Life in 10 tracks #3: Soul II Soul “Get a Life”

Being prepared to back my words and opinions with actions

I’m not sure if it’s a neurodiversity thing but I’ve always taken people’s words very literally.

During my childhood, like any typical group of kids, my friends would excitedly discuss their upcoming birthday plans — gifts they hoped to receive, venues for their parties, and the like. I often found myself confused when those anticipated events failed to materialise. I remember as my twelfth birthday approached, I knew I had been pretty much green-lit for getting a new bike by my parents a little way ahead of time but I wouldn’t confirm it to my friends because I knew even then that things could change. Even at age eleven I just couldn’t be “that guy” who talked a good game but didn’t follow through.

During my A-Level French studies, we had Sartre’s Les Mains Sales as a set text, and the notion that action (in this case political) defining one’s existence and values struck a chord with me.

Wind forward a few years, and I carried this philosophy into my career. A lot of my career has been spent working with new technology, and when I could see the potential in something, rather than just sit in a comfort zone and talk about it, I made career moves to be part of making it happen. I did it with the Internet of Things (before we called it that), “Web 2.0”, Big Data, enterprise mobility and my move to Salesforce was driven by belief that their platform approach was the right way to do things.

Bringing it back to the song, I hear this in Jazzie B’s words:

Well, don’t be afraid to experiment, you know, hmm,
Go ahead, you know and implement your ideas,
Your notions, put them in motion,
Like the words the funky dreads have spoken to you…

If you passionately believe in something, the measure of your belief is your action.