Life vs Ferrari

The last time I cared about really fast cars was because I was getting paid to write content about the Formula 1 circuit. It was about two years ago, watching Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel set the tracks on fire thrilled me on the otherwise boring and detestable working weekends. I used to sit in my office listening to the engines revving up, tires squealing and the drivers going bonkers on their mic. It was an engrossing experience but I never was fond of it. I watched Hamilton be the King of the World just so that I could upload it on my client's social media pages! Once I quit my job, I was done with it. I didn’t bother to check who was driving a Ferrari or if Hamilton was still killing it! 

But little did I knew, Life is like a Formula 1 circuit and we all are racing to cross the finish lines! As I took a pit stop today to entertain myself with a movie - it all came back to me! The high-velocity, bombastic action on a massive screen left me speechless in my seat. Ford vs Ferrari is a masterpiece. 

You would think watching Alia Bhatt’s Manyavar Mohey advertise for the first time during the interval would be my favourite part of the movie, but it surely wasn’t! (Don’t judge me, how can you not like Alia Bhatt? She is so cute.) Such was the class of that movie. Everything just fell into place. I was constantly reminding myself that Christian Bale is seriously the guy who played Batman and Matt Damon has been on a space odyssey, not once but twice! They were so much into character that if I ever had the privilege of meeting the real Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby, I would call them imposters. And it was such a soothing experience for finally having a face for Lee Iacocca after reading and listening about him so many times.

If you think this is a movie review, it is not! I don’t think I am capable enough to be a critic for such a movie. It is Ford vs Ferrari for crying out loud, not Drive on Netflix. Oh and by the way, I wouldn’t review Drive either, but because I will never watch it. (If you have never heard about it, good for you, I envy you.) I’m writing this article because something struck me while watching the movie. 

Ken Miles perfected the Ford to slay the beast at Le Mans! Ferrari was untouchable when it came to racing on that track. There was no battle for supremacy, there was only one ruler - Ferrari! And to design a machine that tested Ferrari’s limit took something special, a weird sense of passion for what you like to do. Miles and Shelby had that passion, the determination to beat Ferrari. When Shelby told Miles the proposal for the first time, Miles asked, “And how much time have you asked, 2-300 years?” They built it in 90 days. 

There was a stunning message that was deeply engraved within the movie. A Silver Lining, if I may. (Spoiler Alert! But hey, it’s based on a true story, so not really a spoiler, is it?) Ken Miles did not finish the Le Mans as No. 1, but he had Enzo Ferrari raising his hat and bowing at him! And at that moment, I had this revelation to myself, a reflection of Life. It really wasn’t Ford vs Ferrari, it was about Life vs Ferrari!

All your life you stretch and claw your way towards the finish line, you wish to be number one at everything you do. But most of the time you aren’t. You can’t always win. There’s someone who started behind you and covered more distance while crossing the finish line with you. The record books will show that they won. It doesn’t matter. What’s important are the records you set while you accelerate for the finish line! Hitting those fastest laps, breaking your own records than somebody else's. It is never important to finish the race first, but it is important to overtake the Ferrari’s in your path, twice!

All I am trying to say is that you’ll finish the race number because somebody might have waited for you to cross it together. But, crossing the finish line is not the goal, it never was. The goal is to make one of the greatest creators in the World, Enzo Ferrari to acknowledge your performance. Simply put, it is the process of being better than anyone else that you should love, not the idea of finishing first. 

The wonderful part of the movie was when after putting on the greatest show of their lives, Shelby and Miles discussed how their beast could be even better! That’s what great people do, they strive for greatness!

Start loving the process, happiness follows.

What's Next?

Life is about tackling the questions that come your way when you are sipping on your tea in a place that brings you solace. These questions help you find a purpose, a goal. These are the questions without which you cannot move into the future. People tell you to focus on living in the present. But, merely ‘living’ in the present would do no good to you. Living in the present means working on a process that takes you to the future. The focus is on the process, not the future. But, if you’re going to completely neglect the idea of having a future, you’re in for a hard time. Great leaders of the World had a vision for the future, but they focused on the process to get there. Imagine what would have happened if Steve Jobs would have told you about designing a product that would react to your touch, and never launched an iPhone. We would have called him a crazy man. Ironically though, you have to be crazy to bring about change in this World. But just crazy is not enough, you need to have the drive to answer the questions that life asks you when you are at peace.

I have been answering these questions with all might until now. And, touchwood, I have been pretty good at it so far. Life asked me one such question when I was having a quarter-life crisis. And my answer to that was an MBA. Well, now that I look back, this one question has been asked of me repeatedly. At each milestone of my life, whenever I sat in my happy place, satisfied and accomplished there it was, standing in front of me, begging me for an answer. Yet again, while I sit back and relax, with one foot out of the MBA door, Life throws at me the same-old washed-up question again - WHAT’s NEXT?

Honestly, whenever this question was asked before, I did not have an answer. I never knew what was next. And this time, it is no different. Heck, Life has been asking me the same question time and again, how do you expect me to have a different answer? So my answer to that question is - I don’t know!

Let’s go back in time for a bit. When Christopher Columbus (we are going way back, I know, whatcha gonna do about it?) set sail, did he knew where he was going? I don’t think so. But hey, he discovered America! (Aren’t we all grateful to him? After all, he gave us a country to make our careers in after we are done doing our Engineering degree.) The point being, the greatest sailors in history didn’t know where they were sailing to, they just kept thrusting in undiscovered waters until they found land and made a name for themselves. Now, I’m no Christopher Columbus, but I have just one tiny little thing in common with the Captain - the courage to sail in undiscovered waters! I have done that before, each time Life has asked me what’s next.

This time, it’ll be no different. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I haven’t learned an important survival skill - swimming. But, I have survived numerous storms in the ocean of unknown before. All because I was wearing a Life jacket, and that jacket was the people that surrounded me. I have always rated the people close to me higher than I have rated myself. Because, when you don’t know how to swim and you’re drowning, they will lend you a hand and pull you up! I am blessed to have a few helping hands in my life so far, and I am positive that I will have them all in the future too.

So, while I don’t have an answer to Life right now, I am willing to find one. I am more fascinated now because after feeling a bit stuck in the present, I am finally going to ‘live’ in the present. The process of finding a way into the future is amusing to me again. And as I set out to explore new waters, here I am a tad bit scared but a lot more confident that this time, I will find my America!