I often think of the hullabaloo people make over uncertainty. Especially in our hypersensitive world of media, communication, and advertising. I mean there are global seminars and regional conferences put up to debate over the impact of uncertainty. All to discuss how everyone on blue earth is milling about like disturbed ants because of uncertainty.
Good gracious. Just where are our heads and minds?
I blogged about this for the Asian conference recently, and while social media had multiple things to say about it, I am quite certain that it?s a thought worth talking about and sharing in regular media.
The sky has always fallen on our heads. And surprises have always nipped our backsides. It?s not unfamiliar territory. The fact is that technology will keep stumping all of us regardless of our intellectual quotient. We aren?t people not used to blinding changes, and progress and evolution aren?t exactly new philosophies.
Wasn?t uncertainty always the certainty? The fact that we can?t take anything for granted? The fact that things can change tomorrow morning? The night especially, is a factory for unknown things to mutate and ambush you and me at the crack of dawn. They will come at us as bold words printed on the front of the newspaper. As breaking news on our favourite TV channels. As status messages on our social media walls. Or even as a neighbour?s very quietly leaking gas cylinder exploding at 7 am.
Across ages, across cultures, and across every living thing on earth, the expectation of the unexpected has been the rule. The one single rule. The fact that a hungry bigger fish would snack on a smaller fish. Or a maniacal car might catapult out of a hidden curve. Or a sudden sting operation would blow the lid off insider trading and topple the stock market.
Uncertainty to me isn?t a surprise. It?s the very breath of life. It has been, and will be the one game changer of our existence. Think of it. Who knows what will happen right now? Or the next moment? Who can predict what?s in store tomorrow? No one.
Our world is unpredictable. The very beauty of our lives is that nothing is in our control. We are permanent citizens on a tightrope. Life is uncertain. Gloriously and otherwise. There are a billion things conspiring in the shadows. Sometimes for you, most times against you.
As human beings we sense and understand this. We have lived with this for ages. And we have built uncertainty into our lives. That?s why we fear the dark and worry about things going bump at night. That?s why we pray and hope for everything to work out well. That?s why we wear talismans and charms and practice voodoo. That?s also why we insure, save, protect, buy guns, buy dogs, keep maids, invest in alarm systems, invest in two flats, and pack a spare shirt when we travel.
The frailty of life has goaded us to anticipate things, and we build redundancy for our lack of surety into our rigmarole. Our unwritten, unsaid and invisible apprehension has become a genetic reflex. We are the children and the parents of uncertainty. And if there is one thing in the whole wide world you can take for certain, it is uncertainty.
So the way I see it in the context of our industry and enterprise, every business and every business leader will have already planned and prepared for uncertainty. Caution for the CXO lot, ought to be as typical as optimism, and built into their forecasts. Plan B as one would say. Show me one person in an important role who doesn?t plan for contingencies, and I will show you a fool.
So while we are certain that chaos will crawl out of the woodwork, and since there?s no Nostradamus among us who can say where the next financial or corporate time bomb is ticking, here?s what we can be fairly certain about.
Babies will be born. Boys will pluck butterfly wings. Girls will make dollhouses. Boys will like blue. Girls will like pink. Girls will cry. Boys will snigger. Children will lie to their parents. They will steal money from their dads? wallets. Kids will become teenagers. They will bunk classes. They will study hard. They will have dreams. They will be prudent. They will be careless. They will wear jeans. They will buy sneakers.
Young men will ride mobikes. Young women will like to ride pillion. They will have sex. There will be trouble. And they will eventually mature, and get jobs. There will be romance. Bosses will marry juniors. There will be inter-religious marriages. They will honeymoons. There will be secret affairs. There will be divorces. There will be EMIs. There will be investments. There will be birthday parties. Promotion parties. Farewells. Higher education. Vacations. Blah. Blah.
The fact is that life will play out this story. Boringly. Much like it has always played. On phones. On TVs. On Facebook. On Twitter. On Pinterest. And on the next fad.
But yes, the device will change. The input will change. The price tag will change. The kind of car will change. The depth of cleavage will dither. The length of skirts will seesaw. The kind of restaurants will change. The holiday options will change. The mode of investment will change. The speed of service will change. The technology will change. And everything around us will change. All those will change. All those have always changed. In times of plenty. In times of famine. In times of war. In times of great prosperity.
The basic fundamentals of what makes us human beings will never waver. It?s been the same story, same values, same fears, and same tears, since day one.
Social networking and the rest of the new chatter certainly are new media and places of interaction, involvement, engagement and participation. But they aren?t aliens, they don?t speak strange tongues, they aren?t wired any different from you and me, and they don?t have new growths.Besides, all of them are also a billion dog years from marrying cats. Or breathing through armpits. Or eating plutonium. They will only be people around us. Two eyes, two ears, two legs sort of people. We don?t have to fear them or their emotions.
Ladies and gentlemen, stop fretting about uncertainty. It?s an old tale. You have always been ready. It started with Adam and Eve. Chill.
The author is chief creative officer, iYogi