By Manish Sabharwal, Chairman,
TeamLease Services
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
There is
something for everybody in life of Mohandas K. Gandhi; his innovations of
satyagraaha and hyphenated identities, his imagination in using the symbolism
of salt, his experiments with personal self-control, his high command style
that denied Bose the congress leadership, his ability of establish diverse
friendships, his choice of Nehru over Patel, his choice of peanut butter rotis
for lunch, and so much else.
The recent book by Ramachandra Guha
that covers Gandhi's life till he left South Africa is a jewel. A sequel will
cover the most important period of life because the moderates who formed the
Congress in 1885 didn't bring India half-way to independence; it was Gandhi's
return to India in 1915 that converted the talk shop into a mass movement. For
me the most important lesson of his life is that you must become the change you
seek.
Team of Rivals
We have done a
better job with our second venture because every entrepreneur learns the hard
way that the team you create is the company you create. We learnt that
companies who do great things have different skill sets around the table but it
is hard to avoid the cognitive bias of humans wanting to work with people who
are like them (race, language, schools, discipline).
The book that
best summarizes the upside of diversity is Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin and
chronicles how Abraham Lincoln appointed three of his political rivals —William
Seward, Salmon Chase and Edward Bates — into his cabinet and slowly converted
their dislike and distrust of him into respect. This was because of "his
extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience
what they were feeling, and to understand their motives and desires".
The four of
them working together not only won the civil war for the United States but
sowed the seeds of its subsequent glory and prosperity. For me the most
important lesson was that you don't need to like people to work with them and
emotional intelligence matters trumps intelligence.
The story of India's independence
struggle
The story of how 200,000 white people came to rule over 220 million brown ones is interesting but understandable; the British had superior technology and the raj was a joint venture with many Indians (662 Maharajas, the Zamindars of West Bengal, the Talukdars of United Provinces, the Gurkhas, etc).
The story of how 200,000 white people came to rule over 220 million brown ones is interesting but understandable; the British had superior technology and the raj was a joint venture with many Indians (662 Maharajas, the Zamindars of West Bengal, the Talukdars of United Provinces, the Gurkhas, etc).
But the more fascinating story is
about how independence was won from an empire on which the sun never set. This
struggle can be captured by reading the biographies of Gandhi, Nehru (by
Sarvapalli Gopal), Patel (by Rajmohan Gandhi), Gokhale (by B R Nanda), Maulana
Azad (by himself), Bose (Elliot Vallenstein), Bhagat Singh (Jatinder Sanyal),
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (A Bhagwat) and many more.
The Indian freedom struggle was
inclusive, had vibrant inner party democracy, developed micro-funding and in
the end won over the people like civil servants and maharajas that had the most
to lose. This broad coalition of the unwilling and unlikely was important;
India and Pakistan born on the same night have had very different destinies
because our leaders aimed high, worked together, and persisted.
For me the biggest lesson is that breaking
an entrenched status quo needs building a really big tent that attracts a
strong team of rivals who unite for a big vision. And that overnight success
takes many years.
The Shawshank Redemption
The hardest part of building a company is working silently over long periods of time and keep the faith in goals that are faraway. Sanskrit has a wonderful word called Mantragupti that means the strength in silence.
The hardest part of building a company is working silently over long periods of time and keep the faith in goals that are faraway. Sanskrit has a wonderful word called Mantragupti that means the strength in silence.
The Shawshank Redemption is a movie
that tells the story of a wrongfully convicted tax lawyer — played masterfully
by Tim Robbins — who works quietly against all odds for twenty years to change
his situation. His closest friend — again played masterfully by Morgan Freeman
— does not know his plans even though all his moves become obvious when he
finds out what happened.
Don't want to give away the plot so
watch the movie if you haven't. For me the most important lesson was that the
less you talk about your long term goals while you are relentlessly working on
them, the better.
The story of Amazon.com
One of entrepreneurship's most difficult challenges is balancing the long and short term. We entrepreneurs write business plans in poetry but execute them in prose and almost everything takes more time and money than you think.
One of entrepreneurship's most difficult challenges is balancing the long and short term. We entrepreneurs write business plans in poetry but execute them in prose and almost everything takes more time and money than you think.
For me the story of amazon.com and
its founder Jeff Bezos is an inspiring example of being able to convince
stakeholders to overlook short term metrics (profits) in pursuit of an
ambitious and wonderful long term vision (low prices for consumers and
reinventing retail). The company has almost never made a profit but today their
market capitalization is $170 billion despite almost running out of money a few
times.
Jeff Bezos's audacious vision,
gumption in taking big bets and high expectations from his team have convinced
the equity markets that he may change the world, and even if he does not, he
will die trying. Of course there was luck - the company would not have survived
if it hadn't done a large debt fund raise just before the dot com meltdown.
The best synthesis of this journey
is a recent book called "The Everything store" by Brad Stone. For me
the biggest lessons are that high expectations are important because we
overestimate what we can do in the short run but underestimate what we can do
the long run. And that gumption attracts luck.
By Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
By Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
The story of Ga ..
Poet Maya Angelou captures a wonderful truth when she says that the universe is not made of atoms but stories. Narratives are powerful not only because they capture the human condition in ways that facts, figures and logic cannot but they influence us in ways that become obvious only in retrospect. Here are five stories from books and movies that have shaped my view of the world.
The story of Ga ..
