Earlier, I was reading a book by Robert Kiyosaki, titled If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School
Human beings were given a left foot and a right foot to make a mistake first to the left, then to the right, left again and repeat.
While reflecting on this quote, I remembered when I rode a bike for the first time. At first, I my dad had to hold on to the seat, while I try to drive. My heart was pumping with excitement. Unfortunately, just when I hopped on the bike, I realized it was going to the left. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. I fell. That was the first time. The second time I tried, the bike was again going haywire. But now, it’s going to the right. I panicked again. And again, I fell. On the third try, I noticed the bike was again going to the left. In my panic, I immediately steered the bike to the left. To my surprise, the bike went to the other direction. So again, I had to steer it to the right. And again it went to the left. And so I repeated what I just did – to the left, then to the right. Until, suddenly, I realized, my dad was no longer holding the bike. I was driving the bike on my own! It’s one of the glorious moments of my life. I knew then that no matter what happens, I can do it. I thought then that if I could ride a bike, I can do anything. I can fail many times. But I can also learn. I can take what life gives me and find out what works.
When I was in College, me and my friends participated in a contest about creating the fastest line-following mobile robot. We competed against students from other schools. When I was studying the design, I was very amazed at the simplicity of the logic on how to make the robot follow the 2-inch wide black line they call “track” against the very clean white floor. The robot, is basically a remote controlled car, with all its circuitry removed and replaced with a microcontroller which acts as its “brain”. At the front of the car are two sensors. Depending on what color each of the two sensor sees on the floor (white) or track (black), the “brain” would know whether it is going out of track or not. When the car is going out of the track to the left, the brain tells the car to steer to the right. If its going out the other way, it steers to the left. It’s like riding the bicycle again. If you fall to the right, you go to the left. If you fall to the left, you go to the right.
Can life really be this simple? How about you? Have you experienced the same thing when you learned to ride a bike?