MP Ranjan was an advisor to POOL; he wrote the foreword to POOL ANNUAL 2, and was on the Jury for India’s Best Design Studio. Whenever I put an idea forward on the group, Ranjan was the first to respond. His response would invariably be, “Try to karo…”
Let me just focus on one thing that I learnt from MP Ranjan.
Designers have to be ‘early adopters’. He was a living example of it.
What this means is to adopt an idea, technology, ideology and even people before they are proven. Adopt and follow them as soon as you get to know them and start using them for your purposes.
Ranjan got on to Apple, way before it was cool. He brandished Sony Cybershots cameras way before digital photography would threaten Analog photography. He started taking selfies at a time when people were still figuring out using iPads. He was on email even before many had heard about it. He started blogging when all of us started writing emails.
He did the same with people; he caught on to people and their ideas before everyone else started talking about them. He was perhaps the first one to realize the potential of the DesignIndia Yahoo group to get designers together…way before the term ‘social network’ came in.
Early adopters change the world. If you wait for other people to use something before you, you are not the leader that will change anything. Early adopters are the ones that everyone looks up to for providing a direction.
In your life become an early adopter. Stop saying ‘no’ to new ideas and new things. That’s how ‘New’ will happen.
