On a whim, we started looking up at the sky every evening after classes. It’s 1994 and there’s nothing better to do. Doomscrolling hasn’t been invented yet. We are lying on a boulder at the Valley, my friends and I. An endless blanket of green lies in front of us. Puffy white clouds float above us. I’m not sure if the Valley is still around at NITC, but we walked there from our hostel many evenings to watch the sun set and speculate about where the blurry future would eventually lead us.

This particular day, there’s a gentle breeze blowing in from the west and one of my friends notice for the first time that ALL the birds are flying in the same direction as the sun sets. Every single one of them. Perhaps they are flying home? Or does it have something to do with the earth’s magnetic field? Maybe like all life, they are automatons, mere simulations programmed to do this and the poor things can’t help it? My friend comes up with ridiculous new theories every day – after all there’s no smartphone we can whip out to gratify our thirst for immediate knowledge. It’s 1994. The monsoons are approaching. And the birds all fly in the same direction, day after day.

And then one day, we see the tranquil free spirit. One lonely bird, flying in the opposite direction, with not a care in the world for tradition or routine. My friend is furious. All his amazing theories about avian aerial navigation fall apart like a house of cards. We let the whole thing go soon after and move onto more mundane issues like how to get rid of pesky bed bugs from our hostel mattresses.

A few years after graduating from college, after switching everything else off from my mind and singularly focusing on getting to an animation studio of repute, I’ve made it to the gold standard – PIXAR! Over the next quarter century I get a ringside view of the astounding ascend of computer animation. I get to work on many classics, several of them academy award winners and mega blockbusters – Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Cars, Inside Out, Wall-E, Ratatouille, Luca… The list is long. The adoration for them across the world is mind boggling. I see how these movies have affected generations from across the world. A Lightning McQueen or a Buzz Lightyear or Joy jumps out in front of me anywhere I go. Characters my friends and I have lovingly crafted over years of hard work. I’ve seen these beings take their first breath. I’ve witnessed their first step. I’ve marveled at their first line of dialog. Automatons? Not for me. They exist and are as real as you or me. They affect people and move them enough to make them laugh and even cry. Incredibly, they even change lives in meaningful ways. It’s heartwarming!

Over the years I learn so much. How these master craftsmen at work pay so much attention to detail. How my peers are fearless about throwing out wonderful parts of a movie just to make sure the whole works even better. How they iterate like madmen so they can fail even faster. As Ed Catmull says in his book, Creativity, Inc, “If you aren’t experiencing failure, then you are making a far worse mistake: You are being driven by the desire to avoid it.” Failing is a great thing and something to seek out! It breaks my mind! But I see it in action every day and I know it works.

Eventually I see processes getting easier. Now with a few clicks I can do things that took months and perhaps even years back in the day. I’ve learned that when things get easier, quality takes a nosedive.

Thirty years later I’m at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Northern California. The father of two kids. As we stand in the middle of the pacific sardine roundabout I think about how fast the years have gone by. Hundreds of sardines are going around and around over our heads. All in the same direction. Zack nudges his sister excitedly. “Do you see it? Do you see it? Over there!” Sure enough, there’s one lone sardine swimming against the grain – ignoring the crowd and trying something new. It’s fascinating to watch.

We stand there for another twenty minutes until one more brave soul joins in and bucks the trend. It’s clear – it’s the beginning of something new. The creature could be disoriented, but I like to think it’s a rebel, a true maverick.

At work, we constantly find ways to make things more challenging. It’s never easy. Nor should it be. We know that much for sure. The whole process of making these big animated movies is exhilarating and exhausting – a messy wild ride for sure. But like life, if you roll up your sleeves and try new things, it’s always well worth it at the end.

So what does this all mean? Be naive, be bold. Rock the boat. Fail frequently and adjust course. Buck tradition and choose to swim in a different direction today. Embrace change. Stability will lead to mediocrity, and as we all know, we have enough of that all around.