A man owned a large comb production business. As he approached old age, he wanted the smartest of his three sons to take over the business. So one day, he summoned his three sons and gave each one a thousand combs, instructing them to sell them at the Buddhist ashrams which he suggested. Upon arriving at their respective ashrams, they were surprised to find that all the inmates of the Ashrams had shaved heads.

Despite the unexpected challenge, they endeavoured to sell the combs, and returned on a specified day to report their progress to their father. The eldest son stated, “I managed to sell ten combs.” When asked how, he replied, “I appealed to the monks’ kindness, asking for assistance in winning the competition.” The second son said, “I sold twenty combs by highlighting their usefulness for scratching their back.” Finally, the third son said he sold all one thousand combs. When questioned about his success, he explained, “I carved the profound sayings of Lord Buddha onto the combs and offered them to visitors, encouraging them to contemplate these words while combing.”

Often, people limit the utility of an object to its original intent. However, with one’s imagination and creativity, one can transcend such constraints and discover the optimal use for everything life offers. The challenge lies in recognizing opportunities and taking advantage of them instead of focusing on limitations. Today the world is frantically looking for smart people. Steve Jobs while recruiting people for his company had said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so that they can tell us what to do.”

As you embark on this new academic year, one must not forget that like those combs, each student is blessed with numerous gifts — time, talents, teachers, text-books, opportunities and friendships — and is called to optimize one’s potential. In their educational journey, students are not mere recipients of knowledge but are the architects of their future. While parents and teachers offer support, each student is expected to craft their path, utilizing all one’s available resources for a bright future. Schools serve as fertile grounds where students can seize opportunities to discover and sow seeds of their potential, and nurture talents. Every student needs to understand the significance of maximizing time, talents, guidance from teachers, and friendships.

Entering this new school year, The Teenager Today has articles this month to guide you in choosing friends wisely, navigating social media, maintaining a healthy diet, and inspiring you with stories of individuals like Gukesh Dommaraju and Kailash Satyarthi.

The Teenager Today wishes you all a successful academic year!

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This book from best-selling author Morgan Housel is a powerful tool to help you navigate the uncertainty of the future. Knowledge of the things that never change is more useful than an uncertain prediction of an unknowable future. Through 23 engaging stories and concise examples, Housel gives a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life to achieve the greatest success — not merely financial comforts, but most importantly, a life well lived.

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The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the “extra”. It’s what changes the world. Yet many stick around being ordinary because they’re unaware of how much “extra” is needed and how capable they are of offering it. If only you knew what you were capable of and deployed your capacities to be the best version of who you were meant to be.

Have you experienced being in a zone or spot that felt like you were standing at the end of the road? There was nothing ahead of you (at least this is what you thought at that time)? No ideas, no path, no answers. Just a lurking question mark mocking you, “What are you going to do now? Give up?”

What did you do then?

Kaizen (Japanese for “good change”), thrives on the core philosophy that adversities are, in fact, moments of opportunity, to change what has ceased to work and ring in what will. Keeping the faith in hope, conviction and action. All Kaizen asks for is change. This amendment can be momentary or ongoing; massive or small. Kaizen contends that if you don’t change the status quo from time to time, you may not survive.

Why so much focus on change?

Newton’s Law of Inertia insists that if an object is in a state of motion or rest, it will continue to stay in that state of motion or rest unless it is acted upon by an external force that changes its status quo by accelerating or decelerating it. But look around and at yourself. Can you stay in the same state forever? Aren’t there too many changes taking place around you?

Circumstances, friendships, relationships, career, family, education and more… It’s impossible to maintain your status quo when external forces trying to modify you are so powerful. Technologies, trends, politics, and above all people, are ever transforming. It is increasingly important to integrate with the ebbs and flows, to experience delight, adventure and growth in life. Nothing is possible without embracing change.

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Nadal’s foot injury caused him chronic pain for years, particularly during those crucial weeks of the tournament. His doctor accompanied him to Paris. Nadal also thought that the Philippe Chartrier Court game might be his last attempt. Yet he took the risk and played. T.S. Eliot wisely said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” In the world of sports, we encounter people who take extreme risks in life as they attempt feats like downhill skiing, mountaineering, rock climbing, skydiving, etc. It is such risks that take one towards life’s crowning glory.

People often fear risks, but risks are a reality of life from the moment of one’s birth. People are more worried about risks in the future rather than the opportunities in hand. This may be so because, it being difficult for us humans to think in terms of probabilities, we do tend to overestimate the bad things that could happen. However, taking risks can actually be a good thing, provided you do your research diligently and weigh the alternatives carefully.

For many people, taking risks is a rewarding experience. The success story of Jessica Cox, featured in this month’s issue (p 24), stands out as an excellent lesson for all to never say die! Indeed, never seeing herself as a victim of a given condition, she went on to prove all the doubters and naysayers wrong. She bounced back with a renewed burst of energy and enthusiasm every time she failed and encountered difficulties. Today, she exemplifies innumerable reasons why one should never give up in life!

Nikhat Zareen, featured in the cover story of this issue, dared to take up boxing against the popular choices that other girls of her time and age made. The orthodox society around her wasn’t very supportive of her choice, but her father’s unfailing support and encouraging attitude finally saw her achieve final glory. So don’t ever refrain from what your heart is calling you to do, however odd it may appear. Attempt the unknown and reach the moment of your glory!

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We all look forward to ringing in the New Year. Its arrival offers us exciting opportunities for a new start. We learn from past successes and failures, grab the present opportunities, and venture into the future with confidence and hope. This new beginning opens for us a new direction for oneself and for one’s world.

Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” And so, how can we make the most of the New Year? You are never too young or too old to set a new goal and a new dream. Every New Year, like every new day, brings with it new challenges, new opportunities, new problems and new hopes. As R. W. Emerson said, “Write it on your hearts that every day is the best day of the year.”

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In a fast-paced world, the present pandemic has further accelerated change in practically all aspects of our lives.As the world continues to adapt and evolve to the ‘new normal’, new opportunities have emerged while others have faded into oblivion having lost their relevance.

The new equilibrium has nudged us to think differently to solve existing challenges and prepare ourselves for new ones. This problem-solving approach needs to emerge from a shift in mindsets that supports ‘out of the box’ thinking.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” said Albert Einstein to drive home the need to think differently. We just dabble in critical-thinking skills and problem-solving skills in our present ecosystem of learning when we undertake projects and enroll into short-term programmes outside our classrooms. We, however, need to dive deep further and should be immersed in it on a constant basis to imbibe it in the very fabric of ‘how we think’ and how we perceive and address challenges.

By 2030, most of the present senior school students would have entered the workforce. The opportunities that exist now were unheard of not just a decade ago, but even at the start of 2020! Avenues like app development, cloud computing, big data analysis and sustainability programmes didn’t even exist until a few years back. It is predicted that many jobs that will dominate by 2030 don’t even exist yet! Then how are we supposed to prepare for something that doesn’t even exist now?

The recent McKinsey Global Survey shows that the pandemic has brought in years of change in a matter of months at the organizational and industry level. For example, digitally-enabled products and portfolios in organizations have accelerated by a whooping seven years! The organizations that successfully navigated through the new economic and business environment brought in by the pandemic are those that quickly adopted new strategies and practices while speeding up their own experimentation and innovation. Interestingly, most of these changes are predicted to continue even beyond the pandemic.

In such a dynamic and evolving world the ‘how’ we learn becomes as important as ‘what’ we learn aside from ‘why’ we learn.

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I wonder what went through your head as you read the title of this article. Is this about being selfish? Is he promoting consumerism? Is he crazy?! Let me tell you right now that this is not about consumerism and no, I’m not crazy. Is this about being selfish? Yes and no. No, because this is not about being selfish as it is conventionally understood, that is being overly possessive or desiring material things like gadgets and accessories. This article is about being selfish of something else; that something is OPPORTUNITY.

I’m sure we’ve come across the saying, “The early bird catches the worm.” What does the saying tell us? One, those who rise early find their food. Two, those who are ready when an opportunity comes their way stand to benefit. Birds that don’t go out in search of food early have a lot of searching to do. Early in the morning the worms leave the safety of the underground and come to the surface. That’s when they are easily spotted and caught. Once they return underground they are very difficult to catch. The window of opportunity is small and only those who are alert and prepared during that time can guarantee their fill.

The new academic year offers similar possibilities. What happened last year isn’t very important. Just because you failed or didn’t do well in mathematics or social science or any other subject last year doesn’t mean you won’t do well this year. This is a new year. New worms (opportunities) have and will continue to come to the surface. Are you alert and prepared to catch them? You might or might not have a new teacher but you definitely have new portion. That means you are on the same level as all your classmates, including the scholars, since the portion is new for them as well. It doesn’t matter very much what kind of bird (student) you are or how big your beak (intelligence) is. What matters is, as the saying goes, the ‘early’ flight of the bird. If you grab the opportunities to learn there is great room for success. At the end of the day what counts is not how many worms you catch, that is, not how much you remember or how many marks you get, but whether you have had your fill, that is, whether you have learnt something and are able to apply and make use of that knowledge in practical situations. The success of the bird is determined by its ability to capture the worm/s. Your success is dependent on your ability to educate yourself. This ‘education’ means a lot more than scoring marks. It has to do with your whole personality.

Greek mythology tells of a character by the name of Caerus. He is the personification of opportunity. He is depicted in the following manner: he is young and beautiful; since opportunity never gets old it is always fresh and new; he stands on tiptoe because he is always running and the wings at his feet enable him to fly away just as quickly as he comes; in his hands he holds scales balanced on a sharp edge depicting the uncertainty of his arrival. The final and perhaps most interesting characteristic of Caerus’ appearance is the single lock of hair on his forehead which represents the fact that he can only be caught when he comes head on. Opportunity waits for nobody. He comes and goes like the wind. Those who are ready to grab him by the lock of hair as he rushes past will enjoy the fruits he brings but the others will be left with empty hands.

Returning to the opportunities this new academic year brings, it is absolutely intolerable for anyone to say that they are high and dry. Opportunities are available to all; some hold of them while others let them pass by. Take the example of maths. All are exposed to the same teacher and portion but only some will solicit extra help and spend those extra hours in study while others will shirk studying and postpone till the last moment. Opportunities do not wait for you to take them. They are like the worms which come out for a little while and then go back down. We have to be alert when they present themselves and grab them. If we let them pass us by we have lost them. They may sometimes return but usually they are gone for good. There is no use crying over what is lost. For this reason it is absolutely vital that we all enter this new academic year with a positive mindset. We have to put all that happened last year in the past and make up our minds to make the best of what we have before us. Scholars and failures alike (not forgetting all those in between) must put their successes and failures behind them, otherwise they might risk getting swollen headed and lethargic. Success comes to those who grab at the opportunities that come their way. Those who rest on their laurels risk losing out on all the new opportunities that are born. So be selfish when it comes to grabbing opportunities. Your success or failure depends on it.

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I do not like the word ‘exam’! Do you? Whether Shakespeare would agree or not, changing the name does change quite a lot. By a simple rearrangement of words and a little change in the way we say it, a big difference can be felt. Just stand straight… raise both hands upwards towards the sky, look up and stretch your lips so as to offer a wide grin to the one up there and say it loud: ‘Thank God, for it’s OTP Time!’

Yes, isn’t it Opportunity To Prove (OTP) time? An opportunity to express what we know and an opportunity to prove that ‘Yes, I can’! Isn’t it a wonderful chance of filling sheets of paper with all that we have seen, listened to and read throughout the year? The system might be testing us but wouldn’t it be nice to think of it this way — that the system offers us a mic on a platter so that we can let the whole world know what we indeed know!

If examinations are taken by us all as a wonderful OTP time, how do we kit ourselves out for it? How do we grab this big opportunity and prove in a way that our self-esteem is raised; such that our parents heave a sigh of relief that ‘yes, it was all worth it’; and such that many years hence, we do not look at our performance with regret?

Of course, there are fears running amok in the hearts of all of this who must respond to this knock by OTP and there are butterflies in every stomach too, along with many a sleepless night and beads of sweat running down our spines. If you have or feel any of the above, it obviously means that you are NORMAL; that you are a reasonably intelligent person who has ample potential to establish and declare with a bang! There are only a select few who, cool as cucumbers as they are, ace an exam with their eyes closed. It is all akin to a cool breeze for them as if taking an exam is the second most normal thing human can do after breathing….

For the large majority that we are — the palms are sweaty and the palpitations can be distinctly heard. It is the normal folks who find sitting and revising calmly an impossible feat to accomplish. Hence, nothing to panic if you are a normal teen, enveloped in an air of uncertainty.

However, there is a catch here! If the feelings of fear and nervousness persist longer and upset the sense of balance in the mind they will start impacting you adversely. It is alright to be afraid of examinations and to feel a bit apprehensive and nervous too. If the fears, however, begin to affect your sleep, appetite and concentration — these feelings, instead of motivating you, will deter you from giving your best. DO NOT FALL IN THE TRAP! As soon as the fears and apprehensions begin to acquire huge proportions, shrug your shoulders, straighten your back, close your eyes and take deep breaths. As you inhale, remind yourself that you HAVE studied; you KNOW the answers and while recalling the smiling faces of your favourite teachers and the faith and the prayers of your dear ones — inhale deeply. Inhale a sense of determination! Yes, you CAN DO it! And exhale the fears and self-doubts. Remind yourself, ‘I am not the Best and the Brightest in the world, but I am good… I am capable… I have put in quite many efforts and studied the answers… I shall be able to put forth my answers on the paper!’

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A great number of people in our country are unemployed because they lack the minimum required education and experience while many others are unemployed because they lack creativity and do not try to be self-employed. One can begin to work or be creatively self-employed and gain experience even while one is a student. In the cover story in this issue on productive summer vacations Shivani Manchanda explains various means and ways a person can make himself or herself best fit not just to survive but to enjoy and benefit from one’s life and career, She further speaks about good work habits, learning a new skill, learning a foreign language, doing an internship and other tips to grow and benefit even during one’s vacation.

Creative and self-employed youth can play a vital role in solving the current unemployment problem in the country and thus contribute to the economic and social growth of our nation. Education which motivates, guides and facilitates young students to create enterprises and generate jobs is certainly a significant developmental contribution.

There aren’t enough jobs for all in our country; the current economic policy of the government will take years to create employment for all. Hence the need for a large number of young people to explore self-employment and use their hidden potential for job-creation. One needs to be dreaming high and daring to keep oneself motivated on the path of self-employment and success. A dream, however, does not become a reality on its own. It takes determination, sweat and perseverance to transform your dream into a reality. One may find only in the dictionary that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. Keep grabbing every opportunity and stick to the one that matches your chemistry, and you will find yourself at the right place at the right time.

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