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Money Matters

Live a brave life

By Sirajuddin Aziz
25 December, 2017

What is bravery? The determination to face crises or danger with skill and fortitude. The brave deserve the best. They fight. They don’t bend or succumb, in times of adversity. They remain steadfast. “People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest,” (The Jealous, that’s my addition) -- Hermann Herse. Brave, speak only the truth. They are upfront. They don’t meander in conversations. They are direct, to the point. The courageous and the brave recognise that to be what they are, they cannot fail to lead themselves a life based on the premise of justice and fair play.

MANAGEMENT


What is bravery? The determination to face crises or danger with skill and fortitude. The brave deserve the best. They fight. They don’t bend or succumb, in times of adversity. They remain steadfast. “People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest,” (The Jealous, that’s my addition) -- Hermann Herse. Brave, speak only the truth. They are upfront. They don’t meander in conversations. They are direct, to the point. The courageous and the brave recognise that to be what they are, they cannot fail to lead themselves a life based on the premise of justice and fair play.

What in contrast is timidity? What is meekness? Where do you get these from? How do these traits exhibit themselves to the judge and on-looker? The one who handles the nettle tenderly will always be stung, the soonest. A person who is afraid of making enemies will never have true friends. Those reluctant to ask for directions, will remain lost forever. Timidity is the arch enemy of happiness. “What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?” (Logan Pearsall Smith).

Tipu Sultan’s revered remark, “prefer to live a day as lion, against 100 days of life of a jackal” (albeit, in jest, we while at university had altered the saying to “100 days are always longer than a single day, so why not opt for it?” A life of bravery is desirable than that of timidity. Richard, the lion heart, gave tough battles to Saladin. He was called the lion hearted, because it usually means that such a person is brave. The Lion is a symbol of courage. The term is used to mean a person with exceptional courage and fortitude.

The major ingredients of bravery are to be daring, to remain incorruptible and to have an internalised value system that is resolutely backed with solid, unshakable conviction. There is never a case of bravery without cause and conviction. “Men must have corrupted nature a little, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves,” (Voltaire-1759). Cowards do not count in battle; they are there but not in it. Aesop fables had this as learning, easy to be brave from a safe distance. There is a Japanese proverb, unless you enter the tiger’s den you cannot take the cub. Indiscretion must always remain distinguished in the mind of a leader/manager from bravery. Adventurism is not courage. It is a gamble, here you either win or lose. And we lost a good leader to indiscretion.

Possession of courage, is that a necessity, for leading a corporate life. Yes, bravery is a required trait in a leader / manager. A manager must have the spine to stand for rights (not to become a corporatised Lenin or Mao Tse-Tung) but to seek for the justifiable and doable, transactions with the marketplace.

Usually, a brave corporate leader is also a beholder of the highest principles of values and demonstrates moral bravery. For a leader, in corporate setting or otherwise, read Nelson Mandela’s life; but that is not to suggest that to be a courageous corporate leader, you have to spend 27 years in solitary confinement! Instead you can be a courageous manager, in the shortest possible time, if you remain in alignment with universal truth. George Bernard Shaw, had said, “It is courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendour.”

People, a large segment of them, watch with delight the weak, in all aspects of life - it is a very curious and amazing human trait to see others get knocked off, from their pathways of learning and prosperity. If the non-achievement of one business division’s budgetary targets, becomes the cause of rejoicing in other divisions of the organisation; it is a serious case of not the presence of weakness in ranks, but it is lack of bravery – brave leaders, hold out hands to those slipping on the glazed corporate floors, they do not let them fall or fail, and never delight at the misery of others.

A brave manager stands up to corporate bullies. In dealing with the ‘bosses’, don’t ever be the mouse who laughs at the cat, only when there is a hole near-by. Sometimes the keen knowledge of cowardice in others inspires courage. Be and seek courage voluntarily, without crutches.

Brave corporate leaders have at the core of their management practices, a sound, well thought out, humanised code of behaviour. Such leaders face changing challenges of market place with calmness and candour. They demonstrate faith in their skills to tide over the difficult moment.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” (Aristotle). The brave leader or a brave CEO does more for others and less for himself.

Just as brave leaders are not born, so is the case of brave corporate leaders; they venture to do the untested, the hither to undone, the unattended and the neglected. Self-belief is critical for choosing to take the road to brave leadership.

It is not bravery, but indiscretion, that will leap frog you to land in the area of in-subordination. Avoid that perilous path.

The moral compass of a brave leader would never be out of step with the direction of his life. Moral uncertainty makes for a weak and unsure leader/ managers.

Choose carefully, between 100 days of a jackal’s life and a single day of a lion’s life! Is the choice difficult?

The writer is a freelance columnist