The excerpts below are from the interview between Abhi Rajmane and Ryan Miles as a curation of the recent TED talk.

Ryan: Tell me a little bit about the concept that you will be talking about.
Abhi: Just like the smart phone which gets an update to become better, do us humans get an update to resolve our challenges and subsequently become better? The answer is obviously yes cause we are constantly improving as an individual or a generation. But my discovery was how does this “self update” exactly happen and what differentiates me, Batman and Steve Jobs.

Ryan: Fascinating. So you are talking about how human beings update and build their own operating system.
Abhi: Bingo.Yes. More importantly what causes our updates ? Just like the phone, whenever there is a problem, an update comes by. I analysed over 40 years of updates that occured as I grew up – what caused them, when did they happen and how they helped me when I faced a similar situation again.

Ryan: So how did the discovery begin for you.
Abhi: I was going through a mid life crisis. I think. When I saw an update pop up on my phone, the concept initialized and finally materialized over a period of time. As a  start, I tracked back to my first major bad result or problem that i had faced: see the two stitches next to my right eye. I got these at the age of six as a result of asking my friends to push me downhill on a tricycle so I could go the fastest. By the way the tricylce had no brakes- so when I saw a jeep head up straight at me, I made a choice to turn right and land in a gutter to avoid a head on collission. I hit the handle and thus the stitches. Fast forward 25 years. I lost my job and had one month to get another one or I had to pack up and leave due to immigration laws. The update that had happened due to the “need for speed” came to the rescue: when faced with a major crisis make the first safe choice – so I took up the first job that I got vs contemplating on “is there a better job”, “should I go back”, “how could they do this to me”…

Ryan: So, you didnt even know that there was an update that had happened at the age of six?
Abhi: Correct. The updates that we have as we grow typically happen with a focus on the result. Got to keep in mind – ” focus” and “result” . We are always focused on the result – profit or loss, gain or pain, happy or sad, win or loose … Whenever the result is not per our expectation, we start the process of updating. And we dont even realize the update until a situation arizes where we can apply this update. So, the update that I had avoiding the head on collission when I was 6 popped up at the age of 30 to help me make the right choices when I faced a similar crisis of loosing a job and having a limited time.

Ryan: So in reality, each time there is a problem we get an update – just like the phone.
Abhi: Yep. So a problem, challenge, issue etc – results that we do not wish for – typically ends up helping us on the long run. For e.g. I went to school with my grandma. normal. She sat with me in the class – abnormal. For almost a year or more in KG my grandma was with me full time in the classroom. You can call it social enxiety or whatever. But one day, a girl who had just moved into the neighborhood asked me to accompany her since she did not know the way. I went to school for the first day without my grandma. 20 years later when I had to move to USA and leave my family n friends behind – the update popped up – I can make friends wherever I go – all I need to do is help. Or for that matter, my fear of a “no” when asking a girl out for a dance in my teens resulted in and update that enabled me to apply for a promotion/job openeing – cause I thought ” what’s the worst that can happen, they will say “no” . I got the promotion because the more qualified folks never applied for the promotion/job opening.

Ryan: So, is there a logic to this ?Cause the smart phone has programming logic for the update.
Abhi: Good point. The logic is Our own Focus comes first. And we are focused on our results typically- which comes in second.Then comes correct action or the correction as a third step. Finally, what is the objective – just like the smart phone which has the objective of constant improvement, we too aspire to improve. Objective comes in last.To sum it up, an update is made up of our focus on the results, the results we want to improve, corrective action to get the results and our objective to be better. On the contrary, I do not belive I have yet gotten a single phone update that says for e.g.”Your phone overheats. So please make sure to put it in the freezer after using it for 2 hours becasue we do not intend to provide an update.” That’s like saying, there is a problem but we are not really planning to fix it but you need to do something. The irony when it comes to us humans faced with a problem or short coming?

Ryan: Haha. When we face an issue, we tend to think of whom or what to blame vs where can “I” update. I see your point.
Abhi: By going through the above logic for our updates we can easily achieve what ever we want – grades, pay, house, cars ..but to become the greatest like Steve Jobs, Dr. Martin Luther King, or Gandhi or Michael Phelps or others who created history and changed the world the logic differs. They are not focused on “results”.
My first glimpse of this came when my parents use to ask me “did you do your best” . We had moved because my dad got a job with the UN and I had to learn 3 new languages in 5 months – read , write and speak. English was one of them. So my grades tanked for almost over 4 years – but there was not a single day that my parents or teachers said – “oh you got an F” . The question was always – “Did you do your best” . And today, to think how that update helps me – be it the buisness, guitar or relationships – the question i ask is ” Did I do my best”. So this was my first update to which was focused on my action or objective vs on the result.  And this led me to the alternate logic to update in order to make history.

Ryan: That is a good “mantra”. But how does that co-relate to Gadhi, or Phelps or others making history?
Abhi: Let’s consider Steve Jobs. Do you think he set out to make billions or make the awesomest phone – which technically are the results of his efforts? I believe, that his focus was on his objective: to connect the world by creating a user friendly computer. So after his initial success with the mac when he was fired from Apple -company he created, he updated I believe. The loss did not deterr him at all but updated him.  Because of which  when he came back to Apple for a second tenure, he created even more – the iphone, ipad and history. Only because he was focused on his objective to create user friendly technology to connect the world, his actions followed. And all the results -be it success and failure – it was never a focus but an experience to learn from.

Ryan: Hmm interesting. How does that logic work with Gandhi or Phelps?
Abhi: Their focus was on the objective – make laws equal for all. Action was public awareness via peaceful events. All results, be it good or bad, were used to improve their own action to reach their objective. And in due course they made history. But the key – they were focused on the objective.

Ryan: Hmm interesting. And Phelps?
Abhi: When he was going for his all time olympic record setting gold, it was the 100 meters butterfly stroke race in Beijing. 2 laps total ya. First lap as he is nearing the other end, he is in the last position. I believe upto this point he was thinking ” I am gona make hisory. Win the max number of golds..make my mama proud .. and so on”. But I think he realized at this half way mark his focus was not on his objective : which was to inspire the world that they can achieve whatever they want. And his action was to swim the fastest. Note – results and gold medals are not the focus. So when heswitched his focus to his objective, his action improved – he swam like a dolphin. And till date I have not seen such a close finish and a come back – but he won the race and created history. All he did – changed his focus to the objective he had set.

Ryan:Thank you. This is going to make a profound talk with the TedX youth.
Abhi: There is a last piece – which is the kicker.

Ryan: Go on. We will have to figure out how to fit this in 18 minutes of talk time.
Abhi:  Hahaha. Well the kicker is – just like the smart phone where the latest generation is better than the last one, our kids are better than the last generation. So technically our kids are smarter, faster and better than Steve, Gandhi or Phelps or King or.. I travell the world to provide brainstorm concerts to school kids and enable innovation. After meeting over 10000 kids, I am happy to report that the conclusion that the next generation can build a future that we can only fathom is true. Some of the ideas like self healing roads, flying robots as ambulance and a house that grows a new room just like a tree are some of the profound ideas driven by big dreams to change the world around them.

In conclusion, when a kid starts answering “What do you want to do when you grow up?” with a  consistent ” I want to Change the world around me” , I believe we will have kids who will change the world for the better.  And in case they get a follow up question of “Well how are you going to do that?”.  I would leave with the answer “An UPDATE”.

Ryan:

Abhi Rajmane has him. Secondly, how did the great minds of our time like Steve Jobs, Einstein, Gandhi and more update differently. Lastly, how can the next generation update to build a future that only they can fathom to imagine.
MYOS – My Operating System defines how each one of us can MAKE HISTORY. Abhi Rajmane is the Chief Design Inventor at NABROS.com which is focused on waking up the inventor within each one of us.
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