It's okay to be normal and ordinary
Disclaimer: I have nothing against high earners in this group who are doing exceptionally well and earning big bucks at young age. You have my admiration.
Target audience of this post: Everyone else who is doing okay in their job, earning an average salary for their age.
Why have I posted it?: To not feel I am the only one who is a normal regular person doing just average in his life in this hyper competitive rat race.
My thoughts: I clearly remember the moment, it was April 2007, I had barely completed the board exams of class 10th and joined class 11th. It was my first week into class 11th when a fine looking gentleman walked into our class to make us think of our future career path. He was from a coaching institute for IIT JEE and AIEEE. He told us about all the high salary packages at these premier institutes. I excitedly told my parents about it.
Like any middle class parents, they dreamt of their son cracking the exam and securing good placements from IITs/NITs. They enrolled me in coaching. I worked hard for those 2 years, 11th and 12th. But what was harder was the constant stress and pressure I was put in, both intentionally and unintentionally. These ideas that 'I must crack JEE to have a good future', 'if you don't get through JEE then you are a waste' etc, were hammered into my mind day in and day out.
I didn't crack JEE but got into a well reputed private engineering college of India.. Fast forward 4 years, did my MBA from tier 2 college only to join a service company at salary that would be considered too low for most of the folks here who compare salary like a plague. Recently joined a product company with good jump. Realised all that pressure I was put under in high school wasn't necessary. I am doing ok in life.
I think it's okay to be earning an average salary, everyone of us is on his own journey of growth and comparing ourselves on basis of packages seems myopic
Too much gyaan? Getting a perspective on late Saturday night!!!
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
I think it depends on you realising what you want from life. I always knew I was ordinary. What I had 10 years back, was my will to work hard and I mean super hard.
I have had failures throughout my life - my struggles with stammering and trauma, JEE, UPSC Mains.
Today, when my CTC is over 60L (I know it's not a big number for techies. But this is indeed a decent TC for non techies under 10YoE) I still don't feel accomplished. I still don't feel content.
Through the years, I have realised that my happiness doesn't come from accomplishments or salary at work. It depends on what I do, where I travel to, with my loved ones.
So, for you too: you will need to figure what matters to you. Telling salary doesn't matter or does matter is too binary. Let's understand what matters to you and why.
We are all students in this exam called life. Cheers.
Over 60 lakhs and still not content, probably that’s what the OP referred to as “rat race”😊 Just like in School times, there is rat race of Marks/percentage and class topper, similarly, in Corporate life, rat race of package😊
Every one out of other person has given upsc in india.
"ek chhota sa mandir main banaun, Usmein apna bhagwan bithaun." - Mira Bai
Meaning -: Small temple in my small home as against building grand public temples on large land
Well, depends. If you can live by saying fo to society for the rest of your life then yes. This is ok according to society if you are either a girl. Or allready married. Average salary gets you by your life anyway. So yeah, of you have the stamina to say fck off to society for more than 5-10 yrs then teach me too.
Switch with my society, they insist on making me a failure.
I'll tell you something. Everyone in their life is chasing a Metric. Some chase money, some chase relationships, some chase friendship, some Experiences.
That's all. I chase fun! As long as I am happy and life is fun for me, I believe I am good!
I think its important to find out when was the last time I had fun? When was the last time I laughed hard with my friends? These are the metrics I chase after
Well said mate
Separating high earning folks and others and calling “normal and ordinary”…. Not healthy
Everyone is normal and ordinary. Some are high earners, some earn average, some earn low. Everyone is normal and ordinary. Thinking otherwise is harmful and unhealthy to everyone.
At the end of the day, sab chu tea ye hai.
The good part with being normal and ordinary is that you tend to have higher chances of happiness. You expect less, you need less. Anything you get or achieve extra feels like a bonus. It’s like those above average students who are happy if they cross the 85% mark one day and not those at the top who are sad at missing the 95% mark by a jiffy
Definitely! But this is why I don't like my own country, there's just too much struggle man and to what end ? At the end of the day, there's only like 3 fields to choose because we don't have the framework to let the other fields flourish as much, leading to so much saturation and competition that many families live in the cycle of failure that they just can't escape.
Being ordinary is ok, as long as you have the option of a healthy life and unfortunately almost every Indian doesn't.
Even when I listen stories or read articles of such high paid profiles, my mom used to ask "vallu em chestaru ra anta package ivvadaniki"(son, wt they do to crack such highly paid jobs!!) I was always felt low that I'm not able to make them happy and keep pain in my heart and with smile I reply mom it's pure luck(for a good or bad reason many times I used luck to describe my impotentiality than it actually worked in my life!!) Pov: Just felt like saying
Thanks for sharing. It felt straight from the heart.
I don't know why and how, but I agree to every minute details you mentioned. Sometimes, the so-called Ordinary life as perceived by the society can be the best, one could've: full of happiness and contentment.
Thank you!!