E = MC2? All Einstein Challengers….Welcome Aboard!

For generations great thinkers have been asking us to take the road less traveled. Any and every successful biography will tell us not to be afraid to take a stand, not to walk among the masses, to stick out our heads without the fear of being hit by rotten tomatoes. At the same time, this is exactly what we do not do, at least most of us, fearing to be singled out.

Working in the software field, I face this situation many times. While working on complex codes, I always have the choice of either following the well-designed set way of programming or to be creative and challenge the accepted standards and myself. Needless to say, like most of the corporate zombies, most of the times I preferred to chicken out and stay hidden among the masses, hoping to somehow win the rat race unnoticed by anyone, and without answering any questions.

Then one day someone mentioned the story of Aristarchus, the Greek guy who had the brains to prove that Sun and not Earth, was the centre of the Solar System but not the ‘guts’ to say it out loud because the Church and its followers might not have liked it. It was on his deathbed that his genius came forward and his work was published. Unfortunately the usual set of tomatoes didn’t spare the head of the dying genius, but the point is, here I am writing about him even after a gillion years of his death! Anyhow, coming back to contemporary times, when someone mentioned this story to me, immediately the same thought materialized in my head as in any loser’s head….”Aww what a waste”… but…..yes there is big hairy “but” here….. I did something about it, unlike the other losers.

A fortnight later, I was given the task to prepare a quote for a client and was asked to use a set template, which was the standard since the CEO’s grandpa used to wet his diapers. I went about my merry way to fill out some silly little boxes in the Excel sheet and came up with a figure at the bottom. Quite pleased with my work, I was about to submit the report, when I had a Buddha enlightenment moment sitting under the glare of my computer screen. I thought of a way that might have been more useful than the current way, and in the heat of the moment, went ahead and prepared it, my way.

Sorry, to have an anti climax — instead of being appreciated for my effort (as expected obviously), I was ridiculed and was forced to do it the ‘great grandpa’ way by my manager. The funny part is, this apparent failure gave me a greater sense of accomplishment than ever before, and even after being yelled at for wasting precious time, I went home that day grinning and with a weird sense of pride. I may have failed that day but no failure is final and permanent. I went home with the overwhelming Clint Eastwood feeling of “I will be back as the final victor!”

My point is, next time you think you can challenge someone, and have the conviction in your work, go ahead. So what, if it isn’t the way world wants you to be? So what if it upsets the greasy old procedures which have been unchallenged? Set a trend, challenge them, and see how it feels.

If you feel that Einstein’s E=MC2 is not good enough, go ahead challenge the old weirdo, after all he flunked school while you completed it. Who knows, some time in the future, I will be written about for discovering that new template for quote, which modern people think is trash, and you might join my league for discovering a better formula for the mass energy equivalence.