Let me do the honors before I begin.@Adarsh, Anubhav, bynge, sailaja, spring, ravi, anvesh mohan - Thank you very much for commenting. It is definitely an encouragement for me to write more. Please keep commenting and feel obliged to do so :)
#################################################################################################
I sometimes miss it. Actually I have been missing it for quite sometime. I am not talking about celebrating your success. I am talking about our work. Being excellent at work is a treat to yourself. I have been missing it definitely from the side of academics. Once you know that you are excellent at what you do, it really does not matter whether you get recognized for it or not. Please dont misunderstand I definitely like if I am recognized and awarded but I would not want to spend time on trying to get it. Its no longer very lucrative to go and try to work for an award. You start finding it silly or stupid to fight for a reward for your work. This statement might sound stupid but go to the people who are best(really the top guys- sometimes these guys dont end up being the most famous guys usually because they dont care) at what they do you find this as a common trait. Age really does not matter. You can see this across all ages.
I had a surprising revelation in one of the talks of prof. LS Ganesh. I love his talks as most people do. Excellence at work(whatever be the work) is prescribed as the duty of every Indian citizen in Indian constitution. Now talk about a country where excellence at work is part of the duties of the citizen of the country! Talk about India! On a different but related note Prof. LS Ganesh in one of his talks described the stages of learning:
1.you dont know that you dont know
2.you know that you dont know
3.You know that you know
4.you know so much that you dont really care - the reason why these guys are sometimes are not very famous in their fields
I started figuring out what happened to me and why I treat myself less. The enemy to being excellent at work is laziness.(Laziness has its own benefits. I attribute most of my very best ideas to my laziness). I have been lazy all my life but I was treating myself for quite a while. After two years of stay in IIT I learnt something which fed my laziness. I learnt MBA (my version of MBA is Management By Absence). I learnt how to get things done without my presence. This gave me a lot of leverage but now since I could get things done I never really needed to do a lot of work I only had to keep track of things. I learnt this so well(I know people who can swear on anything to vouch for me on this) that I got myself a big leverage. After this I almost stopped treating myself. I had glimpses of treating myself but its been sometime since I treated myself. I am kind of getting it back. If you are working and doing it for something else other than being excellent you are not really treating yourself. This is the case no matter how much the job sucks. I wish somebody reminded me in this span of 3 years . I guess thats the only thing you can do about past - wishing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Really nice point of view. This directly follows from what is said in Bhagavad Gita. Never heard such a vivid explanation of it. I can definitely relate to it.
ReplyDelete@Ravikanth: I don't know why you feel that you missed out on something.... You had to make a choice and you chose the one you are better at (Which happens to be the path less trodden). You cannot say how good or bad it could have been. I feel whatever you call your MBA is something which is natural to you.. I'm sure you did that in a spirit of excellence, not looking for reward.
@upright - hmmm. Bhagavatgita i think takes it a bit further. It asks you do it without expecting any reward not even the reward of excellence. But then there are too many interpretations of it.
ReplyDeleteCFI boys(I can almost forget the word girls as of now) seem to have a sweet spot when it comes to me. you guys forget my mistakes and praise my accomplishments. It is true that I do my MBA well but it is also true that i did not actual get really great at any particular subject in the last couple of years - whatever be the reason. I kind of know how it feels :) you really dont bother
you biaaaaaaaaaatch...
ReplyDelete@guddu - havent really got your comment :(
ReplyDeletesounds more like karma yoga, nice to have to learnt this kind of an interpretation from a cfi boy :P, sir.
ReplyDeleteyou have kind of, started naturally bossing after having pursued MBA ( your version of course :P ), is it! cool :)
omg! bhagavadgita and now karma yoga - seems like i am on the way to being a baba :P.
ReplyDelete@preethi - how do u know that i have started bossing?