The life of a tomato is an incredible parabola. Every moment from the moment of its inception, it grows. It grows until it reaches a moment in time so significant that it changes the entire future of this beautiful fruit. That moment is when a tomato is the ripest. At that point in time, it has the most amount of nutrition that it ever would. It is the juiciest and full of Lycopene. But a tragic thing happens next. Something so unfortunate that the life of a tomato never remains the same from that moment on. Because every moment from that moment, the tomato is rotting. It is rotting until it reaches its demise.
THANK GOODNESS THAT WE’RE NOT A TOMATO! Thank goodness that we have the ability to up-skill ourselves and we can grow after reaching a peak to find yet another one and another one and another one. This growth pattern can go on for as long as you live. If Peter Drucker learned a new subject every three of four years[1] until he died then why can’t you and I? We can grow to find higher heights of our understanding to see things from a whole new perspective!
And when we do this long enough we create a pattern for ourselves. A pattern of learning and growth. One that never ends, thriving upwards, to not settle with the norms of mediocrity in understanding.
The condition of an Office Tomato is a very sinister one. It’s very quiet and devious. It creeps up on one without him or her even being aware of it. Many a times it has very faint symptoms, ones you would barely notice. It makes you think what you’re doing at the office; your work, your boardroom meetings, your scheduling and your strategizing, is all there is that you are to do. And it inevitably makes you slip into your quadrant 4 — Not Urgent & Not Important. Disregarding the growth and the opportunities that come with it until you become an office tomato who’s peak was some time in the past and not in the present.
So to aid this ailment, there’s only one question that I will urge you to ask yourself. And if you can answer this question honestly, you will have known for yourself if you’ve become an office tomato or not. In the words of our Associate Partner, Subramanian Kalpathi -
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
And we leave with you with one suggestion: Don’t be an office tomato!
REFERENCES
1. My Life as a Knowledge Worker by Peter Drucker Published Feb 1 1997 http://www.inc.com/magazine/19970201/1169.html