MANAGEMENT
All of us build boats and call it ‘hope’. We then set it upon the ocean of life. We then set its sails and hope that breeze will fill it and then guide it to a journey. Hope, akin to dreaming, whilst awake, at times bears fruits and sometimes goes awry. Hope is a necessary virtue all managers must possess. Hope must remain within reason for if it exceeds, it tends to be more a desire than issues of judgement, hope is aiming. The bulls eye is the quest. If there is no hope, there is never an endeavour. We must have aims. It is the root of all toil, effort and progress. Aim nothing, you achieve nothing.
There is an English adage, ‘building castles in the air’ that is largely used with a negative connotation, indicating day dreaming. I personally strongly subscribe to indulging in building castles in the air - our castles of hope remain in air when they suffer due to lack of focus, attention and hard work. If imagination is backed with resolute determination you would actually be putting strong foundations underneath these castles of hope. And then the castles will cease to be in air, but instead they would be on solid ground.
Aim is not about aptitude but about attitude. The nature of attitude requires fortification of hard work, to gain and gather the aptitude. Thomas Carlyle says blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness. He has work ….. a life purpose; he has found it and will follow it.
Evaluate how we arrive at a job, assignment or even a profession. It is by choice or by accident? How many think to match their inherent nature with the pursuit of a vocation? Does your career represent the nature of your own desire, for if it does, only then it brings forth the creative urge?
Charles Dickens did whatever he did with all his might. He became famous only when he got into a vocation that matched his natural aptitude. In my interactions with young professionals I gather how unclear they are of their own naturally blessed strengths and traits.
Almost all of us at some stage or the other of life, are victims to pressure exerted upon us by family, of what to do with our lives. Unfortunately, school, college or universities give very little help in making youngsters discover their strong characteristics and skills. The impelling pressure of family, society and varying economic conditions push many a youth from their naturally gifted skills and talent to professions that are not their passion. Hence at its very initiation, the sails are not set in the right direction. At his father’s behest a son of my friend did his MBA from a reputable university and with good results. The son’s heart, soul and mind is into singing. I consider him the reincarnation of Rafi but his father would not let him pursue the god gifted ability and instead he wants him to be a banker!
He who follows two hares is sure to catch neither! The maze of inconsistent purposes puts to complete waste great intellect and possible powerful successes. The pursuit should be suitable to taste and natural aptitude.
I had a colleague, who possessed a facile pen with great skills at writing but ended up as an HR person, thinking most wrongfully that she belonged to people management. A natural talent lost to unknown and unguided purpose. The sails being in the wrong direction.
Emerson had remarked in relation to following natural instincts, cultivate, then, this pure and unselfish spirit; and combine with purity and faith, singleness of purpose and you are evolving from within the elements not only of abounding health and enduring success but of greatness and power.
Mozart died in his six and thirtieth year. Raphael at the same age; Lord Byron a little older. But all these had perfectly fulfilled their missions and it was time to depart that other people might still have something to do in a world made to last a long while. (Goethe)
The one common thread, between them was that they did what was naturally passionate to them. Raphael and Leonardo Di Vinci’s profession and passion were the same.
Failure in life is invariably due to lack of purpose and rarely due to talent. Consistency of pursuit of natural instincts is all the secret of success.
In the discovery of self, choose to live in future while you prepare for it in the present. In the mundane market terminology there is no forward market for present life. The present must be altered to suit the future. The present shall determine the future- never lose the value of present moment to set the sail - be it pursuit, be it action or be it the state of mind.
Hope is about being hopeful. Nothing seek, nothing find. Nothing crave, nothing have. Discover which direction your sails ought to be. You can’t stay in the valley and ‘hope’ to enjoy the view from the hill. If poor by condition but rich by aim be assured that with hard work, success is around the corner.
It is not an easy task to discover and know what your inherent taste, skill and talent is! The instinct once known will provide clarity of purpose not merely knowledge of talent. A noble and great mind will possess great purpose. A rudderless mind is the gateway to underdevelopment. History demonstrates that men, who aligned their natural being with their quest, have been responsible for changing the destiny of human kind.
(if it is alight) foundry of your life, don’t throw all iron or even all scrap, choose what you throw so that there is no loss of concentration or movement from ‘final purpose’.
Evaluate setbacks to know if your passion is built upon naturally endowed skills, is in conformity with the demands of your profession. There is need for a critical study of your gifted talents before embarking on the journey of life on the boat you have chosen to call ‘hope’. In this evaluation nobody can ever deceive oneself. Know your talents and then decide your ‘vocation’.
The pine hath a thousand years, the rose but a day, but the pine with its thousand years, glories not over the rose with its day. If each but serves its purpose, ere it passes way. (Japanese Proverb)
Your level of job satisfaction must arise from the inferno of your natural passion. If need be, rebuild your boat of hope, but ‘set the sails’ in alignment with your God-gifted talent.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
