“Be whoever you want to be!” — My idea for enabling this!

When I was in school, I saw kids from many backgrounds coming in and learning together and everyone was unique in every way possible. But although everyone was different and were great at very different things, most of us came out as Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, etc.

This is what it looks like.

Most of us passed through one pipe [“Our education system”] and came out with popular career paths.

So what is wrong here? One could argue everyone is different and can contribute to the same problems of engineering & healthcare in their own unique ways!

But what if a person was supposed to be a Musician? A Boxer? An Opera performer? An Olympian?

What if a Beethoven was not born again because he did not know what he had to do to be a Musician? Worse! He realized it later!

Again one could argue that if he really was passionate he would have been in that profession! Yes, this argument is valid at times but what if a daughter had asked her father, “Daddy how could I be a policy writer at the United Nations?”. What if a son had asked his mother, “Mom how could I be an Economics Professor at Harvard?”. They could have replied, “I am not so sure, why don’t you go find yourself?”. So most of us would have got some hints from the internet, friends, but were we convinced? Did we really feel confident about it? Most of us pondered on and finally thought we will figure it out later and that was it!

That is the problem!

So what’s the IDEA?

I realize that we have solved this problem to a point, again we know what exactly it takes for a person to work as an Engineer, a Doctor, a Lawyer, etc.

But what about other career paths?

What if a father had told his daughter, “You have to study these specific subjects, be excellent at this specific topic, go to this college abroad, publish your ideas at these forums, etc. to be eligible to work at the United Nations.” when she was still in school? The kid would have had some ground to walk on or pursue her interests.

The role of technology is to make people’s life easier and making people be whoever they want to be is a beautiful problem to solve.

IDEA

A platform where individuals who have achieved a certain career share what it took for them to get there, the things they learned or should have learned, the colleges they recommend, basically provide the path which they took or should have taken to get there.

That is essentially my idea, authentic people sharing the roadmap to their career!

The ultimate purpose of knowledge is to be passed on. I bet many individuals would like to share their struggles, victories and their wisdom to people who want to walk a similar path and excel.

This platform would not be limited to kids. All grown-ups are kids as well, most of us adults are romancing with the idea of becoming musicians, fitness trainers, mathematicians, etc. even after gaining expertise in a totally different domain.

Anyone who wants to do a particular thing, no matter how far-fetched or ridiculous it may look, if he knows someone who is already doing that and can get a feel for what it took for him to do it, won’t he be more confident?

For example, a person would want to know what it takes to own a restaurant in India, the legal matters, financial wisdom, risks, etc. If he realizes he could appetite all of those, could he not own a restaurant and do what he loves?

The purpose of the platform is to not to groom people for a role in an organization but to give them a vouched map for being whoever they want to be!

The features of the platform could be just endless, and it could target many audiences, enabling them to pursue a certain career which has scope locally or globally.

Just wanted to share this IDEA or maybe a thought!