The 3 'I's of Life

One of the things I've learnt in these 3 years is that there is one essential thing that drives every human forward. 

Incentives.

Give any man enough incentive and he'll do your job. And incentives are varied, depending on the person. There maybe financial incentives, social incentives, personal incentives and so on and so forth which drive a person in his day to day life. And the most basic incentive of all for a person is to live, is to maintain his dignity and self-respect among his family and friends. This incentive is too basic for us to notice it but like I said, give a man enough incentive and he'll do the job for you.

Coming to the case of education in india and the many engineering colleges here, the basic incentive of all for the students (who join engineering colleges out of their own interest or out of peer pressure) is to ultimately graduate with a good grade point average(GPA) and secure a job in the IT sector which will pay you in lakhs. There are students who force through college life as if it's a burden imposed on them by the society and elders inorder for them to reach their incentive. And because they know that their GPA matters when they sit for placements, they study in the nick of time to secure a decent grade and be done with the course. I've known people who heave a sigh of relief every semester after the courses are done with and start mourning their life once the new semester begins. And in this mood, students don’t care about the classes, don't bother with discussing subjects among peers and don't try to read up on subjects to learn more. We will never know if they were in any way interested in engineering while they joined college; if they had professors who were unable to spark an interest in them; if the college environment wasn’t enthusiastic. these are some questions which no one will be able to answer but to sum it up, we can say that they didn’t have enough incentive to pursue engineering seriously and grow an interest in the topic. You might think that these people are like lost causes but no, given enough incentive and inspiration, there might be a few who can be changed and rekindle their interest towards engineering.

Now comes the difficult part. Inspiration. Sometimes the hardest things to do and sometimes the easiest, one can say that Inspiration is right infront of you if you are looking for it. Everything around you can be an inspiration which can drive you forward. And for the un-interested, nothing you can do will inspire him. Not even the moon landing (he'll probably ask why the humans haven't landed on mars yet!) And believe me, an inspired man is one person you should listen to. It does not matter his field of interest, but just listening to him speak enthusiastically, not stopping for breath might make you enthusiastic. And take my advice, surround yourself with enthusiastic people and who knows, you might get interested as well.

And now comes the leap. Innovation. A man inspired enough to look through problems will be able to find a solution, if not on the first day or the first week but eventually in time, he will innovate. Though this process is tiring, long, exhausting and might hamper your interest towards pursuing such a career, believe me because it is the best feeling in the world to innovate and to solve problems. I'm not just talking about technological innovations but also social, political, philosophical, material and financial. The rewards of innovation are endless.

So, to summarize, a man with enough incentives will work through life to achieve a long term goal. Given a good environment and society around the man, he might get inspired in a specific topic and start working upon it. And if the man is inspired enough in the specific field to work day and night, he will, eventually, innovate.

So, wake up everyday and look for incentives that will drive you forward.

Look for inspiration wherever you can to be a better person.

Innovate in whichever way you can for the better.