THE ESCALATOR ACT

The Escalator Act.

“Kunal don’t you think that the idea is risky. I mean it is good to have an online business and all but still we are not experts in marketing and sales. Do you think we can do it?” This was my friend’s response when I told him about the ecommerce workshop that I had recently attended. “Every new idea is risky and every new step we take is something we will always be unsure of. None of the businesses were started by experts. Every big business has, had its own share of failures and drawbacks. One becomes an expert only by practicing his skills and testing his knowledge and not by just sitting at the bay of the river and just dreaming about swimming. I know initially we will have our share of failures and setbacks. Besides, you talk about sales and marketing, all I have learnt in my life about sales and marketing is that there is never a definite pattern to sales and marketing. There is always a new strategy and a new idea waiting to be harnessed.” I told him. “I agree with you my friend but still there is a huge fear in my heart about the whole idea.” He replied. “Out of all the people on the face of this earth I did not expect this coming from you my friend. You have time and again proved yourself and your worth to everyone around. I always thought you would never be scared to face new challenges in a career.” I told him. We sat there in the coffee shop sipping our coffees and discussing other stuff. He actually wanted to change the topic. I wanted him on the venture desperately as I trusted his knowledge in the field of business a lot. At some point I believe I could make a mistake but unlike me he was an analytical man. He had huge experience in the field of sales and also he was always sure about the calculated risks, but here he needed some coaxing into the idea. I was not able to strike up the proper approach to his brain and hence was not able to convince him about it. However, I am stubborn animal I do not give up so easily. Lol. After finishing our coffee we went out of the store and started looking around other things in the mall. My friend then told me he wanted to buy a nice perfume for his wife and that the perfume store was on the first level of the mall. We headed towards the elevator. At that very moment an idea struck my mind. “Dude I am claustrophobic can we just go by the escalator instead?” I said. He looked at me quizzically and asked, “Since when did this happen that you have become a claustrophobic?” He asked. “Just 30 seconds ago. Now can we take the escalator please?” I told him. My friends are used to my weird and childish ways and hence he did not argue much, after all it was not a huge issue.

As we approached the escalator I told him, “Let people from behind us go first. We will go after them.” He shrugged his shoulders as he did not understand what I was upto, he let the people behind us go first. Then he was about to step up on the escalator. I grabbed his hand and stopped him. He was now getting irritated and I let some more people pass by. He got more irritated when I did the same thing again and then he told me, “Kunal enough of your childish plays now please I want to go to the first level for my purchases. If you are done playing, can we go now?” I smiled. I told him, “Why step on the escalator? Just stand here and you will reach the first level automatically.” He looked at me and said, “Kunal seriously you have lost it dude. You cannot reach the next level if you do not step on the escalator or enter the elevator. You have to step ahead. Otherwise people will either push you or abuse you for blocking their way and they will go first.” He paused for a second. He then looked at me, I was already smiling. My point was proven. “Exactly my friend in life whenever you are in doubt and you decide to just become static or decide to stick to your position, afraid of what lays ahead, it will never let you develop or move on. Many things in life can generate such a fear, we have to overcome this fear of “What ifs?” and step on the first step of the escalators of “Let’s try it and see”, many times it has happened that we love someone but do not express it because we have the “What if?” fear in our brain. We want to progress in life, in our career but we always think “What if?” Life is just like this escalator my friend. If you do not take the first step and go ahead it will not wait for you. Other people will move ahead they will bump you with abuses and insults because you did not take the initiative in life to move ahead. They will go ahead and you will be standing irritated looking at them in despair thinking I need to go ahead. Mere thinking is not enough. You need to take an initiative. Life will lead you only if you want to take the initiative. Life will not tell you beforehand what lies ahead but it will surely elevate you to a better position either in experience or in knowledge. So always remember taking the initiative and putting the efforts is very important.” Having said this I stepped on the escalator and so did my friend we both reached the first level and did all the shopping we needed to do. Men do not waste much time in shopping. They are mostly precise about what they want and they buy only that. So, not much time was wasted in our shopping. After finishing shopping we sat at the bench by the railing. He then told me, “Kunal taking initiative is fine, but then there are escalators that take you down too, how do you decide which escalator are you on?” I did not think for a moment and pointed him in the direction of an escalator that was going down and asked, “Why do you think that lady who took the escalator that was going down, decide to take it?” “She wanted to go down.” He answered. I then said, “Dude it is pretty simple. Life gives you two options progress, mental peace and happiness sadness, downfall or mental chaos. The choice is always yours. If you want to be happy in life the escalator of life will always take you to a better position in life, if at that level you feel you have landed up in a problem you will still be happy and find solutions instead of sitting and cribbing about it. But if you decide to take the escalator to go down then for sure you will never be happy and crib about everything. So life is your shopping mall where you decide where you want to be and what you want to buy and let me tell you a trick all the good shops, which are selling good products in life, are always situated on the upper floors.” He smiled. “So all that claustrophobia is now gone.” “Claustrophobia who me, no I never had claustrophobia.” We both laughed. How amazing it is that simple things in life can give you the most important lessons of life. If we observe deeply life is always simple. We just make it complicated and difficult.