Attitude vs. Humility

The entire audience was giving a rousing round of applause...that is when I suddenly realized that it was the end of the speech. What a riveting speech it was..!! It certainly tickled my grey cells and made me think....not about what he was speaking but about the kind of personalities that exists in the world...so distinct...so contradictory...so delightful ....and yet so very effective! It was the inauguration of Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) at my college and we had invited two eminent business personalities that had chucked their cosy careers to pursue their own enterprises and were very successful in their endeavour.

The first one had a royal air about him. He had a lot of attitude in him and spoke very enthusiastically. He did not mince words and was very harsh while explaining the hardships he had to face while he started his business. If at all there was a thin line between attitude and arrogance....that guy was certainly treading on it. The way he spoke gave me an impression that he has certainly used his attitude to his advantage and channelized his vigour in the right direction. I usually hate people with attitude because of all the people I have met they generally exhibit the negative implications of the word called ‘attitude’.  But this guy certainly made me change my perspective.

The next person to speak on the dais was an antithesis. He was absolutely ice cool and very composed. The first few sentences he spoke put the audience completely at ease and it was good enough to break the ice between him and the audience. The person was extremely humble and absolutely unpretentious. He managed to show us a completely different side of the hardships he had to face. He mentioned about the difficulties of starting an entrepreneurial venture which were pretty much in sync with the first speaker but he did it in such a manner that they appeared as challenges and which could be dealt with. At some points he used to contradict to the first speaker but he made sure that he puts his points across quite adeptly and at the same time showing respect to the other person’s view.

While the speech was going on I was amazed at the personality differentiations of both individuals. One very egoistic (though with a positive connotation) and the other very humble and yet both being so effective. Which one would I prefer...???

  

The Maggi Generation

Let’s start this one with a game…Spot the difference between the two scenarios…

Scene I

Location: Khichan, a mere speck on the map of India - somewhere in Rajasthan (This place, on the atlas of birdwatchers, always assumes great significance come winter as it acts as a host to the migrating Demoiselle Cranes)

A flock of Kurja (local name for these migrating birds) were hovering above the ‘pakshi chugga ghar’ (birds feeding home) filled with grains…but no one seems to be landing. Then suddenly a one-legged crane musters courage, flights down and starts hogging on to the grains spread. None of the other birds seem interested to join him. In between a few birds try landing but the sight of the one–legged crane hogging below would be enough for them to hover back to the blue sky above. Once the ‘Langda Tyagi’ has gobbled much more than he can digest he looks up to the flock (as if giving a signal to come down for supper) and dashes off. Seeing this entire flock start to descend one-by-one on the ‘pakshi chugga’ and relish the delicacies laid for them. Soon more and more Kurja’s started landing until there was hardly any place for any more birds on the ground.

Scene II

Location: Any Suburban Railway Station, Mumbai

A crowd of middle class people were (I resist calling them gentlemen…read on, you’ll understand why) waiting eagerly for a train to come. Somewhere in the crowd there stands a Three legged (out of which two belonged to his crutches) short guy hoping to catch the same train that our not-so called gentlemen are preying upon. As the train makes its way you realize that even before it halts at least 5 have got on to the train. By the time it stops completely the door is chocker blocked with people and each trying hard to knock out each other to get one leg into the train. As the train starts at least 3 give up hope on getting into it and the others those managed to get one leg inside are either struggling to find space for the other leg or to find breathing space. Amidst all this chaos our 3 legged protagonist finds himself helplessly ogling all this in bewilderment as the coach (in which he tries to get in) zooms past him. All he can see is the signboard “For Handicapped Only” and people spilling out of that coach.

Harsha on Excellence

Very recently I came across a splendid lecture on ‘Excellence’ by the one and only Harsha Bhogle....thanks to Facebook. He had delivered the lecture on one of the programs at his alma mater - IIM Ahmedabad. The lecture was so inspiring and awesome that I could not stop myself from watching the entire 90 minutes....at a time when I was supposed to study that afternoon for my exams. Just thought of sharing with you the gist of what were his thoughts on the subject.

He started off modestly by apologizing for coming late. He was at his humorous best and didn’t flinch a bit while taking a dig at Fardeen Khan’s acting prowess...Sidhu’s commentary antics and even at himself by stating ‘people crave for what loose’...referring to the words ‘young’ and ‘hair’ :-)

Between all these he mentioned certain pertinent points about the nature of excellence from whatever he had gathered from all the sports around him, people he had interacted with and from his life.

Excellence lies in the journey than in the destination

The debate of what is more important– the end or the path is perennial like what comes first - the chicken or the egg. End is the driver of ambition....our ultimate goal that we look up to...it’s our vision. But it is proven in sports that result oriented goals add anxiety and turbulence to our system. The end starts to choke you over a period of time - we forget to exist in the present and think about what we have planned for the future. This is exactly what happened to Yuvraj Singh where he used to set targets such as 3 centuries in a series or 500 runs in a tournament. The Indian physiotherapist Sandy Gordon asked him to change his targets to something like staying at the crease till the end of the innings, which worked wonders for him.