A few month's back a curious journalist asked Elon Musk about this thoughts on "Innovation in corporate America"? The video was viewed by people on youtube 2 million times but there was a very important point which needs attention of young students in India as well. Here is a brief take on that interview. Please do read ahead and watch the video as well below.
Elon Musk makes a very interesting point when he says that the reason for slow down of innovation in America is because there are too many MBAs. Students went for MBAs without knowing what to do with it. In India we see students going for Engineering, MBBS, CA etc without knowing about actually what it is for? What will they do with it?
Once the class is over, most of the times we feel - "Ahh! Its done...finally!". Once we write your final exams, all of us feel a sense of relief that its finally over! We graduated from another class! Its over! I am sure Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and Bill Gates also felt that way. And it's not all wrong. We all get tired of focusing or sitting through our classes, so an "Ahh" and feeling relieved is pretty natural.
But there is one thing which is very wrong. It's actually a simple misunderstanding. And we tell ourselves this wrong thing everyday - "It's over". This one simple statement does more harm to your mentality and attitude than anything else. Because - it's not over - it is never over.
All the education and knowledge that we get in school is just the beginning. It's not the end.
Everything you hear in school is something so deep, so profound, so useful, so enormous that somebody, somewhere, sometime managed to change the world with it. Newton did it with "π", Alexander Fleming did it with "bacteria", Steve Jobs did it with "fonts" and there are millions of such stories today to read and learn from.
The purpose of school education is to given you an opportunity to keep looking for that one thing which excites you beyond everything else and makes you think about the infinite possibilities that can be created with that one small thing. It could be as small as one diagram of one chapter of any of your subject books. And the interesting thing is that there is something for all of you somewhere there.
If we do not understand this, we will keep getting bored in class, tired of exams. You will keep looking at your seniors, neighbours and parents to tell you what to do in life. And most likely you will choose to do Engineering, MBBS, CA or MBA which will again feel like the same boring and tiring experience of class. The goal of your education is to expose you to the world beyond your physical ability, to give you an opportunity to explore things and find that one thing which triggers you to think vividly in excitement, makes you look for more depth and detail.
Your education is always the beginning of your search of your natural talent. It's never over, there is no end. So next time you are in class remember to look for that one thing which might change your life.
Now watch the two videos below. All the best in search of your π!