“What will people say?” — The Ultimate Dream Killer

Too many people I speak to are sadly still too fazed by what will other people think or say.

This kills way more dreams than most.

The phrase ‘log kya kehenge’ (what will people say?) still sends shivers and shudders down many a subcontinental spine.

I’ve long had a penchant for being an early adopter. Sometimes way too early.

In my younger years, this would often affect me too.

Of course, it’s only natural to want to be liked. It’s uncomfortable, any other way. And we tend to avoid discomfort like the plague where possible.

Going against the grain is tough. It’s even tougher when you fail.

It does get easier, though.

In more recent years, I’ve much preferred to take the advice of Nikola Tesla, whose quote below I was very inspired by.

From the article: “Tesla Predicts New Source of Power In Year” in the New York Herald Tribune, July 9, 1933:

Asked how it felt to be so far ahead of his time that he was subject to attacks upon his sanity, Dr. Tesla smiled and said that he has long since ceased to regard it as important.

“I live a life of seclusion. The opinion of the world does not affect me. I have placed as the real values in my life what follows after I am dead, although it has been given to me to live to see those things which were once scouted accepted as scientific…