My first Engineering, will be a post that expresses the thought process, when making uncertain decisions in the most important point of life. One has to share his own experience, when trying to bring some uncommon topics into light. I have handled this post by writing about someone I am very familiar with and that is I, myself.
When you consider the life of an average student in the provisional state of Tamil Nadu, India, he would most probably end up becoming an Engineer. Although, I was sailing in the same boat as many, I always wanted to shine in the work I do. With some good grades from your school, you can get into some reputed institutes in Tamil Nadu, which was in my case named as Government College of Technology located in the city of Coimbatore, India.
When you consider the life of an average student in the provisional state of Tamil Nadu, India, he would most probably end up becoming an Engineer. Although, I was sailing in the same boat as many, I always wanted to shine in the work I do. With some good grades from your school, you can get into some reputed institutes in Tamil Nadu, which was in my case named as Government College of Technology located in the city of Coimbatore, India.
There is a common saying in India that, students study hard in private schools to get into reputed Government colleges. I was also such a guy, who strived hard in school, to join a top ranked Government Engineering college. I had a good interest in Physics. This interest led me, not into Bachelor of Science in Physics, but Bachelor of Production Engineering. I know, this sounds crazy for outsiders, as it was for me initially. With 93% in school, and having 195.25 out of 200 as Engineering cut-off, I feared about loosing my life, when I study Bachelor in Physics and I thought that, I deserve a more valuable degree (I realize now that, every degree is equally valuable) . You may wonder, how one would loose his life, when he studies what he loves, but that was the thoughts I had, when I was 17 years old. The truth is that, I was very uncertain about the decision I have made.
I always regretted my decision of coming into the field of Engineering, when I realized that I will fit more into the field of Physics than Engineering. The lack of confidence overshadowed my Interest in the first place. I was giving too much attentions as what others would think than what my mind wants. I would assume that, many had the similar problem when they were in a position to make life decisions. The inability to take risk in my life is the most serious issue I still suffer. I always wanted a safe journey, as I fear failure (Its still sad). After all the dramas, I entered an Engineering college with Production Engineering as major field of study.
Apart from all those complex things going on my mind, I were committed in what I wanted to do. I had such a wonderful group of friends, who were in the same wavelength. To be honest, I started loving what I did, and convinced myself that, Engineering is the simplest form of Physics. I realized some of the lessons for life, through our life in a Government Engineering College and have quoted my learnings in this post. (the next two paragraph may feels a bit narcissistic)
The following story about my first Engineering project, would give you more insight of the mentality we as a team of 4 had as passionate and ignorant engineers. It was the time, when we were in a frustration after a sudden collapse in the results of a national level competition organized by the SAE India for Aero-Modelling. we were so worried about our rejection and we took the thing as a serious strike of our academics. Then, there came a chance for proving ourselves and to engineer our first concept into light. To be truthful, the concept and the our work was simple for anyone looking it from the shore but we strived hard for this simple project. We do not have any sort ideas and so, we approached some of our seniors too. At last, we got a break through and made our first electric bot car moving with four motors and Double Pole Double Throw switches and a complex circuitry. We were fascinated to see that working, as we thought. Then we were a bit popular among our classmates, for initiating something new in the class. To move forward, we participated in a competition in SSN college of engineering ,Chennai. That was the first competition we were participating, which gave us a very good exposure and we learnt how people work for their victory. We realized our mistakes, although we could not taste anything there. From there, we thought of a few good modifications and started our real hunt. we have participated in a competition held in our own college and to be honest we impressed our own classmates and we saw a lot of others started building their own Electric powered bots.
When we understood that, we are doing something what motivates others, we moved forward from RC Car to contraptions. A workshop that we have attended in National Institute of Technology, Trichy, about Sixth Sense robotics, gave us more ideas for building the Electrical bot, as wireless bots and learnt how we could build line following robots and so on. After a few failures in contraptions, our interest in Automobile knocked the door from inside, when we opened the door, it gave a smooth path to the design and Fabrication of our first Electrically assisted Human powered vehicle (Please read the detailed article about this, in my blog). Though, we didn't win big with this Tri-Cycle, every bit of hard work we put in, connected the tri cycle with our emotions. We were a team of 10, in which 4 of us worked everyday on it. We felt like fathers, and realized, how would an engineer feel when his own design is fabricated. These experiences had given me an important lesson about uncertain decisions. Generally the intention for any decision making process is to make a choice, through which we get a result we assume. So, each decision making process, whether the result is certain or not, is a matter of risk. The risk can be differentiated as a positive risk- an Opportunity or a negative risk- a threat.
The learning for me is that, Whenever you regret doing something, try to come up with something, that makes you believe that you deserve more. In the first place, stop fearing to take risks. Risks can make you better mentally, when you are committed to accept the failure. Although, you don't want to make mistakes in life, committing them, would bring mental strength than not tasting them at all. From my past experiences, I would say that, when you are uncertain about the decisions you have already made, try to be the best and give your full potential to make the uncertain decision into a certain result. It is the course of action that create an opportunity.
Whenever you fear about the probability of success from your decisions, try to simplify the equation as simple as possible. Although there are a lot of situations, which pushes a successful and an average person to make similar kind of decisions, the results of the decision are not always the same. This difference in the results seems to be a complex question of life. One should understand that, not all the successful people always make their life decisions right, but the simple fact is that, they turn their decisions right after making them, that is they create the opportunity. All you need is the gut to make a decision and believe in the decision you have made. Believing your decision will give you mental strength to give your best to make that risk to result positive.
The learning for me is that, Whenever you regret doing something, try to come up with something, that makes you believe that you deserve more. In the first place, stop fearing to take risks. Risks can make you better mentally, when you are committed to accept the failure. Although, you don't want to make mistakes in life, committing them, would bring mental strength than not tasting them at all. From my past experiences, I would say that, when you are uncertain about the decisions you have already made, try to be the best and give your full potential to make the uncertain decision into a certain result. It is the course of action that create an opportunity.
Whenever you fear about the probability of success from your decisions, try to simplify the equation as simple as possible. Although there are a lot of situations, which pushes a successful and an average person to make similar kind of decisions, the results of the decision are not always the same. This difference in the results seems to be a complex question of life. One should understand that, not all the successful people always make their life decisions right, but the simple fact is that, they turn their decisions right after making them, that is they create the opportunity. All you need is the gut to make a decision and believe in the decision you have made. Believing your decision will give you mental strength to give your best to make that risk to result positive.
02.12.2018, Braunschweig
Comments
Post a Comment