Conformity makes you happy?

I work for a well-known company in India. My job involves meeting a lot of people, everyday. People from various backgrounds and at various levels in the organization. If one were to step back from the sheer tediousness of listening and talking to so many people, its actually a very fascinating experience. Not an experience that I would recommend anyone embrace, but one that I'm sure people would appreciate.

I see a lot of people who have no idea, why is it that they do what they do. People are sticklers for conformity. Thats what they have done all their life. That was what families, peers and societies have demanded out of them. They have got a degree in a subject, which they had no idea they were interested in, but the family circle, thought being an Engineer or a Doctor was respectable. Being an MBA was respectable. They are in marriages which were forced upon them, as they hit the marriageable age. An age deemed by society. Men and women, who are kids themselves, are changing diapers. People in love, decide to tie the knot, coz society demands that they need that stamp of conformity to lead a normal conjugal life.

All these things come at a cost. Your education, love, marriage, loveless marriage. Everything. And the cost is not always money. When such things of greater importance have been an exercise in conformity, what are the odds that your job is going to be any different? You get into what, at the time, was the most talked about industry and meet people like me. I would tell you that, after a point this job like most corporate jobs, would become a pursuit of the next pay cheque to pay your bills. Fulfillment of the soul is moot, as there is no soul to fill. You might think that Conformity, never killed anybody but creativity did. Well my friend, each day you conform, you die a little. Its a pity we hardly do anything about it, though we realize we are dying.

Go on. Be a Tiger (the jungli billi). Challenge the paradigm. Tiger Woods screwed it up, coz he tried to conform to what society expected of him. Nobody lifts an eyebrow at a George Clooney, Vijay Mallya or a Lewis Hamilton. They live on their own terms and make money too.

I recently watched this movie, "Up In The Air" and I must say no movie in recent times has left such an impression on me. I live a nomadic life and revel in the anonymity it gives me, even from my family. We all need someone / something to cling to. But is conformity the price that we pay for it? Are we willing to bear the weight of this conformity?

I have no answer to this question. In life, we need to decide for ourselves, what are the Principles of Life we need to adhere to and live them, regardless of short term consequences.

Watch the movie: "Up In the Air"



An excerpt from the dialogues:

George Clooney: How much did they first pay you to give up on your dreams?

The Guy He is Firing: 27 Grand a Year

GC: And when were you going to stop and come back and do what makes you happy?

TGHIF: Good question