Writing this very inspiring post as a lot of us sit at Centre for Science and Environment, working on our overnight mammoth effort to get the India Environment Portal ready for launch this afternoon by Mr. Sam Pitroda, the head of the National Knowledge Comission (we heard that our Finance Minister – Chidambram – is also going to be present for the event). I am simply here to be a “moral support” for Ipsita, Syed and Shashank, as they plough their way in getting the front-end visual look organised, and after long sessions of networking on LinkedIn, I am now writing this blog post. Here goes…

My calling

This afternoon I was with a friend, an IIM-B grad, to get advise on a new initiative I am looking to get moving on at Srijan. Having engaged him in my passionate talk about what I would like to Srijan to become, I shared that I would like to at the nearest opportunity like to move out of heading technology services for Srijan, and help diversify this company into areas that are “my calling” – renewable energy, rural tourism (and other businesses which would transform the social and economic fabric of rural life in India), and pursuing purely social goals of being able to strengthen the communal, social, ecological, and political setup of this country.

I love what I do at Srijan. I love consulting on projects like the India Environment Portal, where we have helped drop three proprietary systems and replaced them with a single open source system based on Drupal (more on this post-launch as a detailed Case Study). I love the idea of creating a company which has a great co-operative way of functioning. Today evening, I am to start discussions with an Investment Banking company to start Srijan’s journey towards creating an an ESOP model as a way of institutionalising our profit-sharing mechanism – a step towards a more democratic and equitable model of running companies with serious people participation and ownership. Having done this, I would like to move out of Srijan’s technology operations to pursue other passions and my other callings.

Towards the end of the conversation, a review of a book that I had read a couple of weeks back, called “A Year to Live“, popped-up in my head. I had actually started yesterday morning with this thought and walked in our park trying to internalise and firm up my resolution to live this one year, as it were my last – and in the process rejuvenate my relationships at home (which I have sacrificed and neglected a lot for Srijan), to push forward all the things I would love to see at Srijan, to “leap” forward in pursuing my heart’s inspirations. I shared with my friend, how powerful it would be to live from a place where one had just one year to live. He mentioned that Steve Jobs had lectured at Stanford on a similar thought.

Steve Jobs’ lecture at Stanford : Trust in yourself; Love Live as if it were the last day of your life

Googling for Steve Jobs’ lectures, I finally found this one. It was so inspiring that I could not hold myself back from writing this blog post at 4:00am (while my colleagues are busy punching the keys on their laptops, with me giving them “moral support”; and one of our client’s managers snoring behind us ). Here’s what he said – some excerpts.

Do what you love

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.

Notice that he says “love what you do”, and not “do what you love”. But to be honest, having read the context in which he says this, I think he really meant “do what you love.”

Trust in your gut, destiny, life, karma

You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever–because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well- worn path, and that will make all the difference.

Live as if this were your last day

When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

…Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

For me personally, a year to live is more “realistic”, than living as if it were the last day of your life. Either way, the purpose of this message remains the same.

I cannot but help reiterate the key messages once more:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.

There is no reason not to follow your heart.

The full lecture, which I highly recommend everyone to read, is available at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200506/msg00229.html.

Let me know if you found his talk inspiring as well.