Purpose needs to be actionable!

Jan20
2010 4 Comments Written by Prasad

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A friend’s cousin approached me recently. He wanted to enter the gaming industry and was essentially clueless as to what to do next. Since this career stream was startlingly similar to what I had started out with (this was at the age of 10 for me though), I decided to make his quest my personal crusade. Where I had taken up games as a form of entertainment, I decided to take up his case.

So I asked him as to what had he done to get closer to his purpose. Other than playing different games, he had done absolutely nothing. He was starting from scratch, towards a journey less travelled. Imagine sailing in an uncharted sea (non-mainstream career), without a look-out tower (lack of visibility) and without the sails (lack of skill-sets) to drive you ahead. Tough journey right? I pointed him in the right direction and gave him some actionables that would get him started on his path. I also asked him to build the right set of capacities before makes the jump to gaming as a career. There is a vast difference between playing a game and making one, between having an interest and pursuing one, between having a purpose and acting on it.

I ask myself and you, that is mere purpose without action enough then? I might have lofty ambitions and a strong purpose driving me … but am I acting on that purpose?

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  • http://www.crazyengineers.com The Big K

    100/100, A++ for this post! In above case, gaming isn’t passion – its just a pastime hobby for your friend’s cousin. Had it been his passion, he’d have done something on his own to find out more about making a career in gaming.

  • http://www.kidakaka.com Prasad

    Thanks Biggie. I thought as much, but somehow deep inside I still hope that its his true passion :)

  • http://maxmayur.wordpress.com Mayur

    The case seems similar to my cousin. He wanted to have a career in auto mobile industry (He is an electronics engg from a very reputed college from Pune, btw). He is an absolute fanatic. He lives and dies for the fancy cars, especially SUVs. But he has no idea how his passion and work can be combined.

    I tried helping him by motivating him to write specifications for a ‘Indian’ SUV, a vehicle with the capabilities of a Hummer at a price of a Scorpio. But nothing worked out. Now he is on his way to Toronto (waiting for his formalities to be completed).

    Sigh! Another engineer lost.

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