Pioneers of Technology
I am struggling with a few questions for a long time now. These questions always come to my mind, whenever I look at any of the pioneers of technology, or personalities who created a dent in the world for the betterment of the society. I believe the world we are living in today is solely due to the contribution made by these guys. These pioneers are different for every century, every decade and in every stream of education or sports, depending on the age and interest, people choose one of these pioneers as their Role Model, they try to wear their shoes and walk on the same path as these leaders did.
The questions are, how these pioneers became so successful in their lives? How they really managed to contribute this much to the society? What makes them different from ordinary human beings? For finding the answers, I started reading biographies of these guys. I know there are lots of blogs, videos, books out there, guiding on how to become successful or habits of the great leaders at times, But these generalized content is not so useful unless companied by a real-life example. For E.g. One of the book mentions Great leaders maintain their integrity in every good or bad situation of life, but how do they do it? What struggle they do, to be truthful all the way in tough days is rarely mentioned in these contents. Because of this, the perfect idea of the situations and the reaction of the pioneers on that doesn’t come up to the mind. One has to read the biographies to understand the insights of these personalities.
As being keenly interested in science and business, I have read the biographies of the leaders who helped science to enhance its scope by giving it a business mind. I believe it’s extremely important to look at research in science as a great business opportunity because only research can’t help to change the life of the ordinary people. That’s why I get inspired by Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Ratan Tata. I know choices are extremely stereotype, but these guys have changed the perspective of the humans to look at science and universe.
Steve, an ordinary boy, later turned out to be a creator of the technological world. When everything was manual and people used to struggle with the paper and files, although computers were born but were only used for the purpose of research, by well-established firms. This young boy understood the ease this technology can bring in the society. He imagined various ways, the computer can be used, He wasn’t the inventor of the computer, but he was the one who truly taught the ways to use this amazing machine. Exploring the ways to use a particular invention is as important as inventing new things. The same thought can be explained further by using the example of Elon Musk. Elon is a South African migrant. Silent people have the loudest mind is extremely applicable in his case. Although he pursued his career in physics, He started his first company in the field of website development at the very start of the internet world. Graduate degree in physics was never a barrier for him. Later he got fascinated by the work of NASA and other rocket and space studying groups. When NASA was growing with its extra-ordinary projects, he dreamt about colonizing on Mars, Of course, he was trolled a lot but being a tough guy he took a stand for supporting his idea. He started studying about the Rocket Engineering on his own. He explored the field and started a rocket making Industry called SpaceX. The idea he explored is that SpaceX doesn’t land it’s rockets in sea water and waste it’s money, but they reuse that rocket, landing it again on Launching Pad. Then he founded Tesla Motors, as an Electric vehicle is not a new invention for 20th Century, but bringing it to daily life, making it friendly is surely new. So again he wasn’t the inventor of Rockets, Neither for Electric Cars, but he showed the world the ways of using these beautiful inventions in a tangible manner. Same for TATA, he is a true inspiration as a leader because he started a company in which 67% of company’s profit is used for CSR and it is given back to the society. They play a key role in advancement and welfare of society.
Everyone has its special qualities, but these pioneers are aware of their qualities and they know how to sell them. But they all have one quality in common is that they stick to their decisions, no matter whatever happens but they stand behind their decisions. They aren’t afraid of failure. Fear of failure doesn’t affect their decisions. It’s not hard to stand out of the crowd, when you stop worrying about the crowd. These guys keep busy themselves all the time. They spend their time in learning new things. Learning is constant for them. They always try to keep the pace of learning. And finally the important one, they DARE to stand out of the crowd and to start new things, no matter what difficulties comes to their ways. There might be various more qualities, but these one are common in most of the influencing personalities. On the top of all this, it is important to find the relationship between the theoretical studies and practical applications to become successful just like these pioneers.
-Rigved Hattekar
Rugved Hattekar 