Starting From Scratch: Breaking the Norms.

Starting From Scratch: Breaking the Norms.

Often in life, people would have speculated the possibilities of taking breaks in between their journeys or quitting altogether. Perhaps a string of failures has led us to contemplate stepping back. The most inevitable and recurring event in the life of a teenager, with me being one myself. The time when we would want nothing but a break or to start over from where we began. If you come across a similar scenario, you may have (accidentally) stumbled upon a piece that debunks your idea. 

The future may hold turbulent times, accompanied by an inexplicably gloomy sense of what lies ahead. Some quit, and some analyze. For those who would rather take a step back by slowing things down, the phrase that's often thrown around is that of 'starting from scratch.' NO, YOU ARE NOT! If you are that friend who often doles our advice to that one broken dude by asking them to start over or start from scratch. It's a ten out of ten for your efforts, but we need you to sit back down for a little while. After all, you can't go back and unbreak an egg once it's been cracked, but you can for sure make tasty omelettes out of it. It's not realistic for anyone to start completely from scratch, nor should they even try. Even those who have experienced the most painful losses can't simply forget them and start anew. Those who repeatedly return to their exes are not included. Scars heal, but imprints are lessons.
Believing that you'll be starting new with what was once stopped would lead to nowhere. There is nothing new in resuming something that was once a skillset or an ability you had mastered. It's akin to finding your old cycle near your garage and riding it around like it's your first time on it; something that was once mastered is never new.  

This has been a common occurrence across various domains, from the iconic Rajnikanth to rebuilding a football team.

Team Building in Sports.

The average sports enthusiast who believes he would do a much better job than anyone on the professional team he supports would want nothing other than the manager putting the entire roster on the market and buying new players when his team fails miserably. The board, managers, and everyone share the same feeling. There is nothing more desirable than seeing a weak link getting sidelined in a team, but the question is, why can't teams, boards, and managers start from scratch instead? Why shouldn't they react like a fan and start new? IPL team Delhi Daredevils ( now known as Delhi Capitals) released every single player ahead of the 2014 IPL and had to rebuild its core and qualify for the first time after five years. 

One of the fastest growing teams right now in the world of football, Arsenal are competing for the crown now thanks to Mikel Arteta, who made smart acquisitions. He could have done a mega transition but took it one transfer window at a time. No teams that are on the rise now ever sat down and decided to start all over but instead stuck with the core ideologies and did better. Arsenal resumed what was left undone by former managers by not replicating the mistakes from the past. He carried on Wenger's ideologies and learnt from the rather uncomfortable experiences of Unai Emery.

 

Superstar's Sabbatical. 

Stop reading right here if any other name sprung up to your head apart from Rajnikanth. Yeah, that's right, the only Superstar that I know. Our Superstar needs no introduction; known for his timeless swag and immense screen presence, the man owns the stage in Tamil cinema. He has entrenched his sempiternal status as one of the greats to have graced the seas of acting, but was it an easy way for him? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, Rajnikanth faced his toughest period after the failure of his most anticipated film, Baba. The film that, unfortunately, yields more viewership on KTV than it did at any box office. After that mega failure, Rajnikanth went awol for three years. Three whole years without a film, and he came back with Chandramuki, a film that ran for a whole year in theatres. Rajnikanth, the Superstar of Indian cinema, momentarily veered from his established path when he chose not to commit to a project akin to 'Baba,' an action-packed comedy. Instead, he opted for a completely different genre for his next endeavour. He certainly didn't star in a film showcasing his amazing swagger with logic going off the roof but rather learnt from his previous mistake and did one better. Choosing to create a film that could entertain the whole family instead of following the easy path of an action-packed movie is a true testament to his vision of not repeating former mistakes. 

Changing the ideologies or the so-called 'need' to start afresh is a syndrome, and one could scale new heights if they just believed otherwise. Resuming after taking a break after a series of failures would not lead to anyone 'starting from scratch' but instead they'd be resuming from experiences, lessons, and failures. You don't need to start over or start something new; you just need to resume from experience. Learning from the past teaches more than any theory.