Letting go

The other day one of my bosses retired from service in the company. He had served the company for 40 years. 40 years of effort, of hard work, of building the company and seeing it grow - coming to end in 1 day. He had a smile on his face, but it was smile as if he was hiding something. He tried to look at everything. Every place in the office, in the plant, in the township had some memory associated with it. Every place had a story associated with it. I was with him for only 3 months. But in those 3 months he made every effort to pass on his knowledge to us new recruits, so that we carry on the legacy. He really cared about the company. And that is the thing that hurt him the most. One day it all ends. You work for something, giving all your life and effort for it and then one day you get a nice party and a thank you for your services.

It is the norm, the way world operates. But then I thought about it. What would I feel or what does anybody feel about letting go? About working for something and one day leaving it all and going? At first I thought it must be heart wrenching. It must crush you. You would be devastated. Looking up at everything and feeling cheated of not getting you due. But then after sometime I thought about it. Its always important to move on. To a new thing, to a new project, a new idea. Working on the same thing makes you obsessed with it and at some point you come to think of it as the owner. Your view and thoughts become stifled and that's what leads to the death of the project. The leader who did not know when to move on. Leaving what you did at its high point is what matters the most.

Even in life, it is important to move on. To move to a new place, a new project meet new people and well leave your circle of comfort behind. It important not to get too close or too attached to people because then like the project the expectation match never happens. Go to a new place, meet new people, have fun with them and move on and then repeat.

Finally as I wrote before it is important to leave at the right moment. Before the disintegration begins. Before you rip everything which you loved apart. Finally it is the memories which you cherish. The stories that you tell and the pride which you take in the thing with which you were once associated with. Today I saw "Quark 2010" advertisement in Business standard. It was a half page ad in one of the highest circulating and most reputed dailies in the country. And I felt a sense of pride while looking at that page. I sense of jubilation. Something which even I personally could not have achieved. I wanted to go out and tell people - I was associated with this once ( I did not, they won't understand :) ).

And that's when I realized why it is important to let go and to move on.

Best of Luck Quark Team - Make me proud !!!