Blog, Thoughts

The Turning Paths

In the Uncharted Path I offered a few thoughts about dreams. You may want to read it if you have weird dreams lately. Now, let's share thoughts about path of life, fate, and luck.

How could an architect be a founder of a pharmaceutical company? How could we be staying in a city or country where we live now? How many turning points we have ever experienced that changed the course of our lives? Were they just coincidences, or part of the grand designs, imprinted already in our soul.

Quite often it starts with an inspiration, an electrical spark in our brain that generates ideas. We could be inspired after reading article or books, meeting people, seeing movies or being in nature, experiencing different situations.

An architect student got a job as a medical representative, because his friend's brother happened to work in a pharmaceutical company. He then became a trader before establishing a pharmaceutical factory. Did he get the job because of mere luck? It might be. It started with an idea though, for a survival reason, that he needed a job.

My attachment with Bimbo, a group band from Bandung, inspired me to study at ITB. However, I wanted to be a nuclear engineer, but I found myself studying at the department of pharmacy. I wanted to merry an "abc" lady, but I ended up with a "def" girl. There were turning paths in our lives, sometimes quite phenomenal.

A pickpocket turned to be a general. Correct, it's Nagabonar 2 movie. In real life it's the other way around. What has made Tukul Arwana becomes so famous and rich? Is it fate?

Here's a sufi story:
A certain man asked the famous Mulla Nasrudin, "What is the meaning of fate, Mulla?"
Mulla replied, "Assumptions."
"In what way?" the man asked again.
Mulla looked at him and said,
"You assume things are going to go well, and they don't - that you call bad luck.
You assume things are going to go badly and they don't - that you call good luck.
You assume that certain things are going to happen or not happen - and you so lack intuition that you don't know what is going to happen.
You assume that the future is unknown.
When you are caught out - you call that Fate."


Whatever and whoever we are today, wherever we live now are results of tens or maybe hundreds of turning moments in our lives. It might start with an idea, ended with decisions on choices and execution of the decisions changed the directions of our lives. In some instances we just accepted the decisions and followed the directions that had been prepared for us.

The future will be affected by obsession and passion that we have today or will be created tomorrow. Let's be careful with ideas, as good or bad luck are something that we have always been dreaming passionately before.

So, what are the turning paths that have brought us like what we are today?

, seorang pejalan musiman dan penyuka sejarah. Penduduk Jakarta yang sedang tinggal di Cikarang Utara. Diperbarui: April 06, 2007.

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