Who painted the ‘Shortcut’ black?

Follow the shortcut, if you can. Nothing wrong with that, if you have faith in it. Remember, if one walks on a new path it’s called a shortcut. And then a crowd follows and it becomes a national highway someday.

Yesterday I spoke with one of my friend — who also happened to be a couple of year junior at my college of graduation. And so I have been knowing him for almost a decade. He shared with me how he happened to stumble upon an idea of going about a venture.

The idea was so brilliant, creative and so clever as well. But, he was fearful. He had doubts. I suppose he still must be having those doubts. We all know once a doubt creeps into even your noblest of thoughts, it takes great effort and time to get the fog of doubt cleared from our mind.

We talked for a long time. Discussed things. I said certain things from my own experiences, education and learnings. I said whatever I had to say, hoping those words could be of any help to him.

After I spoke with him, I just kept thinking for a very brief time. The one thing that struck me was of my friend’s love for the phrase- “But, it’s just a shortcut!” Yes, indeed it was “just” a shortcut of doing certain thing. And that short-cut could prove to be saving on multiple resources. The short-cut was also legal, moral and brave. Suddenly I realized, that my friend’s doubts were rooted in the philosophy of the word ‘Shortcut’ itself. And I abruptly started writing something. Here it is what I wrote, which I want to share with you.

There’s always a shortcut. Always. The only problem is that shortcuts are not safe, routine and common. It’s a risky path. It takes gut to tread on a shortcut.

Shortcut is not bad. Shortcut is progressive.

Looking out for shortcuts have led us to this level of technological advancements. One shortcut motivated us for another, and then another. And within a century we are at such a level of technological and scientific advancement that it would have taken a millennium to reach here if we would have followed the speed of accepting agriculture to our lifestyle. Shortcuts are creative.

We have blatantly painted the word “Shortcut” as pitch black. And we are not to blame it. Because shortcut really used to be dangerous. A tiger could spring out of a short-cut bush. A snake could bite us on a short-cut path. Robbers and pirates wait for their prey in the path of short-cut.

Well, but this is not our hunter-gatherer society anymore. It’s not even our agriculture era or Dark ages. This is modern time. This is the time of machinery, the time of virtual reality, and soon to be a time of AI. This is the time where shortcut is respected. And that respect is not for your creativity. Those respect and rewards are for your gut and for your bravery. We all get creative and “out-of-the-box” thoughts and ideas by dozen in a day, but only a few choose to follow the path and make it happen.

Follow the shortcut, if you can. Nothing wrong with that, if you have faith in it. Remember, if one walks on a new path it’s called a shortcut. And then a crowd follows and it becomes a national highway someday.