Adieu Teacher

A fresh Engineering Graduate with a good academic history, and inflated with hope given by professors, friends and family was scared. He knew that life was not as easy as painted by many. And he knew that he was not all that good as his academic records say or as his parents think. Soon his fears started becoming reality. He was not getting his dream job. He stopped dreaming. He was seeing failure on the horizon and he stopped hoping. He wanted someone to guide him. But there was no one as friends would always say one thing, “Don’t worry man! You will live and remember you are not the only one.” And parents always said, “No need to worry, you are the best so you will get the best out of life.”

He was getting jeers, sympathy, preaching and all other things that he didn’t want. The only thing that he needed was advice on what to do; how to manage his self. How could he prove to everyone that his recent bad behavior was due to his bad situation? That was when his father gifted him a book; a book that his father has not read himself.

He opened the pages and started reading, the more he read the better it got. And then he came to a page that read, “Our behavior is a function of our decisions and not our conditions.” And the page that said ‘Responsibility’ is the ability to choose response. And he was sold to the idea. He changed, as the book has shown him that he had the power in him to be responsible, to choose his response.

He didn’t become a totally different person, but he started taking ownership of his behavior and his surroundings and things eventually improved.

Now 16 years later he is doing way better in his life both professionally and personally, than what he thought he could. The lines from that book and many others that he had read after that are stored in the folds of his brain to resurface when needed.

He owes a lot to that book. And the news that the author of the book died in an accident, sadden him. He wanted to meet the author and say thanks in person. But then he realized that with millions of copies sold of just that one book (and many more books and articles and lectures) how many lives the author must have touched and improved. The best way to thank a coach is to play a great game out there, and so I will.

Adieu teacher, Dr. Stephen Covey. You will be missed. Many thanks for the gifts that you have left in the form of books and articles that will benefit people for generations. I am sure now, like always there are many men and women out there unsure about what they should do and your words will stand beacon to them like they have been for me for last 16 years.

PS: The book was “7 Habits of Highly effective people” and after that it was “Principle Centered Leadership” and “First Things First” that help me shape things in my life