Among many negative impacts that advertising campaigns have created on our thought patterns,one is that to be some thing of value it has to have two things:

1. It has to be new and 2. It has to be “quick”.

No doubt I hear this from a lot of corporate executives:”Hassan, we want to have something new for our training participants”. Most of them want to improve or change their present situation towards a better one. All I can do is to smile back at them and say I shall try to change things, but not in a manner you prescribe.

Lets see things another way. The consistent bombardment of advertising messages triggered by multinational organizations’ frenzy of consumer goods sales has led us to believe that only new and quick is the solution. This thought and philosophy has lead us to solve our problems with the same approach: the solutions should be new, the solutions should be quicker.

Let me ask you some thing.

If you were to participate in a 35 Km marathon and you do not practice and run for 6-8 months earlier than that, would a vigorous training started in the last week before the event shall win you the event?

If you were to compete in body building competition, can you start picking weights like crazy in the last week and get in shape for the prize?

Can you sow wheat after January and then use the best technology and fertilizers to harvest in April? To harvest a crop in April, you have to finish sowing before November 30th. That is how it goes.

You cannot cram nature. Somehow in our academic life, we are able to cram through the examination system and think that the whole life works the same way. That people can be crammed, events can be crammed, relationships can be crammed.

The pace of nature for solving things and creating improvements is entirely different than that promoted by media.

Nature takes time to achieve. It takes time to accomplish events and wins. Ignoring this leads us to frustration and wasted efforts. Understanding and accepting this makes it easier.