As they say, ‘By the Law of Aerodynamics the Bumblebee cannot fly. But Bumblebees don’t know aerodynamics and so they fly.’

I believe that there is a word in the English language and its equivalent in every other language which is a closely guarded secret. It is my aim to blow the whistle on this secret because I believe that the salvation for us as a people depends on it.

The word is – YET.

Why am I making such a song and dance about this simple word?

Let me demonstrate. Write a sentence describing and situation, a state of being or a problem and then add the word YET to it. Take the issue of global warming and say, ‘There is no solution to global warming – YET.’ Or take the problem with your mother in law and say, ‘I have not been able to make my mother in law love me – YET.’

Do you see what happens? The whole perspective changes. There is a B-Y perspective and an A-Y perspective – Before YET and After YET. The moment we add YET to the problem, we open the doors to the solution. If there is no solution – period – then there is nothing that I can do or be expected to do. There is no solution and that is all that there is to it. We have to lump it, get used to living with the problem for the rest of our lives and so on. All equally hopeless scenarios. But the moment I add the word YET – the situation becomes dramatically different. YET declares that the quest is not over. Far from it. We are looking for a solution. We will undoubtedly find it. We just haven’t reached it yet but indeed we will. And we are working on that. Now that is another world. And that is a world which is far better than the hopeless, dead world of ‘there is no solution.’

So why don’t we have this as our normal approach; our default setting for problem solving? This is because the creators of the ‘problems’ don’t want us to think in this way. They want us to accept conventional wisdom so that the status quo will never be questioned. The status quo helps them because believe you me, there is always a group that benefits from the misery of others. They don’t want any change or anyone questioning what is going on. But if we learn to question and if we learn to end our sentences in YET we will open a new world where to question will be a virtue.

To question is indeed a virtue. All progress depends on questioning; on not accepting status quo; on not accepting that change is impossible. The most heroic effort depends on believing that success is possible. I may not know how or why or when. But I know that it can be done. That will happen only when I say to myself, “I have not succeeded YET.”