Day #8: Guts 100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017

Day #8: Guts

One of the most important qualities that one needs to develop in life is Guts. That is what rescues you from tight situations.  Guts help you to push yourself out of your comfort zone and take a risk. That is what propels you into a relationship where you don’t know how it is going to pan out and you do not have all the answers. That is what guides you into entering entrepreneurship, take a new job in a new country or adopt a baby. Guts is what it takes for you to experience something new and go where no man has gone before.

I’m grateful that God has blessed me with a ton load of that. Many decisions in my life have been possible because of that. Where I was lacking in guts I worked on myself till I developed more of it. One such recent instance is when I sold my car without any plans of buying a new one. I am constantly told that for a businessman a car is a business necessity. The more successful the businessman, the longer and more expensive the car must be. I also believed that nonsense for several decades and because of peer pressure or family pressure or friends pressure continued to own one or two cars at different stages of my life.

But this time, my wife and kids were supportive of the idea of giving up our car and using rented cars or public transport to commute. So before they got second thoughts, I sold my car, reduced my EMI significantly, and at one-third the cost of owning a car I now travel in chauffeured comfort in different cars.

The future is ownerless cars. It will happen within the next decade. Using an asset for just 2 hours or less a day does not justify the enormous waste of resources. And here, I don’t mean just money. Our planet is being systematically slaughtered by the rapacious greed of manufacturers who are feeding our egos and need for significance by offering products that we seldom use so they can justify their existence on their balance sheet.

How much of your car do you use? How much of your gadgets and appliances do you use? Fractal ownership and shared resources are kinder on the planet and future generations. If we live like there is no tomorrow, then we will become self-prophetic.  There will be no tomorrow for your grandchildren.

When we take off or land from any city in an aircraft, look at the landscape below. Most hills and mountains have been gouged open for sand, ore, minerals, and stones. That is what goes into our products. If we do not use the products fully, then we are doing injustice to the earth from where these products came from.

Spare a thought for our earth. Develop the guts to say no to wastage. Do not buy something for the sake of ego or greed. We’re destroying the future for our descendants. If you already own products that you do not use, gift it away or sell it. At least the other person will make use of it. If you are planning to buy something that you will seldom use, consider finding ways of sharing it with others so the earth is spared.

Thank you for those with GUTS. They shall inherit the World!