Be a cockroach, not a dinosaur

“Steps to Success”

A Writer’s Fortnight guest speaker, Chetan Bhagat made over 200 grade 9s in UWCSEA want to be a cockroach. Cockroaches have adapted to become successful and the way they adapt was similar to the other successful guests in Writer’s Fortnight.

Adapting and Changing

“There are two types of successful people, winners who do better than others and winners who change the game” said Chetan Bhagat. Chetan is the author of nine blockbuster novels, four of which have been adapted to Bollywood films.

So what is the difference between winners who do better than others and winners who change the game? First, we will have to understand what it means to ‘change the game’.

“People who are adaptive can be more successful than the people who are the strongest or the smartest”. Chetan explained this with an example of dinosaurs and cockroaches. Dinosaurs were the “boss” of the earth but, of course, they are extinct now. Cockroaches were there when dinosaurs were alive and they are still here because they are adaptive to extreme conditions including a nuclear explosion.  

Dinosaurs that were the winners and ruled the Earth, did not last as winners for long because of the meteorite that crashed on the Earth. But winners who change the game like cockroaches, survive and stay as a winner as they keep on adapting. They eat anything they can including glue, soap or leather and they can live for more than a month without eating. Their flexible body and legs built for running are created for defense. I think that most of us would like being successful for a long period of time than being powerful at once and fade out.

Chetan Bhagat has made a significant contribution to the social change in India – to improve India as a country. His goal is to reach every person in India and to achieve this goal he changes the way to deliver his thoughts. One of his books called ‘Making India Awesome’ is about what young Indians want and possible solutions to issues in India.

He writes in a simple and accessible manner with humor so that a wider range of people can enjoy his books. Before Chetan, selling over 5000 books in India was considered impressive but his recent book called ‘Half Girlfriend’ sold over 1.5 million copies. This definitely changed the idea of ‘best seller’ in India.

It does not have to be in books to deliver thoughts so Chetan changed the way to provide his story. For example, four of his books were turned into Bollywood films. In this way, his stories can be shared with more people through this popular film industry.

He started using social media so that he can reach out to more young people. With more than 10 million followers on Twitter, he said there’s a greater chance of delivering his story to more people than books and in a shorter amount of time.

By adapting his job and changing the way to reach people, he was able to succeed – although he is still in the middle of his journey to achieve his big goal of reaching everyone in India.

Change the way you used to use

Robyne Hayes is a researcher and a photographer that changed the game. She adapted as a researcher by changing the way researchers use the camera, just as Chetan described. She created the TESFA project where the volunteers teach women and girls in Ethiopia how to use a camera and asked them to take pictures of their lives.      

Their website says  “the TESFA project worked to improve economic and sexual and reproductive health outcomes for the highly marginalized population of child brides.” This project made researchers learn new facts such as women washing their husband’s feet after going on the fields.

In her website, she stated “Photography is powerful. In an instant, a single image can create empathy, heighten awareness and be the catalyst for change.” Before knowing about her new project, a lot of us assumed Robyne was referring to the power of her own photos but this can also be interpreted as the researchers being more aware of their job and the purpose of their job from the pictured taken by people who are facing or might face the issue.

Instead of using a camera to take pictures for evidence and supporting the facts, she used the camera to gain facts. Robyn’s change as a researcher helped her succeed as a researcher with the new way to get information.

The hardest times will help you evolve

Deborah Emmanuel is a poet and a performer. She suffered about her identity when she was younger. Her father is Indian and her mother is Eurasian. She thought that she looked funny and people made fun of her hair. She went to an Indian city where her grandparents’ live city to see if she belonged there but she said it was just her and a bunch of people from India. Since she could not fit in and said, “I am far away from each category.”

During the Q and A session, someone asked if she could give an advice to her younger self what would she want to say and she answered, “It’s going to be okay”. The reason why she does not want to give an advice is because she wants her younger self to have those experiences to evolve.

Connecting her early life with the answer from the Q and A session, we can see that she proved that even when she felt like she is an outsider and even when she was confused about her identity, she was able to overcome it and made her stronger.

When Deborah was 19 she went to jail for a year for taking drugs. Once people go to jail, many have difficulties in their future lives, but Deborah performs her poetry and tells her story to many people. The hardest times and the mistakes in the past made Deborah evolve to what she is right now. I believe this is also an important way of succeeding.

Steve Dawson’s previous career

Steve Dawson changed his career from a tax accountant to the most recognizable TV sports anchor in South Asia, Fox Star Sports. He did not like being a tax accountant and said that he was not good at it. Steve’s evolvement is similar to Deborah Emmanuel because his previous career lead him to a successful journalist.

He used to have anxiety every night but he said that he does not regret being a tax accountant and he thinks that doing this job helped him in journalism.

Accuracy is one of the most important factors of not only an accountant, and journalist but also as a commentator on TV so that the readers or audience would not misinterpret or misunderstand the information.

Overall, success is definitely not an easy thing. If you are at the lowest point in your life, there’s a plenty of chance to succeed and do what you really want to do and change the game and adapt like the all these successful people did. Keep adapting and keep evolving.