forward it to rush through what seems irrelevant to you and where you stop to find some meaningful ‘action’! That explains the findings of the study and what a marketer would be if he won’t make most of the psyche of his target audience?
The bottom-line is, it’s okay if you have a story to tell, its good if you know how to tell it effectively and its great if you have all the resources to make a full-fledged feature film… the million dollar question is… would it find any audience, lest being viral on YouTube with millions of hits unless it features Nora Fatehi…? So the biggest skill of the day is to share your story with an eloquent message that is not only spot on but fits within 10 Seconds and still has an impact of a full-length movie or a 1000 pages book. If you think this is impossible and could only be imagined, here’s what Facebook has come up with…
Thumbstoppers – A platform to showcase and celebrate creativity in Mobile Video Advertising by bringing together best of advertising & marketing talent that is launched in partnership with CCOs from the top 6 Advertising Agencies in the region to redefine storytelling that evoke emotions under 10sec to change human behavior. Thumbstoppers is aimed to inspire, educate and empower creative agencies to believe that powerful storytelling is possible in less than 10 secs video ads… Creatively yours, indeed!
Check out Top 16 films produced by Facebook, selected from 3500 scripts across 4 categories, out of which 4 winners will travel to Cannes 2020... and get inspired!
This man is not just realizing and living Gandhiji’s dream of Gram-swarajya but is also helping the society to take a holistic perspective of life. This Seventh Grade educated Sarpanch of village Patoda in Aurangabad District of State of Maharashtra is imparting the practical knowledge of education, active participation, coexistence, good governance and agriculture market dynamics.
Apart from being an ISO Certified Grampanchyat, his village has received about 26 Awards and about 3 Crore Indian Rupees as token of appreciation of his efforts. I salute this Management Guru Mr. Bhaskar Pere who has transformed a small village of about 600 households and population of only about 3,500 that is today living an enriched and fulfilled life under his able guidance. India definitely needs more such villages than the broken cities that are on ventilator despite their ‘SMART-ness’!
Lest his language and mannerism that might sound little crude at times owing to his strong roots of typical rural Indian background, his ingenuity radiating wisdom of a Varkari is extraordinary. In a completely urban-dominated scenario and a self-centered destructive understanding of 'developed' life and times when nothing seems positive to look up to, this discourse is not only absolutely comforting and optimistic but it transfuses inspiration and motivation with each of its word. Believe it or not, this seemingly ordinary uneducated villager who would easily go unnoticed in any ‘conditioned’ environment, has learned life extremely well and also posses the acumen to present it brilliantly with excellence of an orator and composure of a philosopher without any flamboyance of being any type of Guru!
He talks about Anthropology, Education, Agrarian Economy and Models of Good Governance with the same flair and authoritative disposition. His own example fits on him best when he says that Jijau, mother of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj could spot the talent of a blacksmith for noticing the defilement in the sword iron just at a glance and appoint him the head of weaponry. Had this been that era of good governance, Jijau must have made Mr. Bhasker Pere Head of Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture, if not Minister of Agriculture, Finance or Human Resource Development. Alas, we have this FPTP (first-past-the-post) system of elective governance that can be manipulated and not the HTTP (no, not Hyper Text Transfer Protocol; honor-the-talent-performance!) selective system of governance.
May we see more and more such true philosophical leaders with practical approach that are truer in deeds than their words, transforming villages like Patoda leading from the front incessantly, selflessly and impulsively…!
