You would have taken a bus ride from a nearby bus stand. You’d have seen the signpost mentioning bus numbers that read as follows: 21, 32, 37, 47, 76, and 92
You’d have observed that each bus takes the same route for at least a few bus stops along the way where the same numbers are repeated: 21, 32, 37, 47, 76, and 92.
Now think of each bus stop as one year in your professional life, meaning the 3rd bus stop will be considered as three years of you doing a specific job or profession.
You took those 3 years to become a rockstar coder for a specific technology. You start talking about people and how amazing you’ve become in something. Someone tells you that you’re so outdated. The world has changed, and what you’ve accomplished is already done by others. So you hop off the bus, grab a cab and head straight back to the bus station looking for another platform.
This time, you take mobile technology development, and you spend three years building it. And then showcase your work to others. You’re again told about how your art has already been done, and someone else has become far more competent.
So once again, you get off the bus, grab the cab, race back, and find a new platform. This goes on all your professional life, always showing new work and always being compared to others, and always leaving your work for something that looks greener than where you are.
What to do? It’s simple: Stay on the bus. Stay on the f**king bus.
Why? Because if you do, in time, you will begin to see a difference. The buses move out on the same line but only for a while, maybe a kilometre or two. Then they begin to separate. Bus 32 goes to Bandra, bus 19 Ghatkopar. And likewise.
It’s the separation that makes all the difference, and once you start to see that difference in your work from the work you so admire (that’s why you chose that platform, after all), it’s time to look for your breakthrough.
When you stay on the bus, your work starts to get noticed. Your vision takes off. And as the years mount up and your work begins to pile up, it won’t be long before the critics become very intrigued, not just by what separates your work from someone else, but by what you did when you first got started and pursued it consistently, you become an expert.
So, whenever you are thinking to get out of the bus, think again. You will reach your destination only when you Stay On The Bus.
Inspired and adapted from Helsinki Bus Station Theory developed by Minkkinen