Saturday, July 20, 2013

Keep learning so that the learning will keep us

A recent article that I read on Washington post about how Unemployment and Poverty are on the rise in Detroit.
In this article here, a man, Daniel Rice, who worked for Chrysler who used to make 20$ to 25$ an hour before Chrysler shut shop leaving its employees jobless. This man walks in to a Job Placement office everyday and spends hours trying his luck to find a job. To his luck he is offered a forklift operator job for a fraction of that salary, and yet, he is happy taking it. He goes on to say that “I put all my eggs in one basket,” said Rice, 39. “Just like Detroit put all its eggs on the auto industry.”

Detroits annual deficit is declining, but, at a one fifth rate to what our country's is. Detroit has 16% unemployment Vs 12% of India's rate. But the number in our country is huge. If its in Lakhs for Detroit, its in millions in here.

Auto industry is doing great, automakers have claimed record sales and politicians have boasted about the rescue of Detroit, the real Detroit has suffered. The Big Three — two of them bailed out by taxpayers — employ fewer people and pay them less, leading to a better business model but far less value to the city’s people.

Why I am comparing to Detroit to our country is for the one common thing - Our country has all eggs put in one industry - The IT Industry. India does not have any produce highly valuable and sold in the international market. Like the Jet planes made by the Japanese, Russians which is sold to the Gulf, or the research of information from NASA, or the Food produce by the Chinese, Industry manufacture from Koreans etc, Our major dependency is on IT Industry.

The IT companies have gotten bigger, smarter and more efficient over the years. At the same time the low pay high value has started to show when the salary hikes are cut, those layoffs are made and businesses are moved out to Phillipines other countries.

Few years ago, making a jump from a job was easy, employees moved companies every 2 years for a better salary, or for small reasons like a grumpy boss, high competition, tough working conditions etc., Such employees now are not only finding a job difficult but they are not able to keep up with their performance either. You cant look for comfort at the place where you work you see. You have to let shit happen to you and be fine with it. A larger crowd who pass out of their engineering colleges, graduates and aspiring young college goers are still looking for a job. Some even are waiting for a year even after scoring a first class degree, and giving more than 50 plus interviews.
Finding a job now is not easy.

What can we do now to find a job or for those who are employed, what can they do to stay in the job?
There is a saying "when everyone stops running, keep running" . This means when everyone stops learning, right after graduation or around the 30s, keep learning, keep preparing. Never ever stop doing that.

The Nobel prize winner Dr. Jay Kessler was asked one day when someone asked him about the source of knowledge, he said "I was never an outstanding student through university. But about the time I was 25, I committed to reading 400 pages per week, and have stuck to it since."

I quickly ran the math…400 pages per week…20,000 pages per year…40 years…800,000 pages. Eight-hundred thousand! With all due respect for Jay, one could literally begin as a toad and after that much reading end as a scholar.


Now before you stop breathing, I’m not advocating such a monumental task. What I am saying is that a commitment to learning fundamentally changes your life and your career.

When Everybody Else Stops Running…Keep Running

The unfortunate truth is that, some time after high school or college, people stop pursuing knowledge. In his recent book The One World Schoolhouse, Salman Khan of the Khan academy says that “some studies suggest that most people stop learning new things in their thirties.”
So here’s the thing I find amazing: even if you were a mediocre student who attended a mediocre school, if you keep learning, by age thirty, you’ll likely know more than a star student who attended Harvard and subsequently stopped his pursuit of knowledge.
Keep learning, lets all nourish the knowledge into building something new and save our country from being destroyed by countries like China and Philippines.  
If you are interested in the article I was talking about then click on the link below. Please leave your comments in the comments section.
 (Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amid-detroit-bankruptcy-residents-grapple-with-poverty-and-unemployment/2013/07/19/1560a33e-f0b5-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html)

1 comment:

  1. loved this one honey, very inspiring..keep learning!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you.