There was this guy- son of a dentist, a Jew, who was taught his first programming language ‘Aatri Basic’ during his middle school by his tutor who declared him ‘a prodigy’ since it was tough to stay ahead of him. He created a program at that age to ping his dad at his dental practice from his home- supposed to be a “primitive” version of AOL’s Messenger, which came out in the following year. He created a Media player which uses artificial intelligence to learn user’s listening habits during his high school. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase this player and recruit him, but he chose to enrol at the Harvard University. He was then adjudged “a programming prodigy” in his College. On February 4, 2004 he launched a Social Networking website, with Blue being the dominant colour, since he suffered a red-green colour-blindness. Till date, it has 350 million active users, with 35 million status updates each day, 2.5 billion pictures uploaded each month, ultimately making the website worth $1.5 billion, making him the youngest billionaire in the world at the age of 25. He is – Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.
Now comes my big question- in a country with a burgeoning population of 1.2 billion, widely known to have produced some of the best brains in the world, how many more Zuckerbergs should we have given to the world at large .... at least ten or perhaps even more. But the sad ground reality is that we have managed none. What do you think is the reason? Who is to be blamed for this? The answer is ,ironically, a simple one - Ourselves. Today, most nerds and geeks passing out of the multitudinous colleges are complacent in the comforts of cushiony jobs they grabbed in their campuses. All are into this race of getting into an MNC that promises to dole out ‘healthy’ pay package. Thus go all the young , creative brains down the drain. Not one pauses to ponder – “ Is this ‘the’ dream job I always wanted to take up? Is this going to be my permanent domain?” You end up in a situation where you really don’t care as to what you actually studied and the kind of work you end up doing. Days and nights speed away while you slog to meet deadlines and targets set by the company. You remain just a face in the crowd, unsung and inadequately recompensed by the hands that run or ruin your life. A smug nonchalance settles on you ..... you actually continue to work not because it is a ‘labor of love’ but because it improves your so called ‘ brand’ or ‘market’ value.
But there will come a day, when the truth will dawn upon you... to listen to your heart rather than your head. You will regret for having continued in lack lustre jobs and not following your passion. So, all those future CEO s, arise, awake, realise your calling, create your own path and let the world follow you. One never can say....may be you are the next Zuckerberg,!!
