Wednesday, March 10, 2010

My student’s write up(edited) on “what Keeps you going?”- My questions to Corporate Sector

Today (10.03.2010) I received a mail from my former student who is more like a friend and family member. He has sent a narrative ‘what keeps you going?’ It is all about the motivating factor .I would like to tell readers that the author of this piece has played an instrumental role in goading me to action on many occasions, virtually pushing me into hectic work.Santosh is one who wants me to have a wider interaction through media network. Given my constraints, I would like to remain on the sidelines for some time .I feel delighted by posting his write up with a little editing and raising a question to our corporate leaders. His letter took me to my M.Phil/PhD days at Pune (1978-82)-a lovely academic soil enriched by great souls- a region which gave me academic solidity.
“Over the weekend, I visited Pune – one of the biggest IT-related success stories of India of the past decade. Over there, I went to this ‘Neera’ (a fruit extract which is served cold and acts as a rejuvenator) shop run by a physically challenged person. He was an old man , probably over 65 years of age and I have seen him selling Neera over there atleast for the past 7-8 years. During my chat with him, I asked him – ‘Aap itne saal se Neera bech rahe ho, aapka koi yadgaar khsan bataiye’ (Tell us some unforgettable incident you must have had while selling Neera) . He narrated that incident and then said something that made me think.
“That I am quenching the thirst of so many passers-by and seeing the feeling of satisfaction on their face after having Neera is what has helped me continue selling Neera for so many years.”
Here is an old man, while rendering his work wants to see smiles on his clients “How many people in the corporate world do internalize his spirit?Are they highly motivated enough to practice business ethics?” I mused ‘What keeps you going?’ For at least 90 pc of people in the world (maybe even more) , the answer to this question is extremely straight-forward – Money! For some the answer is “proving themselves” to the world. For others, the answer is achievement of any kind.
The question – what keeps you going!
Shall we say,all these people are successful in life! Why there is differing levels of success? Maybe it’s about how badly do you want success and how hard you are willing to work for it… Take the story of Steve Jobs, who to my mind, has been the CEO of the decade. What drove Jobs back to work after the liver transplant? What kept him going ? Isn’t this a tough question to answer? What’s more, if a person who underwent such a major surgery can motivate himself to take up a position of such public glare – why can’t we do the same?
Let me conclude this with this quote by Wallace Spearmon, US sprinter who came in third in the 100M race to Usain Bolt in Berlin in a time of 9.85 seconds -
“Just because you get beat doesn’t mean you stop trying, it just means you go home and work on your own résumé. When I go home this off-season, I’ve got to go home and work twice as hard, three times as hard and put a picture of Bolt above my bed.”
Thank you Santosh for sending such a motivational stuff. All of us will have to march on , unmindful of any unfavorable wind that might blow. What keeps you going should remain as a question for there are infinite routes for realizing a sense of accomplishment, peace and happiness.

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