During a conversation I was having in a pub recently, a random thought struck me.
We all have heard about some famous awards. Many of us have heard about the Pulitzer, the Nobel, the Booker, the Magsaysay, the Oscar, the Grammy, the Emmy etc. Many of those who have heard about these names also associate these awards with certain professional and social achievements. So much so, that professionals vie for the top awards in their fields and would sometimes literally do anything to get it.
But on the flipside, most of the times, the awards are actually bigger than the people who win them. Hugely and massively bigger and more famous. The people who win them are usually not known in the mainstream (except for popular professions like acting, music and television). And what's more, winning the award is unlikely to change that fact.
Just as an example, how many people can actually remember, or have even heard who won this year's Nobel prize for Physics? Not many.
But then what about people like Mother Teresa who won the Nobel peace prize? This is an example of a situation where the person was already famous before they got the award.
Once the person wins the award, it's just an attribute we associate with the person. More often than not, we know the fact that the person won the award because we know the person, rather than because we heard of and remembered the winner of that particular award in that particular year.
I wonder how many of us think about this when we randomly wish that we won a particular award. Is it because we associate glamour and fame with winning it? Or is it because we want the ultimate recognition for our work?
