De-branding

 Just try this exercise. On your resume.

Remove all references to brand names- institutions, colleges, companies, products and so on. See how it looks without the famous horses we usually piggy-back on. I will have to remove references to 4 IIMs, a foreign university or two, and all country names where I went for conferences- yes, remove those too.

What remains could be the essence of what you did, or what you are. A human who interacted with and learnt from other humans- teachers, parents, colleagues- and maybe taught a few things to other humans, if you were a teacher, like me. One whose experiences were shaped by conversations that exchanged thoughts with a variety of people - including children, adolescents and old people over shared meals, or coffee, or music, or nothing.

We are what we forget to be most of the time- ourselves. Not the guy who went to IIT or MIT. Or the girl who starred in a film called so and so. Just normal- affectionate, cranky, friendly, sarcastic.. whatever.

I call it de-branding. Not exactly a marketing principle. Maybe one of self-discovery.

Change Happens

 Change creeps up on us when we are not watching. It's not a Big Bang, but mostly incremental. Every person we meet, every film we watch, or book we read changes us. It's a small change, and we may not notice it. Maybe we notice it when it's accumulated into a large enough one. 

Maybe I can think of a couple of examples from my life. I did not notice I had it in me to write, maybe a book. But I had been writing small articles for college mags, or a wall mag we ran in my Business School, for many years. Once the realisation hit, I did it, too. But the point is, I didn't notice myself turning into this writer while it was happening. A caterpillar perhaps doesn't realise it's going to be a butterfly one day :) 

You may notice this change a little better in others- for good or bad. Like friends drifting away, or new ones coming into your life, or characteristics of people changing. It's easier to notice any change in others, compared to noticing it in oneself. H.R. professionals ask for specific feedback from others, maybe for this reason. I think I am a calmer person than I used to be, though it could just be an effect of growing older! I still get aggravated sometimes, but mostly I forget about it fairly quickly. That's a good thing, I think.