Theory of Use

It is our ability “to be useful” that makes us “sustain” and “wanted” in this world. If one is useful, he is wanted by his friends, employers, society, family and the world. On the other hand if one is of “no use,” nobody would want him and he would cease to sustain. Throughout his life, man is in constant exploration to find out ways and means to be useful so that he is wanted….wanted in this world. From childhood onwards, the education we do, the skill building exercises we undertake or the continued pursuit of knowledge acquisition and sharing at various levels of our life, are all part of mans’ efforts—knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or otherwise, to be useful and retain that ability to be useful.

Nature has inbuilt, a grand design inside every individual who wants to be useful, to use that design and be useful. As a matter of truth, one can see nature also following this principle in every moment of our life—when our body becomes useless, you can see even nature discarding it! This is THE THEORY OF USE.

Success: If one does not have the ability to be useful, success, simply cannot be achieved. As a matter of fact, the seeds of success are born from the desire, willingness, skills, competency and efforts to fulfil that desire to be useful. The degree of success therefore is squarely dependant on the degree of one’s ability to be useful. This simple aspect can be seen standing out, perhaps as the most strikingly illuminating factor in the professional world and forms the load bearing pillar of personal life.

Happiness: Man, since time immemorial has been exploring the very ingredients that constitute happiness and one can see that he still is, relentlessly. Irrespective of the material gains, status, positions or recognition including all the accomplishments man may have got in his life, he can experience true happiness only and only if his actions are useful to the people around.

Theory of use in the Self within: When one is unable to be useful to his own self, he loses ‘the purpose of life.’ This is because we live in different ‘lokas’ or worlds in different times even when we live in the same world! In the office, a man is in the professional world, in the house, he is in the world comprising his family. In the house itself, he keeps switching and if he is teaching his son, he moves on to a world where he resolves his son’s issues there and from there when he moves to spend time with his wife, he is in yet another world! When a loss in any of these world is perceived as ‘devastating,’ that could result in a total or partial loss of HOPE and this is the reason we come across people who have done exceedingly well in life sometimes taking their own life! In other words, he fails to be ‘useful’ to his own self and loses the purpose of life.

Work: ‘Work’ per se does not exist, it needs to be created. For example, when a Sales man sells better or a cycle mechanic repairs a cycle, they are creating ‘work.’ Corporations are nothing but work created by someone. The single factor that creates work, is one’s ability to be useful!

A cursory glance at the corporate sector would bring out several examples of how much theory of use is scrupulously followed there: The interviews for recruitment are simple exercises to know whether the qualifications, skills experience of the person could be ‘useful’ to the company. The performance reviews are nothing but the evaluation of how much a person has been ‘useful’ to the company. The promotions therefore go to only who are useful to the company and the company itself would sustain and grow only if it is useful to those it is serving….and hence, trainings and skill building exercises to make it more ‘useful!’

– C Devidasan, Wow Factors India