Get out of the Cubicle
“The extension keeps beeping, yet my hands are occupied explaining why a deadline could not be met. In 10 minutes, my boss has called a special team to put together a gala dinner for the Regional CEO who will grace our office premises in a few days. While all this is going on, a freelance carpenter that I hired to help the administration staff fix some chairs in office, is waiting at the reception for his payment. The accounts department says that no payment can be released without an invoice. How can a blue collar worker, who has no knowledge of the modern technological world generate an invoice – talk about shooting oneself in the foot.”
When you have these ultimate moments in your office cubicle, have you ever asked yourself?
“Where does this start and importantly to what end?”
Ever asked yourself this question? May be you should. May be it’s this question that might save this gift you’ve been given called ‘Life’. When your social media profiles want to sum up your unique experiences for an year, do they show you working in a cubicle, or does it pop up that moment where you were silly drunk at a friend’s wedding. If it is the former, then all I can tell you is – Get a life!
When I sound like this, people around me say that I’ve got to be practical when existing in this world. They say that people don’t have the luxury of doing what they want, as their day job is what puts food on the table. The same job that turns you off every Monday morning. The same job that makes you drag your feet to meetings. The same job that gives you diarrhea when you do one thing wrong amongst a hundred things to do. Yet, the majority of people are going through this on an everyday basis, and it’s become the norm which we now call; the system.
All in all, you are doing something for a pay cheque that can be compared to a woman’s menstrual cycle. In average, every human born in a metropolitan society educates him/herself to go through this from the tender age of 23 up until he/she becomes 55. That’s a key portion of your life, don’t you think? Statistically, approximately 45% of your life, and also that part of your life where you function the best. Almost 80% of this period is dedicated to what you call an employed opportunity. Does this sound right to you?
If it does, stop reading right now. The world needs sheep like you, when it also has wolves like me.
“Easier said than done” – “a dream”, they said. Anything that you do for the first time is going to be a little tough, unless you are licking ice-cream off your hands. I think I would personally know some people who might find even that a little too hard. A dream can only materialize into the real world by taking the first step. The first step would be the hardest part in this exercise. I know a friend, who qualified himself in motor mechanical engineering, as he is into cars. He worked at some of the best car companies in the Island, as his excuse was that he would be among the thing he loves most – CARS. Time went by, jobs went by, positions went by, why he even left to the Middle East to work in a bigger, better Car Company. I guess here is when he asked that question – “……….to what end?” While all this was brewing, he also realized that he has another passion in life – BBQs. The boy loves his meat cuts, his knives, his meat, his grills and of course everyone around him loved all the food that he churns out at parties. Today the boy is a thriving, unique, and irreplaceable entrepreneur who runs his own mobile BBQ catering. He can now afford to buy those expensive car magazines that he is into. In the future, I am confident he will buy or build his dream car too. Now that is a classic case of GETTING OUT OF THAT CUBICLE.
The cubicle is not just a partitioned plywood wall, it’s an environment that keeps you boxed and closed to the world that is way bigger than you can ever imagine. The cubicle is a representation of the system that blinds people from reaching their true potential, by discovering a natural knack that you have in life. A life you can choose where WORK will never look, sound or be like work that you wake up to everyday. So stand up with rage, scream bloody gore, punch that plywood, break that cubicle, run like a wolf on a hunt and most importantly, don’t sleep on a dream you have. Even one of the greatest Asians that the world knows of – Aerospace scientist and ex president of India APJ Abdul Kalaam has said,
“Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let your sleep.”
