Image Credits (for Sundar Pichai's photo)

The rule of life, is to get born, to grow, to grow some more and then to die. It is something that just happens to all life and is the way mother nature has designed life on Earth.

There is something special about us humans though, in that, we get to experience life in so many dimensions than what other species on the planet do. The growing, not only happens in a literal way but also in a more abstract way, in a multi-dimensional way.

As we get older, we grow as a person, we become more mature and start to understand a plethora of things including the laws of nature itself, and we continuously keep learning and developing our selves.

There are many books and articles you can read for your self development. You can also listen to what great people in history have said and follow their words. One such successful person is Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, who has gone from belonging from a middle class family to becoming the CEO of Google!

The Cockroach Theory

In one of Google’s I/O event, Sundar Pichai laid out some words of wisdom by stating one of his observations that I think we should all realise in life as it is really an eye opener.

Pichai shares what he had observed at a restaurant. Basically, a cockroach had flown inside a restaurant and it sat on a lady who started screaming and causing a ruckus, jumping all over the place. This caused other people in her group to panic as well.

The lady pushed the cockroach, only for it to land on someone else in the group. The other person started to panic and jump around as well. This created more drama in the restaurant.

This caused one of the waiters to rush to the table. The other person managed to then push the cockroach away from her body and on to the waiter. The waiter however kept his cool and remained calm and composed.

When the people calmed down a little, he grabbed the cockroach and threw it out of the restaurant, to everyone’s relief. There is an important lesson to be learnt here and Pichai hit the nail right on the head here.

He observed that it was not the cockroach itself but the inability of the people in that group to handle a sudden appearance of an insect that led to the overall chaos. If it was the cockroach itself, the waiter should have panicked as well but he didn’t.

What We Can All Learn

Next comes what Pichai says we can learn from this. His advice is “Do not react in life. Always respond.” This is really an interesting perspective towards life and the problems we face everyday.

It is true too, that many times, it is not the problems (big or small) that are the real issue but our inability to deal with them. How many times have we panicked when even the slightest of inconvenience showed up? How many times have we made small problems into seemingly big ones just by overthinking about it?

His advice his perfect in that regards. If we simply react to a problem, it will be in the heat of the moment and not at all thought out. But if we formulate a response, it will be a logical one. One that was a result of a thinking brain and not a chaotic brain.

So, the next time you are stuck in a traffic jam or had a little fight with someone, or going through any sort of problems, think about the cockroach theory and it just might change your outlook.