Grades, Scholarships and, erm, what sh*t?
Posted by: anothermamasboy on: March 17, 2010
A short, interesting and rather necessary one-hour lecture on Grades, Scholarships and Meritocracy kinda intrigues me to write more than anything else I am struggling with in my mind. This could well be the introduction to my report on Passion for my Management module. Two birds with one stone, sweeettt!!!
But what does Passion have to do with this anyway?
But what is ‘this’ anyway? Oh, it is a random ad hoc lecture we had after a technical presentation that I found nothing to appreciate but the knowledge of the presenter. He surely knew his stuff well. The truth is that I was exhausted after a long day that I only managed to read up a bit on the case I had to prepare for a class the next day during the dry presentation. Sadly, the case was not less dry than the presentation.
I came alive again only during the random lecture that I did not even intend to stay for. Ok, the topic was somewhat relevant and what was presented was somewhat informative. Recollecting my thoughts after the discussion, along with the reading and thinking I have done on Passion lately, I just come to a simple conclusion, which prof Ben also shared, in a sense:
http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_vaynerchuk_do_what_you_love_no_excuses.html
My thought is simply that once one has determined what her passions are, and is determined to follow them then neither grades, scholarships nor meritocracy will be able to determine her level of happiness or her quality of life. I am not going to spend the rest of this post arguing about something as pointless as the definition of happiness or the quality of life, because the answer is all of that is “it depends”. Who is going to give me a definitive description of how I am feeling right now, writing this blog entry that I expect to help me feel better, and save my grades too. Oh, “so you do care about grades”, you are asking.
Of course I do, at least in order to get past the HR clerk that does nothing but minimizing her pains. In contrast, my objective in life is actually to maximize pleasure, through whichever means. Weird as life is, the clerk actually holds the key to my maximizing pleasure somewhere down the road. Not like she gets to decide my happiness but she, like many others, may affect the ultimate outcome. Nonetheless, I don’t take that as a valid reason to let the matters of grades, meritocracy and so on to have too much an impact on how I feel.
Grades are measures put out by a society to support a system of meritocracy. They are just measurements, and in my opinions, a way to make a statistic out of you. They are the outcomes, or the snapshots of the continual stream of life events. They may be the result of a period in someone’s life but definitely not representative of who she is. Should a person be judged solely on a number? Or Rather that person should be looked at as who she has been, is and will be, as a whole?
The moment you decide to listen to your true callings, follow your passions and do what you love, then grades are no longer of importance, not that they are if you don’t. Grades, as well as other outcomes, are not supposed to be what considered the most at the beginning of what is called the Passionate life. So long as you are enjoying what you are doing, making progress, and benefiting others directly and yourself indirectly from it, in various ways, the outcome should not be too much of a concern anymore. Who can really control how your efforts will turn out to be? Maybe only the guy whom your “OMG” exclamation reaches to. So why leave yourself vulnerable to some external factors, why leave your happiness dependent on something you have little control on. Be happy, right here, right now! Direct your most precious resources, namely time and energy, to the activities that reward you the most.
All in all, just feel more, think hard, plan carefully, do your thing, try your best and have no regrets. That seems like how life should be lived.
So, what is Passion anyway? I shall give a brief account of my own on it.
Firstly, a passion should be process-oriented. It is about being in the process and enjoying it rather than the outcome that is promised. You think you know how you feel when you finally get what you want, oh well, you don’t. That is if you get it. What if you don’t? How will you see it, a failure to get what you want, or a success in doing what you love, and learning a lot of life lessons out of the process?
Secondly, a passion should be action-oriented. And the verb in this case ought not to be ‘to get’, ‘to have’ or ‘to be’. A passion may or may not lead to a state of being or possession, but directing one’s time and energy to doing something that rewards her in many ways. In the highest level, passions may even lead to a Flow state, described by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi in his books. Life is a journey, the more you are in Flow, the more enjoyable the journey is, isn’t it?
Thirdly, not everyone needs passions. They may be the ultimate key to happiness, but they are said to be overrated too. In defense of Passion, I will just quote a know-all wiseman:
Thus, if you are satisfied with an ordinary life with ordinary struggles, ordinary pleasures and ordinary problems, never mind passions. Do not let them come into your life and mess it up. Because of the powerful forces passions can unleash in you, you probably want to just focus on your life and do well what you are expected to. Try your best to get and to have what you desire, and be who you think you want to be. That sounds like a passion itself eh? I am doubtful, but go with it anyway. It’s your life and if you have decide someone else can call the shots for you, it is STILL your life.
Lastly, let me summarize what choosing a Passionate lifestyle has done to me:
A Passionate Choice
It’s always a choice
Of how much noise you wanna make
And what it takes
For you to live your life
I don’t have a living to make
As I don’t care what’s next
It is just me, passionate
About how great it is
How great it is
To have this life to live
To be able to create
Forever alive, something that keeps you
How great it is
To be passionate
And choose to love, not hate
Never to avoid, just approach
How great it is
To not see the truths, still have faith
In things you can’t prove
Such as, mountains can be moved
Everyone can be moved
Once you have decided to
Be driven by what’s inside
Know thyself
And what’s like
To be under spell
Of Passion, Love and Faith
You have been created
Your turn to create
Not to be made
Into something you aint!
8 Responses to "Grades, Scholarships and, erm, what sh*t?"
March 17, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Was quite interesting to read this…I liked the structure of your poem and hope that life proves or can be made into what you think.
March 18, 2010 at 5:19 AM
Thank you slpmartin, I also hope it will. But I also need to stick to my position, which is just do what I love and do best and never regret! I am just starting to write poems in English, so I am still learning. I see that you have written many poems yourself 
some are really nice to read!
March 17, 2010 at 1:45 PM
“Weird as life is, the clerk actually holds the key to my maximizing pleasure somewhere down the road.”
Only if you end up working for someone. If you work for yourself, you would be hard pressed to fire yourself because you have lousy grades.
Just two quick points:
1. As you say, life is about choices, always. Some people say they have no choice. That’s bullshit. It’s just that some choices might not seem palatable and therefore get ignored as non-options.
The choices you make today will determine the sort of person you become tomorrow.
2. Be careful with the passion. If it’s not just about what you think you LIKE to do. LIKE is sometimes not quite good enough and some people get it wrong. The general guideline is to find something that you’re good at AND you like to do.
Reminder from email: if you find something you’re good at, but you dun like, you’re likely to be able to make a good living, but be *very* miserable (many lawyers are in this state); if you find something you like, but you’re not particularly good it, you’re likely to be poor and miserable (many musicians end up here).
March 18, 2010 at 5:36 AM
Thank you Ben. Just a little concern I believe you can give me a new perspective to:
How to start up and work for yourself when that is the only thing you believe you know and can do well? I mean, we certainly need more than that, something more specific and more realistic, or just industry-related. IMO, capital, experience and network are often cited as the necessities of success for entrepreneurs. Are they really? I kinda mentioned that your brother is an entrepreneur and that you would not call him a success. What do you think is missing here? You know you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.
I want to work for myself asap, but that doesn’t seem a practical option now. What do you see as criteria that an opportunity to start up should be seized so that you can be your own boss, successfully?
Thank you prof, also for reminding me of finding the balance between capabilities and passions. If one is not too capable of something, then it should only be a hobby. If one’s propensity to do something is low and she sees her competence in that activity built up rapidly, then that is something to consider for a passion. That is to assume that everyone wants to be happy. On the other hand, a purpose in life also deserves some contemplation.
March 18, 2010 at 5:41 AM
What do you think is missing here?
Common sense, unfortunately — he’s also very stubborn and doesn’t want to listen. However, he’s very smart, so he won’t starve, so no one is particularly worried. He’s running around wasting time.
What do you see as criteria that an opportunity to start up should be seized so that you can be your own boss, successfully?
If you are *really* serious about being your own boss, you should have used your time in NUS to build up the capabilities that are necessary to support your future career. What exactly is necessary depends on what you want to do. Unfortunately, from my understand, you have been wasting time. Taking CS3216 is perhaps one concrete step that you have taken, but you haven’t really used the opportunity fully.
If you *really* want to succeed, you need to reflect a lot harder on your life and stop giving yourself excuses.
March 18, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Sad but true. I can’t argue but to agree with you. Anyways, a consolation I give to myself is that I have been trying to figure out what works and what may not. And hopefully, in the long run, that knowledge will prove useful to me. I have also solidified my passion for being my own boss and I am working towards it. I think it is also important one find her way through doubts and failures.
IMO, it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to come know exactly what they want to do with their lives. Some may never know. Some just need time. I would love to hear from you about this, sir.
Just like you said, the probability of success doesn’t matter as much as the number of times one tries. I have done a lot of trials and errors to find out more clearly what my path ahead should be like and I would not call the process wasteful. Better late than never.
As I am still unfamiliar with the Singapore business environment, I would love to hear from you, sir. What do you think the chances for success starting up for a foreign student are, provided that he is not a privileged expat and still trying to acquire the amount of work-related skills he needs? Do you think the limited size of the market is a problem? Do you take the sophistication of customers here as an advantage? I am looking at the economy in general and would love to hear what you have to say. Thank you prof
March 18, 2010 at 10:04 AM
Hate to break your bubble, but “being your own boss” isn’t a passion, or perhaps it’s as much a passion as “getting rich”.
Just like you said, the probability of success doesn’t matter as much as the number of times one tries.
Wait a minute, pls don’t misquote me. The probability of success DOES MATTER. My point to you is very simple: you aren’t doing enough to increase your probability of success, which is why you keep failing.
While it is true that as long as your probability of success is non-zero, you will eventually succeed if you try enough times, the number of tries is however UNBOUNDED. Not entirely good news since your life is finite.
What do you think the chances for success starting up for a foreign student are…Do you take the sophistication of customers here as an advantage?
It depends?
Depends on which students, depends on how much he/she is trying to make and depends on what he/she is going to sell. 
March 18, 2010 at 6:19 PM
Touché!!!