Why you should be a rebel in life?

I am sure your curiosity has brought you here. You want to know, why and how being a rebel in life can help a person.

Most of us, all through our life, try to gain acceptance, appreciation, and acknowledgment for our presence in the groups, around us. We learn that we can be part of any such group or society only if we conform to the rules and guidelines of the group. We realize the repercussions or learn by suffering for not conforming to the regulations of the group.

In the process gradually, we start following so that we can improve our acceptance in the group and be part of the society.

But we don’t realize that we start killing the creativity inside us. How?

Creativity triggers only when you don’t accept things as it is. It needs some kind of trouble, something you don’t conform to.

But we grow up to follow rules, in the environment where saying ‘no’ when everyone else agrees, is considered contrarian.

But the matter of fact is that the troublemakers are rare and brave. And you would be shocked to know that there is a rebel in each one of us, which we tend to showcase in different proportions.

To make things clear, let me tell you, I am not writing this post to create a troublemaker out of you. The objective of this post is simple, not to be part of the herd group mentality and challenge with a contrarian view.

“I am not a rebel without a cause”, is the kind of troublemaker I am referring to here.

Why?

Since childhood, our elders teach us to adhere to the right way of doing things. We say to our children,

“You are a good boy or a good girl, only if you behave in a particular manner.”

We don’t let them bloom with their own way of accepting or challenging a thought put before them.

Most of the kids give up and so as to become good, start adhering to the right set of behavior. They start following the norm, without challenging them.

At school, teachers teach us to choose certainty over doubt. And then all through our life, we fear taking risks. It is because we become apprehensive about the repercussions of failing.

Then the organizations we work we are made to adhere to the company-specific ways of doing things, without questioning them.

It almost kills our creativity.

I can forthrightly share my own story of being a rebel.

It was my tenth standard and the summer vacations had started. I read somewhere in one of the magazines, how teenagers in U.S work during their vacations. And earn their pocket money, irrespective of what class of society they belong to, affluent or not affluent.

Being brought up in a small, orthodox Malayali family in a small town of U.P in India in the late nineties, who would have thought of taking up and actually getting through a job interview at the tender age of 15?

My parents objected and said,

“You are too small to take up a job, even if it is for summer vacations only. No one does that.”

And I was like,

“So what if no one does that. I want to and I would do it.”

Although it took, a full one month to convince them, I did and went against their wishes. I gave the interview and got through the job. It was my first job, the job of being a salesman. I was just 15 and not sure if the child labor laws those days were that stringent or not. I earned, I learned and I churned the status quo group thinking.

Second Story

It is about those days, some nine years back when I had worked for almost seven years at various companies, changing jobs quite often. Learning, earning, and training people along, but that killing passion was missing.

I sold holiday packages, cars, loans, insurance, and investment products, but never felt thrilled at doing it. My vision of my life was different. I wanted to become a change agent, someone who could affect millions of lives.

I explored the options around, introspected the strengths that make me passionate. And realized I can positively affect the lives of hundreds and thousands of people by skilling them.

A lot of people except my wife objected but I began taking up small training assignments that came my way. I became a trainer, by contrarily going against the routine jobs, something that matched my qualifications till then.

Today I am a corporate trainer, a motivational speaker, an author, and a Life coach. My bio may sound a lot, but they are all aligned with my goal. The goal is to help people transform their lives through my sessions and my writing.

Third Story

I still remember that day. One of the recruiters, a PSU bank had come for the campus interviews at our campus. It was an MBA course. I was already selected, almost a week back.

This PSU bank that I am talking about was presenting the bank\’s future plans and the expectation they have from those who would join the bank. At the end of the presentation, they announced they would consider only the MBA batch and not the MBA (EB) batch.

To which one of the girls sitting there questioned,

“Sir with due respect, please tell us, why can we not be considered? We are rather more suitable for the role of a banker, having knowledge of not just the accounting and financial management part but also the technology part. We have specialized in e-business with subjects like ERP, networking, database management and e-commerce. The specialization gives us an edge for the roles of bankers. As you know once we get on the job we would be required to work on the various banking software.”

You would be surprised that this girl not only paved her way into the interview but helped her entire batch avail a chance to appear for the interview.

Over the years, I have not only seen her grow professionally but also personally. The bank offered her a job and she continues to work even today.

She later became my wife.

Just imagine what it requires for the both of us when we are married and continue to rebel in our spheres. I would not go further in detail, about how our marital life is. It is pretty normal, like every other mature and strong marriage which fights.

I, therefore, want to put before you today what being a rebel can bring to you.

Why you should be a rebel in your life?

1. Innovation cannot happen with conformity, it is always when there is curiosity. And curiosity is the spark behind any great idea. Curiosity begins only when there is non-conformity to a situation or an event. So if you are a rebel, innovation can come naturally to you.
2. Disagreement cancels the effect of groupthink. Those who rebel, often called troublemakers challenge the status quo and liberate a lot of people around from their average life.
3. Dissent provides clarity; we tend to make better decisions.
4. Speaking out our mind, even if that means being impolite, helps transfer our belief systems to the people around.
5. As a rebel, you can turn into a change agent, an agent who is not crazy but one who disrupts things and situations with the sole purpose of improving them. If people like Apple’s Steve Jobs & Creator Walt Disney were not a rebel, the world would not have witnessed such geniuses. Geniuses who changed the way we lived our life.
6. Rebel, as the word generally means are not problem creators; they break the routine and fight against common group thinking. They think differently. You too can change yours by being a rebel.
7. By simply acting against the norms will bring a big boost to your self-esteem. Being a rebel helps you become more confident, you tend to speak up wherever required and show what you are.
8. As a rebel, you don’t work within limits. And when you are not limited or restricted, your performance improves and you collaborate better.
9. When you rebel with a purpose to improve the stale existence, you gain reputation- people start respecting your authenticity and position.
10. You tend to become immune and resourceful against any kind of criticism.
11. As a rebel you not only learn how to speak up, you even inspire others to speak up.
12. When you turn rebel, you start racking your brains because you become responsible for solving the existing problem or task at hand. Your problem-solving skill improves.
13. As you turn rebel, you can explore your strengths and talents and hence show your real side which could be of a more value-adding kind.
14. When you rebel, you will not fear to take risks and would accept mistakes as lessons in disguise.
15. Non-adherence makes us think beyond the walls. Ideation and finding solutions become easy.

I hope this blog post turns useful in making you think like a rebel with a cause.