Discussion on passion for perfection in profession in context of spiritual life; Should be balanced with Sathya (Truth), Dharma (Ethics), Shanti (Peace) and Prema (Love) values
In Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10213147132297576, Mr. V.R. Ganti wrote:
"Convert your Passion into your Profession to gain Perfection."
Passion and Profession are both different aspects. But if you take your Passion Professionally, the game is all yours.
Remember, "When Passion meets Profession, it creates history." So do what your heart says and not what people.!
--- end V.R. Ganti post ---
Mr. Alok Dara Shikoh commented on the above post (slightly edited to fix typos, provide some clarification and exclude unrelated parts): But sir, we should not forget the other quote by swami:. "the secret of happiness (success) lies not in doing what you like, but in liking what you have to do"... I have always wondered about this and arrived at the conclusion that ultimately your statement "do what your heart says' is very correct, but the determination of "what your heart says" should come not just from passion but also from other considerations important to the heart (including what is labeled as swadharma (ethical behaviour appropriate for oneself) in Hinduism... Passion is an extremely minor component of swadharma, if I understand it right).
My apologies in case this view is not in conformity with the intent of your post, but wanted to share my age old dilemma and resolution on the matter.
...
Ravi S. Iyer sir, would love to hear your view on the matter.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited): Alok Dara Shikoh sir Sairam! During my days in the very competitive and very innovative international software industry from 1984 to 2002, I saw that such views about passion for perfection in the workplace were viewed as highly desirable by managers and top leaders of software companies. In the initial years of my career, perhaps till I faced a major crisis in my life around 1993, I too came under that influence. I mean, I was in awe of the achievements of some great software professionals as well as great software companies/labs, and the general impression people had was that passion for perfection was the driving force for most of these professionals and/or companies. Their contribution to software world was astonishing and mind-blowing.
As an example, some info. about the then great Bell Labs of AT&T (now it is not so well known and has been taken over by Nokia). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs - note that it has notable telephony and hardware innovations also to its credit, besides software:
Researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages C, C++, and S. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories.
--- end wiki quote ---
For me as a software professional in those days, the big and awesome contributions from Bell Labs were C, C++ and Unix.
But by 1993, I was getting disillusioned with this passion for perfection being a good attitude to life. I had seen quite a few career burnouts which perhaps happened due to this passion for perfection. My own major crisis in life also contributed significantly to this disillusionment.
Today I have the view that passion for perfection may produce great art, great products including technology products etc. I respect that. But many times, the lives of the people who have this deep passion for perfection in their profession/workplace, are not contented, balanced and happy lives. Sometimes such people are very harsh to others around them and hurt them a lot.
An appropriate example could be Steve Jobs. Apple under Steve Jobs produced absolutely wonderful products like the iPod and the iPhone. Steve Jobs was a great man from a worldly achievements perspective. But, unfortunately, Steve Jobs did not do so well as a nice and good human being. In his youth, he abandoned his child and left the child's mother the task of raising the child (for details see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brennan-Jobs)! I don't want to dwell much on these negative aspects of Steve Jobs.
Perhaps passion for perfection in his profession led Steve Jobs to produce these absolutely wonderful products. But it also made him a not so nice guy. I don't think he would have done well on Sathya (truth), Dharma (ethics and ethical behaviour), Shanti (peace) & Prema (love) values scale.
I think passion and quest for perfection should be balanced with Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema values. At times if one's passion for perfection is conflicting with these values, I think it is better to slow down on the passion for perfection in favour of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema. Such an approach may not help in making a person great. But I think it will go a long way in the person being good. And goodness is better than greatness in the spiritual path.
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Alok Dara Shikoh wrote (slightly edited): Superb examples and conclusions Ravi Sir. Yes this is exactly what I meant... happiness+success does not come just from ensuring passion meets profession. A lot of other things (especially human value inculcation) have to be worked out also.
----
Note that both Mr. V.R. Ganti and Mr. Alok Dara Shikoh approved public sharing of their comments by me.
=============================================================
A comment: "I have heard that many Bell Labs researchers were very nice people; for example people have said very nice things about Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan."
"Convert your Passion into your Profession to gain Perfection."
Passion and Profession are both different aspects. But if you take your Passion Professionally, the game is all yours.
Remember, "When Passion meets Profession, it creates history." So do what your heart says and not what people.!
--- end V.R. Ganti post ---
Mr. Alok Dara Shikoh commented on the above post (slightly edited to fix typos, provide some clarification and exclude unrelated parts): But sir, we should not forget the other quote by swami:. "the secret of happiness (success) lies not in doing what you like, but in liking what you have to do"... I have always wondered about this and arrived at the conclusion that ultimately your statement "do what your heart says' is very correct, but the determination of "what your heart says" should come not just from passion but also from other considerations important to the heart (including what is labeled as swadharma (ethical behaviour appropriate for oneself) in Hinduism... Passion is an extremely minor component of swadharma, if I understand it right).
My apologies in case this view is not in conformity with the intent of your post, but wanted to share my age old dilemma and resolution on the matter.
...
Ravi S. Iyer sir, would love to hear your view on the matter.
---
Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited): Alok Dara Shikoh sir Sairam! During my days in the very competitive and very innovative international software industry from 1984 to 2002, I saw that such views about passion for perfection in the workplace were viewed as highly desirable by managers and top leaders of software companies. In the initial years of my career, perhaps till I faced a major crisis in my life around 1993, I too came under that influence. I mean, I was in awe of the achievements of some great software professionals as well as great software companies/labs, and the general impression people had was that passion for perfection was the driving force for most of these professionals and/or companies. Their contribution to software world was astonishing and mind-blowing.
As an example, some info. about the then great Bell Labs of AT&T (now it is not so well known and has been taken over by Nokia). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs - note that it has notable telephony and hardware innovations also to its credit, besides software:
Researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages C, C++, and S. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories.
--- end wiki quote ---
For me as a software professional in those days, the big and awesome contributions from Bell Labs were C, C++ and Unix.
But by 1993, I was getting disillusioned with this passion for perfection being a good attitude to life. I had seen quite a few career burnouts which perhaps happened due to this passion for perfection. My own major crisis in life also contributed significantly to this disillusionment.
Today I have the view that passion for perfection may produce great art, great products including technology products etc. I respect that. But many times, the lives of the people who have this deep passion for perfection in their profession/workplace, are not contented, balanced and happy lives. Sometimes such people are very harsh to others around them and hurt them a lot.
An appropriate example could be Steve Jobs. Apple under Steve Jobs produced absolutely wonderful products like the iPod and the iPhone. Steve Jobs was a great man from a worldly achievements perspective. But, unfortunately, Steve Jobs did not do so well as a nice and good human being. In his youth, he abandoned his child and left the child's mother the task of raising the child (for details see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brennan-Jobs)! I don't want to dwell much on these negative aspects of Steve Jobs.
Perhaps passion for perfection in his profession led Steve Jobs to produce these absolutely wonderful products. But it also made him a not so nice guy. I don't think he would have done well on Sathya (truth), Dharma (ethics and ethical behaviour), Shanti (peace) & Prema (love) values scale.
I think passion and quest for perfection should be balanced with Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema values. At times if one's passion for perfection is conflicting with these values, I think it is better to slow down on the passion for perfection in favour of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema. Such an approach may not help in making a person great. But I think it will go a long way in the person being good. And goodness is better than greatness in the spiritual path.
----
Alok Dara Shikoh wrote (slightly edited): Superb examples and conclusions Ravi Sir. Yes this is exactly what I meant... happiness+success does not come just from ensuring passion meets profession. A lot of other things (especially human value inculcation) have to be worked out also.
----
Note that both Mr. V.R. Ganti and Mr. Alok Dara Shikoh approved public sharing of their comments by me.
=============================================================
A comment: "I have heard that many Bell Labs researchers were very nice people; for example people have said very nice things about Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan."
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