Opportune Revelations

As human beings, we tend to complain a lot. Well, most of us anyway. As adults, we complain about the political situation, terrible management in our organizations, the never ending queue at a waiting line, frustrating domestic issues, education system, and a host of other important matters in our daily lives. 

Children, I observe, rarely complain. At most, they complain about petty things, like not getting their toys, or being ridiculed in school. Petty things, compared with our predicament. 

But, the minute we hear children complain, we advise them to do something about it. If the child complains the soup is too hot, we ask them to blow it and cool it down. If the child complains about being exhausted, we tell them to hang on, we'll reach in a little while. If a child says he's being bullied, we tell them to stand up and fight back. The best part of it all, is, the child actually listens to what we say and acts on it. 

These days, as we mature into young adults, our ears seem to tune out to the words of others. We have our own opinions and our own ways of doing things. When others say turn left, we go right. When others say 'hop', we fly. We do the exact opposite. And what happens when things don't go our way? 

That's right. The very first thing that we do, is complain. It's never our fault. It's always the fault of the tool, the stranger, the team, or the environment. Even when we think it's all our doing, we rarely admit it. In fact, sometimes, we even turn a blind eye on the situation, which makes it worse! 

Yet, one important lesson I've taken away from this workshop, is that despite the hurdles, champions are those who turn complains into opportunities. None of the people I've interacted with throughout the workshop, lamented about their environments or situations. Often, they looked at obstacles straight into the eye, stared down at it, and faced it head on. 

Every waking moment, they are thinking of ways to hammer complicated problems into little chips and pieces that could be stored, evaluated, understood and shared. They analyze the chips under the microscope to  understand every ion, going down on their knees, cracking their heads to break down pages after pages of complex equations, and come up with the most simplified mathematical functions. The most amazing thing is, not only do they apply their analysis in their technical area, they even look at its application in other industries to see how it can help to improve the lives of others. 

Ever heard about nanotechnology? I first heard about it 10 years ago, from my coursemate, who had a vision that it would define the future of our world. At that time, nanotechnology was still at its budding stage. Scientists had grand visions of it. It would eradicate poverty, heal incurable diseases, and improve economies. It'd give us higher hopes and a reason to live.

When I was first exposed to it, it scared the hell out of me. My naive mind thought, "Wow... wouldn't that replace God?" It shook my faith in the powers above for a while, for I thought with such magic, we wouldn't need God anymore. So, why should I have any religion, for that matter? 

Today, after being exposed to the wonders of nanotechnology, I am a convert. Because of nanotechnology, cancers can be cured, bomb threats can be detected in the air through nano-particles. Nevertheless, there will always be limitations to our work. As we strive to achieve breakthroughs and revelations, we discover that our knowledge is consistently inversely proportional with our ignorance.  

But, should that stop us from taking up leading roles and initiatives in our efforts towards improving the quality of lives of humanity.? Ought we even complain when plans go awry? While others are going all out to resolve issues, how can we play our parts in ensuring the problems don't go out of hand? How do we take an active role in ensuring that our voices are heard, our concerns are noticed? How do we increase the number of our manpower? How do we create solutions? 

We, can achieve this by first being passionate and interested in areas we are most concerned about. Solutions will hit us and flow like electricity the moment inspiration strikes. Like the waterfall, once it finds its highest falling point, it will never run dry. The least we can do, while our hearts are still beating, is to resolve one issue at a time, to make this world a better place. Taking it step by step, and innovate along the way.