The journey from Javelin to Football

Mukund is 18 years old and is asked to take sports as an extra-curricular activity at his university. He is confused between two choices; one is javelin throw and another is football. Since his school days he has always been into javelin. In fact, his school had the entire required infrastructure for javelin, that too of an international standard. Almost all students who were into sports were encouraged for javelin only. Mukund was good at javelin and bagged many medals for the same at district and state level.

Now Mukund is at a university and it promotes football for all. Even some of its football coaches are of national and international repute. This present university does not have good javelin coaches and the infrastructure is also not up to the mark. However, to help Mukund bring clarity to his confusion, the principal calls Mukund and tells him, “Mukund; you have been a sports player with outstanding records. Football is also a sport and you can excel here as well. For your ease I will arrange an induction session on football for you.”

Finally, Mukund joins the induction session. The induction session says; “Mukund, listen carefully, you have to make goals at the opponent team’s goal post to win the game.” Now the time comes for the actual match. Mukund as a sincere student remembers all the instructions of his coach. He gets the ball rolling and starts running towards the goal post. He reaches near the goal post and is about to make a goal. Suddenly another member from his team takes the ball and hits it for a goal. Everyone in the gallery starts clapping for that team member.

But Mukund still stands in the same position. He seems angry and confused. The referee rushes to him and asks, “Is everything alright Mukund?” Furious Mukund shouted, “This is wrong, in javelin I have never been trained to snatch javelin from anyone. But this guy came from nowhere, snatched the ball from me and scored the goal. Everyone is clapping for that guy but no one is noticing that I was the guy who worked hard for it. I should be applauded not him. This is unfair and unjust.”

The referee cuts Mukund short and waves him a red card for unruly behavior. Mukund gets super annoyed but keeps quiet. He reaches home and shares everything with his father. His father listens to him attentively and says, “Mukund, these two sports are entirely different. Javelin is an individual sport whereas football is a team sport. On the field you don’t need to take any support from anyone in javelin whereas in football taking and giving support is a must. If you want to play football, understand its rule and accept it even if it is different from javelin”

Many people in the corporate?world are still confused between what they have been taught in school and what the corporate?world is expecting from them. Let’s understand the three major differences through this metaphor, javelin & football

1.??????School life as javelin is highly predictable whereas corporate world is highly uncertain like football.

2.?????School life achievements depend on your individual performance and the corporate?world wants you to become a team player like football.

3.?????School life rewards you when you go by rules and become a follower whereas in the corporate?world you get rewarded for bending rules, taking initiatives, disrupting the existing pattern, innovating a new way and so on.

That is why grades do not really matter when it comes to life satisfaction. Life itself is highly uncertain and it does not have standard rules or syllabus to live by. Karen Arnold of Boston College followed eighty-one high school toppers for the next?fifteen years. Almost all of them have a good?life, steady job and they are consistent, reliable and well-adjusted to the system. But when it comes to innovating, changing the world, bringing a radical change; the number is zero. So, your biggest strength as a sincere and obedient student can become your biggest weakness in life if you do not unlearn a few things and learn a few more.

?Published earlier in the newspaper tabloid "The Desert Trail"