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The motivation for this article again comes from Nikhil, who was responsible for the article – What am I working for – Passion or Compulsion?

I have always been fond of the games and esp whenever anything is outdoor I would love to give it a shot. Through my experience, I realize that I really suck at Football, volley ball (though I used to represent my school :P ), hockey, Table Tennis, Tennis and a few more I can add to the list. That leaves me with cricket which I am really fond of and Shuttle badminton which I absolutely love. Now the question was, why one should play games? The inspiration for this thought can be references to Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture where he talks about HEAD FAKES!

According to Randy, games play an extremely important role even if you don’t want to join the professional gaming team or even watch them. But they do teach some valuable stuff like perseverance, handling a failure, the importance of team play, the idea of getting up from a fall, the thought of being mocked and answering it through a performance, trying to win no matter how bad you are placed, trying to do your best even if you know you are not going to win it, learning the leadership skills, team management, behavior etc etc which make a lot of sense in  the current day business environment and so much more.

Being a part of a conservative society, we are sometimes forced to give up our games for the triumph of studies, getting a great score in academics, attending tuitions and so much more only to realize that marks alone cannot get you too far in life (How smart do you have to be to achieve? ) 

I don’t completely deny the importance of good marks. I like them, they tell others that we are really good at something, they can even land us the first opportunity which is pretty damn great. But that is the extent of it. They are not going to ensure that you are going to have a great relationship with your boss or team, they are not going to ensure that you are going to be sensitive about the team’s issues and look at the larger picture which is the betterness of the company, they are not going to ensure that you don’t succumb to pressure, they are not going to ensure that you can take a criticism from the client or manager, they are not going to ensure that you can make an assertion in front of your team lead. There are so many things which a good score cannot ensure you.

I am not trying to tell you that being in sports ensures that you have all of these in life, but you do have an opportunity to get there, to try out and to give yourself the opportunity to learn and not just through the boring texts, it is through the value of experience. This is what Randy calls HEAD FAKES. Someone else may call it something else but that for sure is not going to deny the importance of games :)

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