“Your love for your country is only in your work.” -Sudhir Mishra
What is the big deal, really, if you live with your accidental career and not pursue an addictive career? Life will still continue, right? The truth is that it will, but it will significantly impact the quality of your life and diminish how fulfilled you feel, how much you achieve and the impact you make on society. Apart from your personal wellbeing, it will also dramatically impact your nation’s progress and its economy.
I’m not personally very patriotic because I think it is just the combined feelings of pride, belonging and security on a large scale. It makes sense from the survival perspective which is OK. But suppose you are very passionate about your country and want to contribute to its progress, have you thought about how what you do will really contribute to your country’s development? What do you think is the best way to make a difference? Most often, we complain and crib, blaming politics, corruption, colonialism, etc. We think if we got rid of those problems, our country would be among the most developed. But in my view, we can transform any nation if the majority of its people get into addictive careers. Imagine if we had a 1000 Ambanis, Tendulkars, Modis, Rajamoulis, etc. Can you imagine how rapid and transformational our growth would be?
Why do you think that the US or any other advanced country has made significant progress? Do you think they are better because they have more natural resources or are blessed with some special powers? What do you think? I think it all boils down to freedom- the freedom of individuals to choose addictive careers. Period. Progress will naturally follow if you have even 10% (or far lesser!) of the population in addictive careers.
The bottom line is that pursuing an addictive career is good not just for you, but for your entire country. If you are patriotic, then instead of just talking about political issues, focus on getting into an addictive career.