Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged - 'Trusting your mind'

"Do not say that you’re afraid to trust your mind because you know so little. Are you safer in surrendering to mystics and discarding the little you do know? Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. Redeem your mind from the hock-shops of authority. Accept the fact that you are not omniscient, but playing a zombie will not give you omniscience—that your mind is fallible but becoming mindless will not make you infallible—that an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error" - John Galt, Atlas Shrugged.

That paragraph brought a smile on my face. I remembered a professor's lecture during my management studies. He was telling us about how the professors also get to make some money by doing consulting assignments for some corporate. This particular professor had a good sense of humour. After telling us about how the consulting practice worked, he said, “You know most of the times, the corporate are the best judge of what decisions to take. Since they are a part of the system, they know the system in and out. Truthfully, we are just outsiders." Then he paused for a while, looked at us with a twinkle in his eye and said, "You know why they hire us?" He suppressed a smile, and said, "They hire us, so that tomorrow, if the decision is proved wrong, they can pass on the buck to us and say - look even an IIMB professor, couldn’t make a difference to this. Basically, they need someone’s shoulder to lean on – someone to call the shots."

In life, many of us don’t trust our own self and our decisions. In a tough situation, we look for someone else to call the shots. When I had completed my college and just got into life, I would look for anchors to help me with my decisions. The way I led my life was primarily based on how my parents, teachers or friends would have led theirs. Sometimes it would work. But then there were times it wouldn't.

It took me quite a while to realize that life at every moment is different and unique to each one of us. I realized that the best way to live life was to make decisions based on the situations, circumstances and mental, emotional state we are in. Doing that would mean allowing ourselves to fail. But it would also mean, allowing ourselves to understand life on our own and stand proud.  

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I trust you

She is in her mid twenties, pretty, lively, smart, friendly and can brighten any room with her sunshine smile . People connect to her easily and she has friends flocking around her like a flower has butterflies around it.

A lot of who she is, is because of her warm, open and lively home environment. She is brought up to be carefree and responsible. In fact she is brought up to be fiercely independent. She would never be said NO to anything in her house. She is taught to assess the risk in any action and to access the action was worth the risk.

She is studying medicine these days - and yes, she is my friend ! We have been friends for the last 10 years. And boy ! Is she fun to be with ! :) There is this incident that she had once shared with me.

As a part of her medical internship, she was placed in a small town. Her father's old friend stayed in this dreamy, slow-paced, misty hillstation like town with his family consisting of his wife and his children – a son and a daughter. Since the families were friends for ages, it was but natural that she would stay with them when she was in this town. The children were about her age – so she looked forward to staying with friends she had practically grown up with. This was the first time she was staying out of her family and yes ! she was excited !

She loved staying with this family. Everyone was very loving and they took good care of her.

The hospital she was placed in was clean, the staff were warm and helped her settle down. Everyone worked as one big team. One fine day , one of the doctors at the hospital threw a party to celebrate the birth of his new born son to the hospital staff. She informed her aunty and went to the party. Since she was going to be late, she went and stayed at her friend’s house.

She had a wonderful evening and the morning she went back home. Something seemed different. The mood in the house seemed to be subdued. Uncle and aunty seemed to be doing their duties as usual, but why did they seem a little quiet ? Once she had settled down, her uncle called her. He asked her gently why hadnt she informed him about the party . Uh. But I had informed aunty she thought , a little confused. But she could understand her uncle's concern. And then he asked her - do you know what all happens at late night parties ? You should have taken my permission. For the first time in her life she felt she was questioned about an action she had taken. She was deeply sad and hurt.

Even though she knew that her uncle was concerned, she couldn't help thinking What are the aunty and uncle asking ? Did they not trust her to be sensible ?

In that upset she finally called her family. The moment her dad heard her hello, he knew his daughter was not her usual self. He asked her gently if anything was wrong. Hearing his reassuring voice, she narrated to him in between sobs, what had happened in the last two days. Did she hear her father smile understandingly on the other side of the phone. He patiently heard her out, till she had nothing more to say. And when she calmed down, he told her with a quiet peaceful , smile -

“ Dont worry. I trust you”. And then there was silence.

She hadn’t expected to hear that. She hadn’t realized she was waiting to hear it. Suddenly her sobs stopped.

In the pause that ensued after she heard her father’s reassuring words, she felt a calm that she hadn’t felt in the past two days.

She heard her father say it again - “I trust you completely”.

It were only two seconds, and two simple sentences.
But, her world suddenly seemed beautiful and alive.

Tough times sure make a person learn about a lot of things. They test a person’s endurance and perseverance. But at the same time, there is always something new to learn. She was presenced to the unquestionable, unshakable trust her family had on her.

With the armor of love and trust of her father and her family in her heart, she went on to face another challenge of the world.

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