When I was looking for campus placement as a graduating student of a B-School, it was the employers’ market. The employers were few and far between. We would all line up and listen to them tell us that they were looking for people who would stay with them for a lifetime. The pre-placement talks were a great opportunity to get noticed by the employer by asking sharp insightful questions. During one such talk, one of my classmates did the unthinkable. He asked the potential employer why the salary offered was so low. That executive adjusted his tie and threw a condescending look at us and said, “We offer careers and not jobs.” How that even qualified as an answer to my friend’s question still beats me. But that line hit home. That phrase seems to have been tattooed in the hearts of several people of my vintage. Many of them have now become employers.

When the Olympic Games have been officially declared closed and everyone has gone home, the world begins to believe in a myth. The myth of limits. That it is not humanly possible to do it any better… ever. Somewhere, tucked away in obscurity there is someone who does not believe in any such limits. Someone is still practicing for years for a shot at being unreasonable.