It was high school days and I was living in my grand parents house at that time. For those who know the place and the house where I lived, also know that, the house in reference was actually this rambling mansion with several guest bedrooms in the middle of a bustling city. Being a part of a super large family, and living in this strategically located house, we always had uncles, aunts, cousins etc dropping in there for a pit stop, from out of town.
One day, as I came back from school, in popped this cool dude of an uncle into the house; I had rarely met him as he did not live in the same city, but I had heard about him. He was tall, lanky, brooding and bearded (I wont name him for several reasons). One look at him and I thought he was the coolest guy on earth, his beard gave him the look of a 'Rockstar' and his faded blue jeans screamed out “rebel” in every way. It must be noted, that I lived in a house where my granny is a PhD in Chemistry, My granddad was a prominent civil lawyer in the city and it was difficult to find an aunt or uncle with a non-nerdy look and high on the coolness quotient.
I watched him in awe while he was tinkering with the VCR (yeah, remember those funny looking, video cassette tape players of yesteryears).He noticed me looking at him and asked me, “do you have a video rental shop nearby”. Quick to please him, I said yes we do, I know the shop and could take him there (all in a single breath). He looked at me and nodded, “ok let’s go then”. I was walking with him to the video rental shop when he quizzed me on my knowledge of movies and other stuff. I sadly did not know any of the movies he was talking about, but I made a mental note of every one of the movies he referred to.
Apart from some super slick one liners; one thing that profoundly remained in my mind from the movie was the following scene. Tom Cruise (Brian the hero) sits with his girlfriend and frets over not being able to make it big in life. He looks at the glass he’s holding and stares at that paper umbrella on the juice drink he's holding and says” you know somewhere in the world, there’s a guy who makes these paper umbrellas that you stick on these juice glasses, and he’s probably a millionaire by now making them”. He puts his feet up on the coffee table and looks at his shoes and says “You know, there’s probably also a Flugobinder millionaire somewhere in this world.”. She looks at him and asks “what’s a Flugobinder??”He points to his shoes and tells her “ See these shoes of mine, See those laces, see those plastic little things at the end of the lace, I don’t know what you call them but let's call them Flugobinders for the heck of it. There’s some guy somewhere in the world, who wakes up in the morning, kisses his wife goodbye and goes to a factory where he makes Flugobinders for shoes, sells it and makes millions. We sit here and rack our brains to try and make our mark in the world, and there’s some guy who corners the Flugobinder market in the world. There are opportunities all around us, we just need to open our eyes and see them.” End of Scene.
It taught me a valuable lesson, and to this day I believe there are opportunities everywhere around us, a lot of us miss them as we’re focused on the easy mediocrity of life and are afraid to break stereotypes ; it takes a dreamer with passion to see and embrace the hidden opportunities around us.
Today, as I think about the opportunities that I grabbed in my life and those that I missed, I think its about time I said “thank you “ to the person who unknowingly helped me dream and search for flugobinders in life! :)
