Some stray thoughts

A large  number of successful persons I have come across in my life, including those living abroad, have come from families where parents were either teachers or were from defence forces. Amongst those whose parents or either of the parents was teacher, a large number of such parents were from primary education. Parents or fathers from defence forces understandably came mostly from army.
The common thread in both cases, as I understand, could be a certain level of discipline and regularity in life. Teachers’ children could have had possibly more grounding in terms of character building and value systems. These children would have also understood the value of resources, particularly money, better than many others.. They generally had the advantage of stability, parents transfers not being very frequent. Children coming from defence forces’ background on the other hand would have had advantage of exposure and better opportunities to socialise. With regular change of postings,  schools, friends and social context would be changing, bringing about opportunities to learn in diverse conditions and situations.. Those who had to live with their mothers alone, due to frequent postings of father like in infantry,  would have got training to  mature early in age. 
In both the cases what was common was scarcity of resources, character building through discipline and a nice structured way of upbringing.
If one is asked, from the job or career perspective, which are the  best institutions to work for in our  country, one can think of Indian Defence Forces and some of the best institutions of higher learning. Indian Defence Forces would generally present the picture of Indian Army and institutions of higher learning immediately draw one’s attention to institutions of national importance like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institute of Science. Structurally these are two completely different sets of institutions. Historically, culturally and functionally too these are two different kinds of institutions. In terms of culture and functionality these are opposite. Defence forces are very structured and hierarchy is sacrosanct.  Command or order is the buzz word. In academic institution freedom is the key word. In the best academic institutions decision making is based on consensus preceded by discussions and debate. In the army or defence forces it is control, command and order. Yet both produce excellent leaders and professionals. What is common in both is commitment and sense of belongingness of the people who form these institutions. In case of defence it is the system which strives or drives the individuals to deliver their best. In the case of academia it is the individual’s contribution which takes the value of the institute to another high, making the system worth more emulating.