Is Life Really A TRADE-OFF ?
It was just about a month back when we entered into the MBA College and attended the first Economics lecture, we were beautifully told that Everything is Economics…”Life is a trade-off..” At first I took it casually. But when I gave it a second thought, I realized that somewhere life can be explained by the very first Principle of Economics-The TRADE-OFFs. To lead a life, you must make choices and lean in a direction, and in doing so, you can’t have it all. Life is the series of tradeOffs where everything cannot be achieved.
But Wait.! Before jumping onto any conclusion, wasn’t we supposed to learn from our childhood days and in the process also told by the so called philosophers, poets and movie makers, that you can achieve everything in life, life is an endless possibilities which can be explored by sheer hardwork and perseverence. So, does that mean, with hardwork you can break the law of trade-offs. With hardwork, Is it possible to have the advantages of single life and be married? Is it possible to be a leader, without any burden of responsibilities ? Can you speak up and still be anonymous?
Or does hardwork comes into the picture after you have walked down the trade-off path. I suppose Yes, we choose to work hard on the path, after making choices, either in fear or to open up new opportunities.
I guess life is not as easy as it seems. Its not just the phenomena explained by the hardwork or trade-offs. Its much complex than that. If we expect to “have it all” in life, we will live in a perpetual state of frustration and disappointment.
So appreciate the satisfactions of the path we have chosen, knowing that we do not have to have everything in order to have something good. And if we believe in the path that we have chosen, we open up even more opportunities and possibilities for growth and satisfaction.
I think one should just move on from the paralysis of “never enough” to “good enough.” This attitude is a building block to peace of mind which, underneath it all, is what most of us are really after anyway.
SCIT MBA(ITBM)2013-2015
