There was no spelling mistake here. Unstallation, as you might have guessed is a made up word. It is the opposite of being in a “stalled” state.
Suppose you were in a town where people didn’t know about cars. They had bikes alright but no cars. You come up with an idea of a car and start building one. However, since it has never been done before, you don’t have a builder’s manual at hand. So you make up things as you go.
Meanwhile people around you are watching your progress or lack thereof. Several of them are your well-wishers and they hate to see you fail and get disappointed. They start trying to convince you that it may not be a great idea after all. You smile and keep going at it.
Years pass by and several of your well-wishers have given up on you. Some of them are even thinking that you must have gone crazy.
We are not even talking about critics and eternal pessimists. They never believed in your idea or they never believed in your capability to pull it off or both.
One day you have a breakthrough and voila.. all of a sudden you have a bunch of people who tell you that they always believed that you could do it. It was just a matter of time.
What changed?
The project changed its status from “Don’t know when it will work” to “Working.” Most people around you behaved exactly the way they would have behaved with any such project.
Throughout the project (until the day it worked) you were “stalled” in one way or the other.
Unstallation was in progress.
Every smart and ambitious person goes through a process of getting stalled and then an installation process. This is a never ending process as the moment a smart and ambitious person reaches a destination, a new and better destination appears on the horizon – initiating a new installation process.
Unstallation process has several characteristics:
First, the (perceived) negatives:
1. Unstallation process is tough:
If you are going after something that YOU have never done, it is bound to be tough. If you have never done it, you won’t have the experience to draw upon. So fumbles, mishaps and false starts are common. You have to be mentally prepared for things to go wrong. Again. And Again. And Again.
2. Unstallation process is lonely:
Since most people around you want to see “signs” of progress sooner than later, they will start losing interest after a certain period of time. Some don’t believe in the project, some don’t care, some don’t care about you, some want you to fail, some want you to succeed but don’t want to be associated with the project if it fails, some are busy and some want to help but don’t have the time, money or energy. Overall, as the goals get tough, the path gets lonely. You need to be prepared for that as well.
3. Unstallation process is uncertain:
If the path were clear, there would be a traffic jam on the path. The path is uncertain and there is no guarantee that you will reach the destination. That is the standard rule for traveling the road less traveled 🙂
Now, the positives:
1. Unstallation process is fun:
The fun part of work is usually in the mind as you are the one putting the labels to work. The Unstallation process is more fun because you have to do things that you have never done before without knowing for sure whether you will succeed or not.
2. Unstallation process is rewarding:
The destination will be rewarding of course. But even the journey is rewarding as this is the path where you stretch and grow.
3. The alternative to Unstallation is pain:
What is the alternative to Unstalling? To continue being stalled? That is no fun. In fact, that is pain and misery right there. Either you can continue with pain and misery or take the path of unstallation. The choice is clear.
Happy unstalling!