You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Just after finishing my session in a seminar at NOVOTEL Juhu, I went for a stroll at the adjacent beach.
                                  
Like a maverick, I wished to take picture of a tea-vendor there. I was impressed by his entrepreneurship, his eye-contact with prospective customers, his smile and particularly impressed by the technique (see the tea-kettle covered by a reused-tin-box) he had used in order to keep his tea-service hot-n-fresh in line with his jingled-promise, 'Gar...r... ma...a-Garam-Cha....a...a....aay' (Hottest-tea)!

My colleague laughed at me just like the colleague of the vendor who also objected me sarcastically for wishing to take their photograph. You can see all of them standing around (see picture).

Ignoring all of them, I explained to the vendor that the picture may appear in a blog for whatever worth it may be to it's readers. Not only was he most obliged to grant permission to me but also made 'other-legs' in the picture to 'disappear' at once. See the 'broad-smiley' in next picture.    

After a couple of hours I was back to the hotel in order to attend some other function. I noticed that 'hot-n-fresh' snacks were being served there using a similar-but-sophisticated technique.

Immediately I grabbed the opportunity to click that picture too. Some people looked at me wondering foolish-me 'clicking' instead of 'digging' into the snacks. For them I was a novice to the 'starters'.

I am a firm believer that opportunities can be discovered as well as created. Opportunities hardly knock with intimations. That's why one needs to be prepared. When both, the preparation and opportunities, meet progress is inevitable. 

The tea-vendor at Juhu-beach didn't appear before me 'by-telling'. His technique may not be unique though. 

No one told me to notice it, nor to click it. I did it by 'being-aware' myself. I didn't know that a similar technique was going to appear before me after a couple of hours. I also didn't know that this subject was going to emerge in this blog post.

While taking the picture I only knew that there is some learning there that was worth capturing.

Just as there is nothing useless nor worthless in this universe, there is nothing or no-one from whom one can't learn from. Even a tiny sand-particle finds its use as raw material for Aluminum or as a worthy aggregate in construction industry. An innocent 'what is this' or 'why-this-way' question (even by a child) may lead to solution of a chronic problem that otherwise stays unsolved for decades.

Apart from an opportunity my curiosity gave me to cover the tea-vendor's matured-technique in this blog post, I could also reinforce my-thoughts on how 'value' can either get created or destroyed.

Vendor at the beach kept his business purely 'functional'. That's why he was able to offer spiced-tea at Rs 10/per serving as against Rs 500 in the Star-hotel. And I am sure he was able to do it with better profitability than the hotel barring the scale of operations. One may doubt quality of his tea as well as process of making it though. However it's worth comparing the both academically. Value provided by Rs 10 tea definitely mattered to those customers who mattered. And when-what-matters-to-whom depends on time-n-place that matters.

In the hotel one bears higher charges for so-called better or for, may I say, at times desire or want-based affluent practices. One pays extra for getting her ego polished, the hand-gloves, the uniform, the style of serving, etc. and even the smile that the maker-&-bearer is supposed to wear.

Study the investment made in the paraphernalia in the third picture: the stainless steel equipment used, polished suit the boy is wearing, etc. It may be difficult to know, though, how much of all that including the 'smile' of the bearer is genuinely better or worse than that of the beach-fellow. The beach vendor had primarily invested 'himself' more in the business rather than the (conventional) financial investment.

I have seen so-called 'clean-bearers' in so-called star-hotels arranging cups with their bare-fingers dipped into it when no one is there to watch. On the other hand, final serving is in style with hand-gloves on. 

One activity happens behind the screen while the other in front of it. Because that's the way quality and value gets perceived differentially. Actually it's relative. It's as good as in the hands-mind-and-spirit of the persons involved in executing-managing-leading-and-delivering it.
                                                      
Purpose of this blog post is actually to bring out more learning than the bonus-tips learnt as above.

The learning:

Being proactive or reactive itself is relative!

If some activity done 'then' (at a given point in time in past) is proved useful and preventive in future, in the hindsight it's considered as proactive. Until then more often it's laughed at as being idiosyncratic. For people around me on the beach, I might have appeared as an idiosyncratic taking pictures 'reactively-n-randomly'.

Why bother about others particularly if you have chosen to perform an act with a clear aim and calculated risk in mind! In that case why should that activity not be considered as proactive and worth moving ahead with although for others it might appear as useless!

While behaving in such a maverick-way, you may find, not one-or-two but many distractors around. It's worth ignoring them.

It's worth sticking to your stand if you have clarity. One must have humility though to make corrections to one's aim as well as modus-operendi by picking up threads from critics and distractors. It's surely advantageous to do so.

Albert Einstein did it.
Thomas Alva Edison did it the maverick-way.

Mahatma Gandhi did it. 

Nelson Mandela did it. 

Conventionally Sir Issac Newton should have eaten 'the apple that fell down'. He didn't. That's why he could do what he did.

They all seemed unreasonable 'then' for the world around.
Now in the hindsight what do those critics say about Einstein-Edison-Newton.

By-the-way, I do see a Mini-Edison in the person who first conceived a reused-tin-box in order to cover the tea-kettle. Purpose: to protect fire below it from getting extinguished. His technique is already standardized by his fraternity.

I am looking forward to some improvements over this itself. May be there are some already**. If not, my suggestion is to have one more tin-box outside the current one covering the kettle also. And between the two tin-boxes a thermocoal inserted as an insulator so that the tea-kettle stays hot for a longer time. Imagine, even if 20% re-heats are eliminated it's a saving of 20% fuel in addition to what is already saved so far.

But meanwhile for whatever is done, he is an incremental-innovator for me. He has innovated in his own context. He's empowered himself to exercise his own authority to conserve energy. Imagine the miracle if everyone saves so with a little more consciousness. Imagine overcoming difficulties creatively (without fear of 'failure' in conventional sense of the world) instead of crying about them.

For me the behavior of refusing to stay stuck in the 'fix-it' kind of 'Jugaadi-Indian' approach, behavior of making a 'sincere-attempt-to-try' to make-it-better on-goingly is a success. This is the Kaizen-approach invented by Toyota where everyone picks-up a 'cry' in order to make an improvement upon although there may not be 'anyone-to-cry'.

For me the"3-Idiots" (from Hindi-Movie) kind of ingenious ones who experiment their unconventional-thoughts are successful Kaizenees rather than so-called genius-preachers, the poison-ees who adhere to conventions. The latter lock themselves in status-quo(s), conventional-thoughts and 'cries' prevailing around.

So what's the take-home?

It may be other's job to consider you a Big-Fool, a Big-Idiot, and what-not. It may be their job not-once but each-day to kill your motivation, enthusiasm, and with that kill your original ideas or even incremental ones built on others.

But it's your own (job) to consider yourself above such foolishness particularly if you know your aim and purpose of being: The self-actualization! It's your own duty to see yourself in the ranks of 'Gandhiji-Edison-Einstein-Newton-to-be' without being foolishly over-confident though and with 1000xTimes 'their-humility' if not more. That's a way to make some mark on your name.

It may take longer-than-you-think though for your-own-small-world around you to say: Progress in this particular domain is because of 'unreasonableness' of This-Man!

In any case, no one would dare to deny the fact as someone has rightly said that "All the progress in this world is because of unreasonable people"!!

(** You may share such stories in the comment-box here-below.)

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

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